THE GREEK HOLOCAUST OF THRACE,
ASIA MINOR AND PONTOS
What
thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches
which are in Asia, unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna, and unto
Pergamos, and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia
and unto Laodicea. (Apoc. I11).
The
seven churches, the seven torches of light of the Greek-Christian
civilization are no longer burning. The land of Asia Minor,
an area where for 3000 years Greek civilization flourished
is now being trampled by foreign invaders: the Turks.
The
Turks invaded Asia Minor in two waves: The Seljuks were first
at the end of the 11th century and the Ottomans came later,
at the beginning of the l3th century.
Using
indiscriminately force, murder, genocide, and Turcification
they managed to hold on to a foreign land expelling or exterminating
its natural residents: Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, and Arabs.
In
the 8th century, the Oguz Turks, a semi-savage nomadic people
moved westward from their homeland in Mongolia, and settled
in what is today West Turkestan.
The
Seljuks, a sect of the Oguz Turks, moved further in the direction
of Persia and today's Iraq, where they served as mercenaries
for the caliphs of Baghdad.
From
this encounter with the advanced Persian and Arab civilizations,
they enriched their poor vocabulary, adopted the Arabic script
and became Muslims retaining simultaneously their warring
nomad characteristics.
Their
king, Alp Arslan (1063-1072), unified the various Seljuk factions,
invaded Armenia, and sacked its capital of Ani in 1064. After
that he and his armies invaded Byzantium and following the
critical battle at Manzikert (1071) where the Byzantines were
defeated, the Seljuks occupied a large part of the Asia Minor
provinces of Byzantium. Previous to the invasion, there was
not a single Turk living in these provinces.
In
this foreign, for the Turks land there were thus established
a number of Seljuk controlled emirates.
After
a short period of time the Byzantines and the Crusaders dissolved
nearly all of these emirates, except one whose capital was
Iconium. This had been named as the Sultanate of Roum in other
words the land of the Romans, as was the official title of
the Greek Byzantine Empire, which was a continuation and succession
of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The
raids by Genghis Khan's (1167-1227) Mongols forced another
Turkish tribe, led by Suleyman-Shah, to abandon Turkistan
and to head towards the west. This group tried to settle in
Eastern Asia Minor, but the Armenians and Kurds ousted them.
In an attempt to cross the Euphrates river, their leader was
drowned and buried there, which ever since has been known
as <<Turk-mezari>>, or the <<tomb of the
Turk>> A title which is indicative of how alien the
Turks were in these areas.
The
tribe then moved toward the Sultanate of Roum where it settled
often assuming the role of border-guards. Suleyman's grandson,
Osman, (1259-1326), took over the title of Sultan from the
Seljuks and he gave his name to the Turkish people: The Ottomans.
The
leaders of the Osmanlis quickly realized that since they comprised
a minority of conquerors it would be difficult for them to
control the occupied lands, and simultaneously to pursue further
conquests without taking certain <<special measures>>.
Thus,
they decided to adopt and apply harsh methods previously unknown
to the whole world. Methods, which were never repeated again
by another nation on earth. The primary measures taken were
as follows:
They
declared their state a warrior or <<Gazi>> state.
In other words, a state that was bound to declare holy war
(Jihad) against the non-believers. This way, they were able
to bring together all kinds of adventurers, who were willing
to fight either for ideological reasons, or for just the spoils
of the war.
They adopted the inhumane measure of forcibly recruiting young
Christian children. In other words, they forcibly took male
children of the enslaved Christian families (mainly Greeks.
and later also Armenians Bulgarians, Albanians and Serbs),
and brought them up in special camps They conditioned them
to become fanatic Turks and relentless killers to their own
people. These children would grow up to believe that their
father was the Sultan and that if they were to die in battle
they would go to heaven. Thus, because of this New Army, or
Janissaries, (Yeni-ceri in Turkish) the Turks continued to
pursue their conquests.
They slaughtered systematically millions of Asia Minor's inhabitants,
in order to change the ethnic character of the land. It has
been estimated that during the seven centuries of Turkish
presence in Asia Minor several millions of Greeks, at least
two-three million Armenians and hundreds of thousands of Kurds,
Syrians, but also Serbs, and Bulgarians in Europe, were systematically
massacred. In the 20th century alone, it has been estimated
that approximately 1,5 million Armenians and more than 1 million
Greeks were exterminated.
