Education Minister Nikos Filis told STAR TV that he understood the pains of Pontians but refuses to call their tragedy a ‘genocide’ as the majority of people believe. His statements, made during an interview, caused controversy. He said that the line should be drawn between “bloody ethnic cleansing and the phenomenon of genocide.” He states that, while he recognizes the barbarity of the Turks against Pontians, th does not mean that we do not recognise the blood, the pain and whatever the Pontians have suffered from Turkish brutality. But this is something different from the so called genocide with the scientific meaning.”

The Pontic genocide refers to the systematic ethnic cleansing of Christian Ottoman Greeks from their historic homeland in Anatolia during World War I and its aftermath. The cleansing had been instigated by the government of the Ottoman Empire against the Greek population of the Empire and included massacres, forced deportations and death marches. The genocide had officially been recognized by Greek Parliament in 1994, however an anti-racist law voted in September 2014 has sanctioned prison sentences for those that deny genocide as well as fines from 5,000 to 20,000 euros, and evens stricter fines for public officials (10,000-25,000 euros).