ABSTRACT
Every year a particular group of Pontic Greeks gather to remember the massacre of their people, the destruction of their village, and those who died on enforced marches in 1921. These people are descendants of those who once lived in Santa, a village situated in the Pontic Alps in northern Turkey. Through their annual commemorations a legacy to remember is handed down to these people in three ways. First, they remember the past as it was told through the stories of those who escaped from Santa. Second, the legacy of remembrance is further augmented by two memorial sites where through their symbolic features and texts, and the commemorative rites held there, the memory of the trauma is brought into the present. Finally, these commemorations are a way of bearing witness to the assertion that the deaths and injustices suffered by their forebears constitute genocide. They add to the legacy not only to remember but to take political action for wider recognition of the Pontian genocide. While changing balances of power between Turkey and western nations have resulted in increasing international recognition, Turkey continues to deny that genocide occurred.
