A wording issue concerning the definition September 14 as the day of remembrance of the Asia Minor disaster in the 1920s, led to a huge row in parliament between the Speaker Bureau, and main opposition New Democracy party.
The parliament Speaker Bureau chose to call September 14 “day of memory for the destruction of Asia Minor Hellenism”, instead of “a day of memory for the genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor by the Turkish state”, as New Democracy would prefer.
“Is there any specific reason for this distortion?”, New Democracy MP Maximos Charakopoulos asked presiding Speaker and PASOK MP Dimitris Kremastinos.
“The parliament is trying in every way to look to the future. It does not intend to distort the story, which is documented and cannot change. Eleftherios Venizelos and Atatürk shook hands and agreed to look to the future and still, we can not continue to debate what history has already recorded, “commented Mr. Kremastinos, causing a new round of reactions.
New Democracy MP Sofia Voultepsi continued protesting, saying the issue is real, while other ND MPs added that it’s important to use the word “genocide”, instead of mere “destruction”.
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