In this manner, the Turks managed to hold on to Asia Minor,
a foreign land for them, where Greek civilizations had flourished
for 2.000 years before the appearance of the Turks.
The
Turks just destroyed these civilizations and unfortunately
did not even try to take advantage of its accomplishments.
In
two previous occasions the Greek people contributed in civilizing
their conquerors, as was the case with the Romans and the
Franks. One must possess a cultural identity to be able to
absorb what is creative and good from other civilizations.
Unfortunately, the conquering Turks lacked such an identity.
The
Turks also failed to administer their subject peoples within
the Ottoman Empire. There were no <<laws>> in
the civilized sense of the word. The Sultan's word was the
law in the capital and arbitrary rule of local representatives
was the law in the provinces. The property, honor, and life
of the conquered were completely at the mercy of the occasional
Turkish official.
The
only bond that kept the multiethnic empire together was the
crude use of force-ultimately the butchery-of the rulers.
Slaughter was the rule without concern for innocence or guilt.
Under
these conditions the Turkish administration was truly detestable
to all the subject people who suffered and patiently waited
for each opportunity to throw off the Ottoman yoke.
The
Turks failed to assimilate the various nationalities within
their empire. They could not also administer them efficiently,
not even control the economy because commerce and industry
was left in the hands of the Greeks, Armenians and Jews, while
the Turks kept busy with governing and simultaneously exploiting
the profits while terrorizing the inhabitants.
For
the enslaved people to be finally liberated from their rulers
there took place a series of revolutions, which led to the
establishment of independent states. In 1908 the Young Turk
revolution forced the Sultan to grant a constitution to the
remnants of the Ottoman Empire.
In
spite of the apparent liberalism of the formally bourgeois
revolution, which was spearheaded by the military without
the participation of the people, there continued to develop
additional centrifugal tendencies as they did in the times
of the Sultan's despotism. For those nations still within
the Empire whose fellow nationals had established independent
states, e. g. the Greeks- it was natural for them to seek
union with their free compatriots. Those peoples still within
the Empire that had not attained separate statehood, e.g.
the Armenians, and the Kurds, focused all their energies towards
the attainment of self-determination and the establishment
of autonomous national homelands.
The
Young Turks sought to rid themselves of troublesome non-Turkish
ethnic groups so that they could build a homogeneous Turkish
state and so they could avoid further mutilation of Turkish
controlled territory in areas where non-Turks were in the
majority, such as Eastern Thrace,
Western
Asia Minor and Pontos, where the Greeks were in the majority,
Eastern Asia Minor where the Armenians were in the majority
and, Southeastern Asia Minor where the Kurds were in the majority.
Thus,
the supposedly liberal and constitutionally oriented Young
Turks returned to the usual Sultanic abrasiveness and brutality,
which now became much more organized and systematic and assumed
genocidal proportions.
The
massacres were premeditated:
It was decided that <<the Ottomanisation of all Turkish
citizens, which never succeeded through persuasion, had to
be done by the force of arms>>,
This
was stated in the L o n d o n T i m e s on the 3rd of October
1911 summarizing the proceedings of the Council of Union and
Progress (The Young Turks).
At
first, the persecutions took place against the Greeks, made
under the pretext of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). Persecution
took the form of lootings, expulsions and murders. After the
wars, persecution continued even more intensively, to the
point where on the 25 of May 1914 the Ecumenical Patriarchate
was forced to declare that the Orthodox Church was <<under
attack>>.
The
Patriarchate, further, in a show of protest and mourning,
suspended the activities of Greek churches and Greek schools
throughout Turkey.
After
the declaration of World War I, the Turks found the perfect
opportunity to organize more effectively the massacres against
ethnic minorities, so that they could finally transform their
empire into a homogeneous nation-state.
Prominent
officers of the Young Turks movement, while serving as members
of the government, organized the expulsion of the inhabitants
as well as the lootings and massacres that were perpetrated
against them. Specifically, Talaat Pasha, minister of the
interior, was prominent as the mastermind of the pogroms.
However, the entire Turkish state administration participated
in the organization and the execution of the extermination
program.
They
began with the genocide of the Armenians, who did not possess
a state, which would rush to their aid and followed it up
with mass expulsions and massacres of the Greeks. The victims
of this period are over 2.5 million people of which 1.5 million
were Armenians. In the chronological Index one can see detailed
figures regarding the persecution of the Greeks of Asia Minor,
Thrace and Pontos.
