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5/16/2025
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Rhode Island State Senator Lou Raptakis passes resolution for the 13TH consecutive year commemorating and honoring the 106TH anniversary of the Greek Pontian Genocide
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Resolution first introduced in 2008 pays tribute to the survivors of systematic Genocide from 1913-1923 of over 353,000 Pontian and Anatolian Greeks
STATE HOUSE – Sen. Leonidas P. Raptakis (D-Dist. 33, Coventry, West Greenwich) introduced a Senate resolution (2025-S 1080) commemorating May 19 as the 106th anniversary of the Greek Pontian Genocide. The resolution was supported by the entire Rhode Island State Senate.
From 1913 until 1923, in a systematic attempt to exterminate an entire population, the Ottoman Turks directed the killing of 353,000 Pontian and Anatolian Greeks and over a million Armenians and Assyrians living in Pontos, Greece.
“This resolution pays tribute to the survivors of this atrocious period, as well as their descendants, who have made countless contributions to the enrichment of our culture and our way of life here in the Ocean State and who stand as inspirations to oppressed people around the world. May we never forget the brutality the Pontian Greeks experienced at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and may we learn the hard lessons from the past so that the history of the Pontian Genocide, and all genocides, never happens again,” said Senator Raptakis.
The Ottoman and Kemals Neoturks engaged in exile, starvation, slaughter, and murder, using axes and fire to massacre the Pontic Greek population and perpetrate the first genocide of the 20th century. Soon after, the Turks continued their parade of destruction when they began the Armenian Genocide.
Copies of the resolution were sent to the Rhode Island congressional delegation, Miltiadis Tsavdaridis, President the Pan-Pontian Federation of USA and Canada, and Consul General of Greece in Boston Symeon Tygos.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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