A panel on Monday by the Turkish Historical Society (TTK) put an 1821 Greek uprising under the spotlight, delving into the notorious Tripolitsa massacre.

The event in the Turkish capital Ankara was jointly organized by Ankara University and the Turkic World Yörük Türkmen Union, a nongovernmental organization (NGO).

Speaking at the panel, TTK President Birol Çetin said that the uprising in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece where 40,000 Muslim Turks were killed was "ethnic cleansing." "For about four centuries, we lived together and nothing happened but then, all of a sudden, 40,000 people were massacred," he said at the panel entitled "Greek Uprising and Terror: Tripolitsa Massacre."

Çetin said that the society was striving to use scientific methods to research Turkish history but faced "smear campaigns, defamation and unscientific discourse." "We replied to them and so far, we published 2,100 books and about 10,000 articles," he said. TTK is behind a documentary entitled "Silent Witnesses of Greek Cruelty" on the massacre and they tapped into archives from abroad instead of Turkish archives. He lamented provocative replies on social media on a social media post about the panel, "that apparently disturbed some people." "We face insults. We are on the side of truth and will remain so but only through conveying inhumane actions, behavior and genocides," he said.

Irfan Tatlıoğlu, head of the Turkic World Yörük Türkmen Union, said at the event that they were working to keep the incident on the agenda and held talks with representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Good Party (IP) at Parliament to that extent. "We are working for its recognition as a genocide. We are compiling a file of evidence and will present it to international courts once it is completed," he said.