On May 10-12 an international conference titled “The Genocide of the Christian Populations of the Ottoman Empire and Its Aftermath 1908-1923” was held at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The representatives of AGMI also took part in this conference.

Edita Gzoyan, Deputy Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, and Regina Galustyan, PhD student and researcher at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, have also participated at the conference. Dr. Gzoyan have delivered a speech on the “Reclamation of Armenian and Greek Women and Children after the Genocide: the Efforts of the League of Nations” and presented the forcible transfer of Armenian and also Greek women and children during the Genocide and the issue of their reclamation after the Genocide, concentrating on the activities of the League of Nations. Regina Galustyan has presented on the ideological dimensions of the Young Turks’ identity construction. Her paper was titled “Step towards Identity Construction or Genocide? Ideological Transformations in the Ottoman Empire in 1911-1913.”

More than 40 speakers from different countries (Armenia, Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, USA, Sweden, Italy, UK, etc.) have participated at the conference. Key note speeches were delivered by Richard Hovhannisian, Professor Emeritus, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Chapman University, and Taner Akcam, Professor, Clark University. The conference was followed by the solemn opening of the Research Center of Pontic Studies and the black Sea Archives at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.