Thessaloniki’s Armenian minority and Jewish past are bound by a shared history of genocide

THESSALONIKI, Greece — Fronting the Mediterranean Sea in this bustling Greek port stands a haunting monument to the city’s roughly 50,000 Jews who were rounded up by the Nazis in 1943 and deported to Auschwitz. Each year on Holocaust Remembrance Day, local dignitaries and Jewish leaders make speeches and lay wreaths at the monument in their memory.

One of those dignitaries is Akis Dagazian, Armenia’s honorary consul in Thessaloniki (known in Turkish Ottoman times as Salonika). He says the ethnic Armenian presence in this ancient city dates back to the Byzantine era, while the Jewish presence goes back even further, to Roman times. And like the Jews, the Armenians have long dominated commerce and trade, and have excelled in professions such as law and medicine.

Sadly, the Armenians share