In 1890 , there was a small community of Armenians in Athens and in Piraeus of about 150 people which turned into 600 after the incorporation of Thessaloniki ( 1912 ) and some cities of Macedonia after the Balkan Wars . During the Hamidian massacres , Armenians that managed to escape and who were saved from the slaughters were given shelter at the harbour of Piraeus . More than 1,000 Armenians enjoyed the hospitality of the Greeks . At that time the Prime Minister of Greece , Theodoros Deligiannis , showed fatherly affection to them . After the genocidal campaign of the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians and Greeks , Greece welcomed a large influx of refugees consisting of about 80,000 Armenians and 1,500,000 Greeks into its country . The refugees mostly came from Cilicia , Smyrna , Ionia , Constantinople and other regions of Asia Minor . The Greco-Armenians were very active in art and commerce producing painters like Edouard Sakayan
Hamidian massacres
Hamidian massacres
Armenians in Greece