After
the end of World War I, the Allies recognized that the Turkish
government could not protect the property, honor, and life
of the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.
They
assigned to Greece the responsibility to administer Eastern
Thrace and the Smyrna district. This arrangement was contained
in the Treaty of Sevres. Simultaneously, there was established
a separate and independent Pontian state.
In
1920, Alexander Millerand, president of the Supreme Allied
Council stated: <<The Turkish government not only failed
in its duty to protect its non-Turkish citizens from the looting,
violence and murders, but there are many indications that
the Turkish government itself was responsible for directing
and organizing the most cruel attacks against the populations,
which it was supposed to protect. For these reasons, the Allied
powers have decided to liberate from the Turkish yoke all
the lands where the majority of the people were non-Turks>>.
The
Turkish government signed the Treaty of Sevres but Mustafa
Kemal refused to recognize it.
After
40 long months of war, during which Kemal's forces secured
considerable foreign assistance, the Greek military front
in Anatolia collapsed.
The
Turks reoccupied Asia Minor and entered Smyrna on September
8, 1922. In Smyrna, in the meantime, there was an influx of
refugees from various parts of Asia Minor. And the conquering
Turks set the city on fire and unleashed the last phase of
the genocide against the Greeks and Armenians.
These
were moments of unbelievable horror. The pier turned red by
the blood of the victims. The bishop of Smyrna Chrysostomos
was publicly ridiculed and then slaughtered. Events were too
horrible to even describe. The American Consul in Smyrna,
George Horton, gives a detailed and objective picture of the
chilling Turkish crimes in his book T h e B l i g h t o f
A s i a (Indianapolis: Bobb and Merryl, 1925).
The
Treaty of Lausanne ended the Greek-Turkish war and imposed
the unjust and mandatory exchange of 300,000 Turks from Greece
for the 1,400,000 Greeks that survived the holocaust.
The
Greek refugees of Asia Minor, without being consulted had
to give up their ancestral homes to the Turks, after almost
4,000 years of glorious and productive history.
Through
the unjust actions of massacre and persecution of Greeks and
Armenians, the contemporary Turkish state was thus created.
It was a state founded on crime, the state about which French
prime minister George Clemanceau said on the 25th of June,
1919: <<We do not find even one example in Europe, Asia,
or Africa, where the imposition of Turkish sovereignty had
not been followed by a decline in material prosperity, and
by the impoverishment of its culture. Also there does not
exist one example where liberation from Turkish control was
not followed by the advancement of material prosperity and
an improvement of the cultural level. Whether dealing with
Christians or Muslims, the Turk has managed to bring destruction
wherever he conquered. The Turk has never been able to develop
in peace that which he won through conquest>>.
On
the 26th of November 1979, the New York Times wrote quite
characteristically: <<According to the most recent statistics,
the Christian population in Turkey was diminished from (4.500.000)
at the beginning of this century to just about 150,000. Of
those, the Greeks are no more than 7,000 yet, in 1923 they
were as many as 1, 2 million>> (After the massacres
of many hundreds of thousands).
In
the pages, which follow you, will find photographs of the
cultural presence of Greeks in Asia Minor and irrefutable
photographic evidence of a small sample of the Turkish atrocities,
which managed to destroy this splendid civilization and to
persecute millions of people.
Even
though human justice has not yet punished the Turks, we believe
that there is a Divine Justice to which the Turks will sooner
or later be answerable.
Most Armenians in America are children or grandchildren of
the survivors, although there are still many survivors amongst
us.
Armenians
all over the world commemorate this great tragedy on April
24, because it was on that day in 1915 when 300 Armenian leaders,
writers, thinkers and professionals in Constantinople (present
day Istanbul) were rounded up, deported and killed. Also on
that day in Constantinople, 5,000 of the poorest Armenians
were butchered in the streets and in their homes.
The
Armenian Genocide was masterminded by the Central Committee
of the Young Turk Party (Committee for Union and Progress
[Ittihad ve Terakki Cemiyet, in Turkish]), which was dominated
by Mehmed Talât [Pasha], Ismail Enver [Pasha], and Ahmed
Djemal [Pasha]. They were a racist group whose ideology was
articulated by Zia Gökalp, Dr. Mehmed Nazim, and Dr.
