European Parliament
Georgios Karatzaferis (IND/DEM ).
(EL)
Mr President, the month of May this year marked the 61st anniversary of the end of Hitler's barbarity against Europeans and Jews. However, it has been 87 years since the barbaric genocide of Turkish Greeks by Kemal Ataturk. On 19 May 1919, he entered the city and slaughtered 490 000 people. The Black Sea turned red. Observers at the time said that there were squares piled with the heads of innocent people. The only difference is that post-Hitler Germany said sorry. Turkey has never said sorry, either for the genocide of the Turkish Greeks or for the genocide of the Armenians. On the contrary, the other day it coerced the French parliament into withdrawing the Armenian genocide bill and three days ago in Vienna Mr Erdogan embarrassed the Greek prime minister because we want to acknowledge the genocide of the Turkish Greeks.
People do not forget history, they relive it. I therefore want the European Parliament to take an initiative to recognise the memory of the genocide of the Turkish Greeks.

