Pontic

The burning of a Turkey national flag by a small group of protesters during events at Syntagma Square in central Athens on Tuesday to mark the 101st anniversary of the Pontic Genocide has drawn a condemnation by the Greek Foreign Ministry.

A monk attends a procession in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, on Monday, of an icon of the Panagia Soumela - believed to have been painted in the 4th century by the Apostle Luke - which for centuries reposed in a Greek Orthodox monastery on the Black Sea coast of northeast Turkey. The icon's procession coincides with the centenary of the genocide of Pontic Greeks in 1919-22. [Intime News] 

Education authorities in the northern town of Serres on Monday announced an initiative to create a network of between 50 and 100 schools where students will have the option of learning the Pontic Greek dialect.

The prominent comedian and political satirist Harry Klynn died on Monday in Thessaloniki. He was 78.

Born Vasilis Triantafyllidis in Thessaloniki, Klynn, the son of Pontic Greek refugees from Turkey, grew up in poverty before embarking on a career that made him a household name. 

Sure, the fascists who punched and kicked Yiannis Boutaris while he was down had nothing to do with the Pontic Greek movement, nothing to do with Thessaloniki or northern Greece. They were aliens from another planet who landed in the northern port city on Saturday.

Another two suspects have been arrested in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, in connection with a violent attack by a nationalist mob on city mayor Yiannis Boutaris, bring the total in police custody to four.

According to reports, the suspects are aged 17 and 20 years old. No more details were immediately available.

Two men were arrested in the northern port city of Thessaloniki on Sunday in connection with a violent attack by a nationalist mob on Mayor Yiannis Boutaris.

The men had been remanded earlier on the basis of video footage of the incident, which took place in front of the northern port's emblematic White Tower during a commemoration of the World War I genocide of the Pontic Greeks.

Greek police said Sunday they were close to identifying one of the suspects involved in the attack against the mayor of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece.

So far evidence, based on footage of Saturday's incident, suggests that the suspect belongs to the country's far right movement.

Opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday commemorated the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Black Sea, or Pontic, Greeks by Turks almost a century ago, describing the incident as a "painful chapter in our collective memory."

"We all have a duty to keep historical memory alive," Mitsotakis said in a statement.

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos sent a message to FYROM, Turkey and other European Union countries that don’t follow the principles of solidarity, humanity, democracy and justice in tackling the refugee crisis, during an event for the presentation of an archive of Pontic Greeks in Thessaloniki.