Behaeddin Shakir.
The
Armenian Genocide was directed by a Special Organization (Teshkilati
Mahsusa) set up by the Committee of Union and Progress, which
created special "butcher battalions," made up of
violent criminals released from prison.
Some
righteous Ottoman officials such as Celal, governor of Aleppo;
Mazhar, governor of Ankara; and Reshid, governor of Kastamonu,
were dismissed for not complying with the extermination campaign.
Any common Turks who protected Armenians were killed.
The
Armenian Genocide
occurred in a systematic fashion, which proves that it was
directed by the Young Turk government.
First
the Armenians in the army were disarmed, placed into labor
battalions, and then killed.
Then
the Armenian political and intellectual leaders were rounded
up on April 24, 1915, and then killed.
Finally,
the remaining Armenians were called from their homes, told
they would be relocated, and then marched off to concentration
camps in the desert between Jerablus and Deir ez-Zor where
they would starve and thirst to death in the burning sun.
On
the march, often they would be denied food and water, and
many were brutalized and killed by their "guards"
or by "marauders." The authorities in Trebizond,
on the Black Sea coast, did vary this routine: they loaded
Armenians on barges and sank them out at sea.
The
Turkish government today denies that there was an Armenian
genocide and claims that Armenians were only removed from
the eastern "war zone." The Armenian Genocide, however,
occurred all over Anatolia [present-day Turkey], and not just
in the so-called "war zone." Deportations and killings
occurred in the west, in and around Ismid (Izmit) and Broussa
(Bursa); in the center, in and around Angora (Ankara); in
the south-west, in and around Konia (Konya) and Adana (which
is near the Mediterranean Sea); in the central portion of
Anatolia, in and around Diyarbekir (Diyarbakir), Harpout (Harput),
Marash, Sivas (Sepastia), Shabin Kara-Hissar (þebin
Karahisar), and Ourfa (Urfa); and on the Black Sea coast,
in and around Trebizond (Trabzon), all of which are not part
of a war zone. Only Erzeroum, Bitlis, and Van in the east
were in the war zone.
Representatives
of the British, French, Russian, German, and Austrian governments—namely
all the major Powers, condemned the Armenian Genocide at the
time. The first three were foes of the Ottoman Empire, the
latter two, allies of the Ottoman Empire. The United States,
neutral towards the Ottoman Empire, also condemned the Armenian
Genocide and was the chief spokesman in behalf of the Armenians.
The
American people, via local Protestant missionaries, did the
most to save the wretched remnants of the death marches, the
orphaned children.
Despite
Turkish denial, there is no doubt about the Armenian Genocide.
For example, German ambassador Count von Wolff-Metternich,
Turkey's ally in World War I, wrote his government in 1916
saying: "The Committee [of Union and Progress] demands
the annihilation of the last remnants of the Armenians and
the [Ottoman] government must bow to its demands."
German
consuls stationed in Turkey, including Vice Consul Max Erwin
von Scheubner-Richner of Erzerum [Erzurum] who was Adolf Hitler's
chief political advisor in the 1920s, were eyewitnesses. Hitler
said to his generals on the eve of sending his Death's Heads
units into Poland, "Go, kill without mercy . . . who
today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians."
Henry
Morgenthau Sr., the neutral American ambassador to the Ottoman
Empire, sent a cable to the U.S. State Department in 1915:
"Deportation
of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and
from harrowing reports of eye witnesses [sic] it appears that
a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext
of reprisal against rebellion."
Morgenthau's
successor as Ambassador to Turkey, Abram Elkus, cabled the
U.S. State Department in 1916 that the Young Turks were continuing
an “ . . . unchecked policy of extermination through
starvation, exhaustion, and brutality of treatment hardly
surpassed even in Turkish history."
Only
one Turkish government that of Damad
Ferit Pasha has ever recognized the Armenian genocide. In
fact, that Turkish government held war crimes trials and condemned
to death the major leaders responsible.
The
Turkish court concluded that the
leaders of the Young Turk government were guilty of murder.
"This fact has been proven and verified." It maintained
that the genocidal scheme was carried out with as much secrecy
as possible. That a public facade was maintained of "relocating"
the Armenians. That they carried out the killing by a secret
network. That the decision to eradicate the Armenians was
not a hasty decision, but "the result of extensive and
profound deliberations."
