Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Greek PM moves to end "genocide" row with Turkey
by Reuters
Posted: Sunday, March 04, 2001 00:25 am CST

ATHENS, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, seeking to ease tension with neighbouring Turkey, has asked officials to remove the word"genocide" from a decree saying Turks massacred Orthodox Greeks in the 1 920s.

A senior Greek Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday that Simitis had asked Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos and others to drop the word at the last minute.

"The prime minister has asked his ministers to change the presidential decree," said the official, who asked not to be named.

The decree, which has infuriated Turkey, has been in the works for at least two years and is ready to be ratified by Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos.

It makes September 14 a remembrance day for the alleged mass murder of Greeks in 1922 during the war that led to Turkey's establishment as a modern state.

Before World War One over a million ethnic Greeks lived in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, while many Muslims lived in Greece. Each side accuses the other of atrocities as Orthodox Greeks fled, pursued by Muslim Turks.

Turkey is highly sensitive to accusations of genocide. It recently retaliated against French commercial deals after the French parliament passed a resolution accusing Turkey of committing genocide against Armenians in 1915.

Greece and Turkey are at odds over the divided island of Cyprus and over sovereignty in the Aegean Sea, but have recently enjoyed a thawing of relations.

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