Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Greece cites UN treaties in withdrawing 'Asia Minor genocide' decree
by Athens, 28/02/2001 (ANA)
Posted: Friday, March 02, 2001 01:29 am CST

Greece will act within the framework of international treaties said government spokesman Dimitris Reppas on Tuesday, in relation to a controversial presidential decree that established a remembrance day for the 'genocide' of Asia Minor Greeks at the hands of Turkish forces in a 1922 war between Greece and Turkey.

Voted on two years ago and approved as constitutional by the Council of State, the September 14 Remembrance Day was strong opposed by Ankara and was finally withdrawn by the government in an attempt to preserve progress in Greek-Turkish rapprochement.

In response to questions on the government's decision to withdraw the decree, Reppas said that Greece had certain commitments arising from the 1948 treaties drafted by the United Nations and signed by Greece. He said that these treaties "make specific provisions for the ways in which someone may refer to and define certain historical events as genocide."

The spokesman added that relations between Greece and Turkey could not be affected by historic events and that the course of the two countries must comply fully with their commitments as members of the international community.

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