Ismail
Enver Pasha, Ahmed Cemal Pasha, Mehmed Talât Bey, and
a host of others were convicted by the Turkish court and condemned
to death for "the extermination and destruction of the
Armenians."
The
Permanent People's Tribunal recognized the Armenian Genocide
on April 16, 1984.
The
European Parliament voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide
on June 18, 1987.
President
Bush issued a news release in 1990 calling on all Americans
to join with Armenians on April 24 in commemorating "the
more than a million Armenian people who were victims."
President
Clinton issued a news release on April 24, 1994, to commemorate
the "tragedy" that befell the Armenians in 1915.
The
Russian Duma (the lower house of the bicameral Russian legislature)
voted on April 20, 1994, to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Israel
officially condemned the Armenian
Genocide as Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin
proclaimed on the floor of the Knesset (the Israeli legislature),
on April 27, 1994, in answer to the claims of the Turkish
Ambassador, that "It was not war. It was most certainly
massacre and genocide, something the world must remember."
The
Armenian genocide is similar to the history
of the Holocaust in many respects. Both people adhere
to an ancient religion. Both were religious minorities of
their respective states. Both have a history of persecution.
Both have new democracies. Enemies surround both. Both are
talented and creative minorities who have been persecuted
out of envy and obscurantism.
THE
ISLANDS OF IMVROS AND TENEDOS
The
Greek islands of Imvros and Tenedos were ceded to Turkey by
the Treaty of Lauzanne (1923). These islands had been liberated
from Ottoman control in 1912 by the Greek Navy. Under Article
14 of the Lausanne treaty, Turkey assumed the legal responsibility
of ruling these islands with a special self-governing status,
which was to be exercised by local authorities. Under these
provisions order would be kept by a police force recruited
from the local Greek population that would also have the responsibility
of overseeing the Greek educational system.
Turkey
followed here its usual tactic of never abiding by its international
obligations. Numbers speak for themselves. In 1920 the islands
of Imvros and Tenedos had a population of approximately 10,000
Greeks. Today only a few hundred Greeks remain. In order to
accomplish this drastic result, the Turks took a number of
measures:
They
expropriated the best properties, without compensation, in
order to deprive the residents of their means of survival.
Greeks who traveled abroad were not allowed to return and
their property was confiscated.
They forbade the teaching of the Greek language.
Imvros was converted into a prison without walls for convicted
Turkish felons who terrorized the Greek residents.
Using such dreadful measures, the Turks managed to bring decay
to the way of life of the Greek inhabitants and they thought
that they would enjoy the fruits of their crimes in perpetuity.
THE
KURDISH DRAMA
Kurdistan
is today partitioned among its four neighbors.
Turkey
alone occupies half Kurdistan. The Turkish Kurdistan covers
an area of 230.000 km2, represents 30% of the whole area of
Turkey and is inhabited by approximately 12 million Kurds.
The
remaining area of Kurdistan is occupied by Iraq, Iran and
a small part by Syria.
In
Iran, the Kurds have sufficient freedom and a relative autonomy.
In Iraq, they have also autonomy, with their own parliament
in Erbil, in north Iraq.
The
only country which, not only does not recognize any human
right to the Kurds, but also forbids them to speak their own
language, to sing their songs, to have newspapers, books,
schools, culture, is Turkey. For this reason, the Kurdish
problem is mostly a problem, for the part of Kurdistan, which
is enslaved to Turkey
The
Kurds are a Indo-European people, related to the Persians.
They inhabited the lands where they live today, 35 centuries
ago. Their language is related to the Persian language and
was written since the 7th century B.C. According to the latest
scientific research, they are considered descendants of the
Medes. Thus, they have absolutely no relation (racial, linguistic,
anthropologic) to their Turkish oppressors, who are of Mongolic
descent. They also have no relation with the Arabs who are
of Semitic descent. The only common characteristic among these
three nations is the Moslem religion.
The
Kurds enter history from the time of their acceptance of Islam
after the occupation of their country by the army of Chalifa
Omar in 637A. D. Saladin, the heroic opponent of the Crusaders,
is the great hero of the Kurds during the middle Ages. Saladin
formed a great empire, which survived even after his death,
in 1193.
