in Russian — https://www.armspb.org/post/19-5-2021

May 19 — Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks. Every year, representatives of the Armenian community of St. Petersburg participate in commemorative events of the fraternal Greek community.

This 2021, the first of two events took place on May 19 at the new office of the St. Petersburg Society of Greeks «Petropolis». The Greek community has just begun to settle down in its new center and will gratefully accept as a gift books, magazines, maps, art and so on, related to the history, geography, culture and language of Greece and Pontic Hellenism.

The event was announced on the website of the local Armenian community and in a number of social networks.

The meeting was opened by the chairman of the Greek community Alexey Drosidi. The audience honored the memory of those killed in the years of the Greek Genocide with a minute of silence.

Then spoke the elder and one of the founders of the local Greek community Kharlampy Apachidi.

In addition to two dozen members of the Greek community, there were about ten guests from the Armenian community. Alexey Drosidi gave the floor to one of the representatives of the Armenian community. In his short speech, Vahan Babakhanyan said that the chairman of the community, Karen Mkrtchyan, is not in the city, but with the soul of the participants in the event. Vahan said that in addition to a purely historical perspective and declarative things, it is also important to conduct regular practical actions and projects. He named several directions and offered to join them, which are of a common interest for both the Armenian and Greek people.

Alexey Drosidi presented the book «Red River» to the Armenian community.

Movie «Red River» in Greek —

The main thing was a detailed speech by Alexander Danilov: «The Tragedy of Pontus: Without the Right of Oblivion.»

Alexander is an active member of the Greek community. Engaged in enlightenment of the history and culture of Greece and the Greek people. For his activity he recently received a Gratitude from the chairman of the community.

Two months earlier, on March 25, in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Greek revolution, one of the most famous symbols of St. Petersburg — the Palace Bridge — was painted in the colors of the Greek flag!

Thus, the government of St. Petersburg expressed its respect for Greece and stressed the importance of the participation of the Russian Empire in the liberation struggle of the Greeks in the first half of the 19th century.

On his VKontakte page, Alexander wrote: it should be noted that the connection between St. Petersburg and Greece is of paramount importance, since it was here that John Kapodistrias, the minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Empire and the first ruler of independent Greece, lived and was in the public service.
The festive lighting of the Palace Bridge was turned on on March 25 at 19:30.

The participants of the event on May 19 asked the speaker Alexander Danilov questions and shared their own views.

Video fragment (3 min) —

An important and memorable speech was one by Kirkos Marparitidis, who was born before World War II in Istanbul, and recently moved from Greece to St. Petersburg, but has not yet mastered the Russian language. He spoke in English, his speech was translated into Russian by V. Babakhanyan.

The discussion did not end with the translation, and for more than an hour they continued to speak.

There was expressed and supported a proposal to make a draft of a joint resolution of the two communities or a joint mixed initiative group of Greeks and Armenians. Soon this statement will be published.

At the end of the meeting, there was a tea table.

The Armenian community was represented by:

• Arshak Hovhannisyan
• Philip Davidov
• Narek Arshakyan
• Aghasi Hakobyan
• Vardkes Babayan
• Aragats Pilosyan
• Nerses Movsesyan
• Aghasi Sukhasyan.

This information in another web resources

• in «Armenian community of Russia» in Facebook
• in «Ararat Armenian Forum» in Facebook
• in «Groong — Armenian News Network»
• vkontakte
• in Telegram
• in Twitter