A senior Greek Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday that Simitis had asked Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos and others to drop the word at the last minute. The decree, which has infuriated Turkey, has been in the works for at least two years and is ready to be ratified by Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos. It makes September 14 a remembrance day for the alleged mass murder of Greeks in 1922 during the war that led to Turkey's establishment as a modern state. Each side accuses the other of atrocities as Orthodox Greeks fled, pursued by Muslim Turks.
Turkey is highly sensitive to accusations of genocide.
It recently retaliated against French commercial deals after the French parliament passed a resolution accusing Turkey of committing genocide against Armenians in 1915. Greece and Turkey are at odds over the divided island of Cyprus and over sovereignty in the Aegean Sea, but have recently enjoyed a thawing of relations. If you have any related information or suggestions, please email them. Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News .