The
Mongolian attacks of the beginning of the l3th century dissolved
the Kurdish states. Because of the separation into many autonomous
states and the feudal organization of society, a great part
of Kurdistan was later conquered by the Ottoman Empire and
the rest was conquered by Persia.
There
is hardly any parallel in history, to the struggles of the
Kurds for their independence. In 1806 Babazade Abdul Rahman
organized the first revolt against the Turks in Mosul. Since
then, there have been 38 Kurdish revolts and uprisings.
The
greatest was that which took place in 1925,led by Sheikh Said.
It lasted almost 20 months. The totalitarian regime of Kemal
crushed the Kurds and drowned their revolt in blood.
The
Kurds were slaughtered or hanged by thousands. The Turkish
newspaper VAKIT, wrote characteristically in 7-5-1925 <<Wherever
a Turkish bayonet appears, there is no Kurdish problem>>.
This is always the Turkish response to peoples demanding their
independence. The Kurdish revolts in Turkey had 1.500.000
victims. There is constantly for 50 years martial law in the
eastern Turkish provinces, where the Kurds live, and the district
is forbidden to foreigners.
The
Turkish authorities want to ignore the Kurds, they call them
mountainous Turks and they deprive them of any human right.
Blood, violence, oppression, have not erased the desire of
the Kurdish people to live independent not under this totalitarian
enslavement where they are today.
The
Turkish military regime has recently intensified the oppression
and extermination of Kurds. Thousands of them rot in prisons
while others live in caves. It would however be wrong to believe
that violence against the Kurds was less intense under the
so-called democratic regime of Turkey. Policy is one and the
same for any Turkish regime: The policy of extermination of
every minority.
The
Treaty of Sevres, which has not been officially annulled,
mentions an autonomous, independent Kurdistan. The Kurds have
the right to free themselves from Turkish yoke. Kurdish independence
must become a reality. Give your help to that end.
In
the pages that follow you will see photographs of the drama
and the struggle of the Kurdish people.
THE
NIGHT OF TERROR IN CONSTANTINOPLE
Under
the terms of the agreement regarding the exchange of populations
in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the Greek population of Constantinople-a
thriving community-and the Muslim community residing in Western
Thrace were exempted from the exchange process.
In
the beginning of the 20th century there were 300,000 Greeks
residing in Constantinople.
They
had managed to survive there despite centuries of oppression
and persecution under the Ottoman yoke. But the Turks were
determined to expel all Greeks from their ancient home using
all available means. Thus, the Turks systematically used the
following measures in order to accomplish their objective:
a)
In May 1941, large numbers of young men ranging in age from
18-38. Were conscripted into the Turkish army from the Greek
and Armenian communities The Turkish intention was to exterminate
these young men through the well-known method of <<forced-labor
battalions>>. If this extermination plan was not successful
it was due to protests from the Western allies and the defeat
of the Germans in Stalingrad in December 1942. Seeing the
tides of war shifting, the Turkish authorities permitted the
discharge of these soldiers.
b)
On 11 November 1942, the Turkish government passed a law regarding
taxation of property of non-Muslims, known as the VA RLIK
VE RGISI. Through this! Non-Muslim citizens had to submit,
without the right to appeal, to the discretion and arbitrary
judgment of the tax clerks. The tax clerks, in turn, were
instructed to appraise property at amounts many times over
the actual value of each property. Then, if the individual
concerned was unable to make payments of the enormous tax
share (quota), the property was seized and the unfortunate
owners were exiled to ACKALE, in Anatolia.
As
a result (of the use) of these harsh and inhuman measures,
by 1955 only 25,000 people were left, rather than the 450,000
that should have been their number given a normal rate of
growth in 35 years.
On
the night of the 6th September 1955, and using the Cyprus
situation as a pretext, the Turks dealt the coupdegrace to
the remaining inhabitants. The whole story of this pogrom
is as follows:
On
Saturday the 3rd of September 1955, the wife of the Turkish
Consul in Thessaloniki asked for, and received, from a photographer
in Thessaloniki supposedly for a keepsake a series of photographs
and films of the Turkish Consulate and the neighboring home
where Kemal Ataturk was born. The very next day she and her
family left for Turkey.
