Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement regarding yesterday's announcement by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Yesterday’s announcement by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs constitutes yet another inappropriate exercise in misconstruing history.

The recognition of historical truth, self-criticism, and the abandonment of revisionism is a show of strength, not weakness. They are requisites for dialogue in good faith, the tackling of extremities of nationalism, conciliation between peoples and countries and their peaceful co-existence.

This is the stance, both in life as well as in politics, that Eleftherios Venizelos chose when he nominated Mustafa Kemal Atatürk for the Nobel Peace Prize. And this continues to form, even today, part of the significant legacy that the great Greek politician left behind, for Greek-Turkish relations, but not limited to just that.

It is the historic duty of all of us, and especially of our of neighbouring country Turkey, to recognise events such as the genocide of the Pontian Greeks so that the darkest moments of the past are not repeated and in order to heal the deep wounds left behind.