A question “regarding the recognition of the Genocide of the Christians of the East”, submitted to the European Commission by the MEP of the ND and the EPP, Fredis Belerison the occasion of today International Day of Remembrance and Dignity for the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and its Prevention.

Specifically, Mr. Beleris states that “the persecutions and massacres of minorities are, to this day, the most heinous crimes in world history” and that “the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, ratified in 1948, clearly establishes that any act aimed at the destruction of a population group constitutes genocide.”

In addition, he emphasizes that “besides the holocaust, many states have also recognized the Armenian and Greek genocides of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, while in the same period the genocide of the Assyrians, a small Christian people who lived on the present-day Turkey-Syria border, took place”. And he adds:

“In reality there was a genocide: that of the Christian populations of the East, Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians unfolding in different phases. This particular genocide was the result of central planning by the Young Turks who ruled the Ottoman Empire. It served a single purpose: the expulsion by any means of the Christian populations of the East.”

The ND and EPP MEP asks the European Commission “if it intends to officially recognize the aforementioned genocide of the Christian populations of the East, as well as what actions it will take, so that Turkey, as a state under accession, complies with its international obligations and the principles of good neighborliness, recognizing the Genocide of its Christians East (Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians)”.