At
ten past midnight on the 6th of September 1955, in the garden
of the Consulate, between the two buildings, dynamite exploded
resulting in broken windows in both buildings. The Greek authorities
rushed immediately to the scene. They established that two
more explosive devices had been positioned in the Consulate
yard and that within the building there was only one Turkish
guard. In the investigation that followed it was determined
that the explosives were placed there by the guard and his
accomplice, a Turkish student at the Law School of the University
of Thessaloniki, Oktai Egin Faik, who had brought the dynamite
from Turkey a few days earlier.
On
the 6th of September, Turkish newspapers using forged versions
of the photos of the Turkish consul's wife and even before
the explosion took place in Greece, depicted Kemal's birthplace
as totally destroyed. By the evening, newspapers all over
Turkey knew of the alleged destruction of Kemal's home setting
off waves of anger among the Turkish populace.
The
Turkish authorities then transported large groups of people
in trains and military vehicles from Anatolia to Constantinople.
The
attack by the angry mobs began at 5: 50 P.M on the 6th of
September 1955 and ended at 02: 00 A.M on the 7th of September
1955. The police calmly assisted and even guided the mobs,
in their relentless path of destruction.
At
00: 20 A.M on the 7th of September 1955 martial law was finally
declared, at 02: 00 A.M curfew began and at 02: 30 A.M the
authorities had restored a semblance of order.
Screaming
slogans <<Today your property, tomorrow your lives>>
the mobs had perpetrated terrible crimes. Those who guided
them knew that by terrorizing the last Greek residents of
Constantinople they would compel them to desert their homeland,
once and for all. Simultaneously by destroying monuments,
which were proof of the glorious Greek past of Constantinople,
they would eradicate even future reminders of the Greek presence.
The
results of the vandalisms were:
The
Theological School of Halki, the Marasleios School, The Monestary
of Valoukli, the Zappeio School for Girls and many other sites,
suffered great damage.
Of the 83 Greek Orthodox churches in the <<Polis>>
59 were burned and most others suffered serious damage to
the icons and ancient paintings of great value.
The tombs of Patriarchs were destroyed, Christian cemeteries
and ossuaries were defiled;
3,000 homes were looted and destroyed;
4348 Greek stores were looted and destroyed;
200 Greek women were raped;
Hundreds of Greeks were ill-treated or tortured, such as the
old Bishop of Derkon Iakovos; the metropolitan of Ilioupolis
Yennadios, whose beard was cut off and who was then dragged
through the streets so that he would die shortly thereafter
from ill-treatment; and Bishop Pamphilou Yennadios that was
thrown into the burned ruins of Valoukli;
15 Greeks were murdered and among them a 90 year old monk
at the Valoukli Monastery, Chrys. Mantas, who was burned alive.
Many others in the monastery were seriously wounded.
After the pogrom a great portion of the Greek population left
Constantinople to save their lives.
On
the 20th of September, 1975, in a special 35 page Survey section
of the influential English magazine, The Economist, it was
written: <<Turkish charges that the Moslem population
in Western Thrace is harried by the Greek authorities are
gross exaggerations. In 1923 there were 300,000 Greeks living
in Constantinople and 110,000 Turks living in Thrace. Today,
there are 15,000 Greeks living in Istanbul and 120,000 Turks
in Thrace. The Greeks ask, with some justification, which
country has been putting the pressure on which minority>>.
(Survey-15).
It
is important for us to realize that today, 1982; only 4,000
Greeks still remain in Constantinople.
In
the pages to follow you will find irrefutable photographic
evidence of a typical sample of Turkish cruelty, which managed
to destroy the Hellenic population of Constantinople.
THE
PERSECUTIONS OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES
Of
Nestorians and Syrian orthodox of South East Turkey.
A-NESTORIANS.
This race lives in the Hakkari province near the border of
Turkey with Iran and Iraq. They are considered descendants
of ancient Assyrians. They are Christian monophysites (Nestorians).
In the years 1915-1918 they allied with the Armenians and
placed their hopes of independence on the Russians. In 1918
the Nestorian patriarch was murdered. In order to avoid persecutions
and massacres by the Turks, many Nestorians fled to Iraq.
In 1920, the Nestorians were organized and armed by the British
to form the so-called Assyrian troops, who tried to re-conquer
their motherland, but failed.
