Pontian By Blood, Palestinian At Heart (poem)
- Rei
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
a poem dedicated to anyone who has faced genocide & displacement or carries the generational traumas of past genocides & displacements
Today, in the midst of several active genocides (Palestine, Sudan, and more), is Pontian Greek Genocide Commemoration Day. The Turkish government continues to deny that the mass killings (350,000+), death marches, and deportations of Pontian Greeks during 1914-1923 constitute a genocide (Sound familiar?), but especially as a Pontian-Cretan Greek whose paternal grandparents and great-grandparents lived these atrocities first-hand, there is no denying the truth.
If you would like to show your support for the Pontians of past and present, please consider donating to The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center, which helps preserve Pontian culture and history. If you're unable to contribute in that way, you can share the link with others: https://hellenicresearchcenter.org/donate-now/. Σας ευχαριστώ! Thank you!
The Pontians and Palestinians...
Are they really that different?
Genocide and displacement
misnamed as "realities of war" at best;
at worst, "a warranted step".
No acknowledgment from the perpetrators
let alone reparations,
always pointing fingers in the wrong direction.
Just continual gaslighting and devastation
by traitors of humanity.
A century after the Pontian Greek genocide,
another one is televised 1,000 kilometers south of Pontos before our very eyes.
The former still denied as such.
The latter ongoing for over 75 years,
but somehow
not genocide,
not ethnic cleansing? Then, what?
Hundreds of thousands dead
by the hands of governments
that dehumanize the most human of us all.
History
History repeats
History repeats itself.
Hell is here
above ground
as the core of Gaia weeps
for scorched souls,
bloody seas,
and obliterated olive trees.
Whether 1914 or 2025,
the same lessons are yet to be learned as this entire world grieves and burns.
But we, as a people, never forget.
Ο πόνος του Πόντου, της Γάζας,
αιώνιο τραύμα στην καρδιά μας.
O pónos tou Póntou, tis Yázas,
aiónio trávma stin kardiá mas.
The pain of Pontos, of Gaza,
an eternal wound in our hearts.
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