May 19, 1999

* Pontos is the area bordering the southern shores of the Black Sea (Euxinos Pontos) the boundaries of which stretch from present day Georgia to Sinope in present day Turkey.

* Historically the Greek presence in the area dates back in the 8th century BC.

* In 1913 there were about 700.000 Greeks in the Pontos region.

* In 1908 the "Young Turks" initiate their plans for an ethnically clean Turkey.

* The plan to ethnically cleanse the area was executed in the following winter. The Turks called for a general recruitment of the Greek populations those who did not present themselves were considered deserters and thus condemned to death. Those who did, were sent to Labor battalions through the winter and were never seen again.

* The Pontian Genocide was executed in two phases 1916-l9l8 and 1919-1923.

* MAY 19, 1919 Kemal Attaturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was sent by the Sultan to protect the Pontian-Greeks and he instead led their systematic extermination.

* Topal Osman--the main executioner of the Pontians--killed, raped, tortured, and forced away thousands of women and children by systematically torching houses and churches in the areas of Cerasus and Havza.

* Kemal Attaturk and his Neo-Turks exterminated at least 350,000 people; the rest were made refugees in many countries around the world.

* The genocide of the Greeks in the Pontos region exemplifies a systematic policy of the Turkish government which exists to this day.

* The genocide has been officially recognized as such by the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1998.

WE DEMAND THAT THE GOVERMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMAERICA ALSO RECONIZES THE PONTIAN GENOCIDE.