In
1932, the British mandate of Iraq came to an end. The Nestorian
community had difficulties with the Iraqi government and was
forced to flee Iraq and go to Syria, Lebanon (where they live
near the city of ZALEH) Cyprus and the United States. At present,
a small number of Nestorians live in S.E. Turkey, where they
have almost no human rights at all. B-SYRIAN-ORTHODOX. In
S.E. Turkey, north of the Syrian Turkish border, in the region
of the towns of Mardin and Midyat lived many centuries ago,
thousands of people belonging to the Semitic race, speaking
ancient Syrian (Aramaic) which was spoken in Palestine on
the time when Christ was born, members of the monophysite
church of the Jacobites (from the bishop Jacob Baradai). These
people claim to descend from Asour and Aram, children of Sim,
and that their ascendants belonged to the early Christians.
These are the geographic, political, ethnological and religious
characteristics of the so-called Syrian-orthodox.
After
undergoing the Byzantine, Arab, and Latin rule (of the Crusaders)
and a period of semi independence, the Syrian-orthodox were
under the Ottoman Empire, in the l6th century. Because of
religious difference, they had self-government with their
own laws, courts of justice, and political (clerical) authority.
After
the Ottoman Empire was dissolved, they were not assigned to
Syria, as should have been the case, since, being of Semitic
origin, they are related to the Arab-Syrians. Instead, they
remained within the Turkish border. After Ataturk's westernization
and his attempt to turn the state into a Turkish state, their
self-government was abolished and persecutions began.
Some
years ago, they had been fiercely persecuted because Turkish
hatred, which in 1915 slaughtered the Armenians, did not always
make distinction between the Christians of Anatolia. Thus,
because of this <<mistake>> tens of thousands
of Syrian Orthodox were slaughtered at the same time with
the Armenians, as an extension of the Armenian genocide.
Today
in Mardin-Midyat, live approximately 30.000 Syrian Orthodox,
though 20 years ago; there lived 100.000 and 70 years ago,
200.000.
Until
1978, there were 50 churches and 10 monasteries, most of which
have ancient gospels in manuscript.
The
most important of these is the Mar Gabriel, where is the seat
of a bishop, and where the ancient Syrian language is taught,
and the ancient art of manuscript is practiced. In the Mar
Yakoub monastery there is an imposing church if the 5th century
and around it churches of the 3rd and 4th centuries, carved
in the rock. The Deir UI Zafaran monastery once had 100 monks
and was the seat of the Syrian-orthodox patriarch, who in
1954 was established in Damascus. In this monastery was taught
the ancient Syrian language. In 1978, the Turkish ministry
of education decreed this teaching illegal and sent away the
teachers in order to obtain the Turcification of this minority.
At
present, especially since 1974, there are continuously organized
suppressions of the Syrian-Orthodox minority. These suppressions
are manifested with deliberate actions, such as attacks, kidnappings,
murders burglaries, destruction of vineyards, and crops, thefts,
forced weddings accompanied by forced acceptance of Islam.
All these persecutions have forced many Syrian-Orthodox to
emigrate. These persecutions are known and approved b the
Turkish authorities in violation of the articles 37-45 of
the Treaty of Lausanne, which stipulate the protection of
minorities and the non-distinction among Turkish civilians,
concerning their civil rights.
More
distinctly, the provisions of the articles a) 38 § 1,
b) 38 § 2, c) 39 § 3, d) 40 and e) 42 § 5 of
the Treaty of Lausanne, stipulate that the Turkish government
undertakes the obligation to provide respectively:
Total
protection of life and freedom,
The possibility to exercise in freedom any faith, or dogma
Equal civilian rights to every Turkish citizen irrespectively
of difference of religion
Equal rights for the installation of philanthropic, social
institutions and schools for education and
Protection of churches, synagogues cemeteries and other religious
institutions of the minorities.
None of all these stipulations and obligations that Turkey
has undertaken under the Treaty of Lausanne has been respected
by any Turkish government (democratic or fascist) of any political
color. The minorities in Turkey have no human rights.
A
very interesting research conducted by a Committee of the
World Council of Churches (Avenue d Anderghem 23, Bruxelles)
in 1979 reveals that the Turkish government is keeping no
obligation. The guarantor Powers of the Treaty of Lausanne.
i.e. Britain France, Italy and Japan, are thus obliged, according
to article 44 § 2, to attract the attention to these
violations that take place and to ask the Turkish government
to change its attitude, and respect human rights and its signature
on the Treaty. Otherwise, if the Treaty of Lausanne is abolished,
the Treaty of Sevres must be applied.
