This is not a technical article. It’s a personal one. A tribute.
“We don’t seek revenge. We seek recognition. And a future where this never happens again.”
May 19th is not just another day on the calendar. For us, the Pontic Greeks, it is a day heavy with memory—a day of profound historical significance and emotional weight. It’s a day that speaks directly to our roots, our ancestors, and the story of survival etched into our very being.
I write these words out of a deep sense of obligation to those who came before me—my grandparents, and their parents before them. I remember vividly the stories my grandfather would share with me and my cousin. Stories of hardship and horror. Stories from a journey no human should ever have to endure.
He spoke of the long walk from Pontus to the shores of Asia Minor. He was just a child, accompanied by his brother and father, having already lost his mother. And on that journey, in an unfamiliar and unforgiving landscape, he saw his father take his last breath beneath a tree. Two orphaned boys, alone in a world collapsing around them.
This wasn’t just one story. It was one among many—each one soaked in pain, loss, and death. The journey from Pontus to Greece was not a migration. It was a flight for survival. A forced exodus marked by genocide, displacement, and the unraveling of a people’s way of life.
And yet, those stories did not fade. They were passed down. Through tears and silence. Through lullabies and sighs. They live in the hearts of every new generation of Pontic Greeks, woven into the fabric of who we are. It’s not just memory—it’s in our DNA.
I don’t seek revenge. That’s not what this is about.
What I seek is recognition. Justice. Acknowledgment for the suffering of our ancestors.
And above all, I want to fight to ensure that such atrocities never happen again.
May 19th is a solemn day.
A reminder of a people’s pain, resilience, and unbroken spirit.
Let us honor it, not with hate, but with remembrance.
With dignity.
And with a shared promise to never forget.
