Greeks in Turkey 1919

[Prokomenos]

The Greeks In Turkey

The Beginning

The year of 1922 in Smyrna , Turkey was a nightmare for the ethnic Greeks who inhabited those lands for a thousands of years before the Turk came to existence or even set foot on that land. Also Armenians were a big population as well who had lived on the land for a thousand years. Smyrna was considered the land of Greek legends. Some even speculated that it was the land in which Homer was born, and one of the main reasons why he wrote the Odyssey. Above all Smyrna back then was a city of wealth, and under Byzantine rule it was a gateway between the east and the west and was also considered the most beautiful city in Asia. In 1084 the Seljuk Turks invaded and destroyed the city, turning it to ruins. In the year of 1402 Tamerlaine slaughtered the inhabitants and set fire to the buildings. In the cover of night while the inhabitants were asleep, his men found a way through the city's walls. The supposedly defenders of Smyrna, the Knights of Saint John fled like cowards and boarded their ships, while the inhabitants panicked not knowing what to do. Tamerlaine ordered over a thousand prisoners beheaded and with their skulls created a monument to his honor. After twenty two years the Ottoman Turks were in control of the city. Eventually the Turks which means as a term which means lowly, conquered much more land and as it progressed it reached the borders of the west. Many Byzantine Greeks left and went towards the west fearing for their lives, and for forceful conversion to Islam. But eventually Turks came to occupy most of Greece as well many European countries particularly in the Balkans.

The Christians who lived under the Ottoman occupation consisted of farmers, merchants and professional men, while the Muslims were nothing more but ruthless warriors and basically ran the , civil service and the government. The Ottomans realized that without the Christians their empire would eventually collapse. After the fall of all Constantinople the Turks pillaged the city for three days, eventually killing many of the inhabitants of the city. Pillaging and murdering of all the city and most of their inhabitations is customary in Islam. Further more the Christians were prevented of leaving and gave the Christians Patriarchs full autonomy for the internal affairs of all Christians.

All the non-Muslims were referred to as sheep and most commonly infidels which followers of Islam still consider all non-Muslims till this day. Also all the Christians were controlled by the invaders to demonstrate their inferiority. Before the nineteenth century the Christians under Turkish rule were horrible. Their houses could not be of equal as a Muslim house. They were only allowed to build on lower land and also were not allowed to decorate their houses either. They were not allowed to ride horses. Their clothing had to be plain and mad out of dark material so they can be separated from Muslims. They were not allowed to build new churches, they had to pay higher taxes which was basically making them poor. The unbelievers (Christians) had to give up their sons to the Sultan which were brainwashed, converted to Islam and then became Sultan's personal bodyguard that were called janissaries.

In 1912 the Greeks, Serbians and the Bulgars united and drove the Turks off their lands. To the Turks it proved that co existence between Christians and Muslims was impossible. Turkey was pretty much neutral during the beginning of World War One. The Turkish government was split between pro German and pro British. They were mostly for the Brits though for financial reasons. The Brits were building two battleships for the Turkish navy. When the time that war was almost a guarantee, Winston Churchill did not allow the two ships to be send to Turkey for fear that if the Turks would side with Germany, they would obviously be used to attack the British. The Turks were humiliated by this act so they automatically sided with Germany. Obviously this posed as a major threat to Britain so something had to be done.

The Death Marches

On the 18 of March in 1915, the British tried to attack the Dardanelles and then quit the offensive. The Australians and New Zealand divisions were annihilated at Gallipoli, which signaled future terror against the Greeks and Armenians living in Turkey. Now the Turks had the freedom to do as they pleased which meant serious danger for the Greek and Armenian Christians living in Turkey. The night of April 24 in 1918 the Turkish police in Constantinople grabbed around 600 hundred well respected Armenian citizens from their beds arrested them and send them to prison. After that incident , the Turks very quickly were seizing leaders of very Armenian community after that they would torture them and then eventually kill them. Armenians that were serving in the Turkish army basically as laborers and nothing else, were all taken aside and slaughtered. Once all the Armenian leaders and men were slaughtered the Turks started their so called campaign of deportation like they had done in 1913 to the Greeks of Thrace, which they had killed many Greeks by starvation and exposure to the hot sun.

By 1915 the Turks wanted to quickly eliminate the Armenians they decided they had to do it by hand. On the death marches ( the real name for the Turkish deportation scheme) Muslims were scattered through out the routes and were told to murder Greeks and Armenians freely. Many of the Armenians that fled joined the Russian army, and the Turks used that to their advantage so they can justify the senseless murders that they had or were planning on inflicting to the Armenians specifically. But in all reality the Armenians were fully justified for joining the Russian army what else were they to do, that was the only way they were going to be able to avenge the murder of their women, children and men. Greeks and Armenians were powerless in those regions. According to Morgenthau the first six months of the death marches a number of around 1,200,000 million consisting mostly of Armenians and a few women, children and elderly were put on the death marches. Most of the males between the ages of twelve and sixty were murdered because they were considered capable of fighting. They were marched south of Anatolia, through no mans land considered rugged and extremely hot, consisting of mountains and the Syrian desert. During the march Turkish villagers and peasants robbed them of their few valuables that they possessed. The also grabbed young women and did as they felt like with them and murdered many of the men that were left. Also the Kurds took part in these events and were also well known for the cold blooded murder specifically of the males.

The Turkish apologists claimed that these atrocities were done by radical tribesmen, but the ambassador Morgenthau showed that these atrocities where planned by the government and where carried out delibrately. As a matter of fact the orders that were sent on telegrams were kept on record.

3 September 1915: We recommend that the operations which we have ordered you to make shall
first be carried out on the men of the said people, and that you shall subject the women and children to them also.

Minister of the Interior Talaat



15 September: It was first communicated to you that the Government, by order of the Jemiet, had decide to destroy completely all Armnians living in Turkey. Those who oppose this order and decision cannot remain on the official staff of the Empire. An end must by put to their existence, however criminal the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to age, or sex, or to conscientious scrupel.

Minister of the Interior Talaat

Because of this policy over one million Armenians were dead. The deportations took place in every village, town and city in Turkey, except Smyrna Constantinople, because there were too many foreigners living their and it would be very hard for the Turks to hide the death marches their. Talaat had admitted himself that these atrocities had nothing to do with the war. In general this is just to show how the Christians being Greeks or Armenians suffered at the hands of Turkish rule.

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