Bir Türk kökenli, bir yunan kökenliye kurtuluş savaşını sorarsa
If a Turkish origin asks a Greek person about the Turkish war of independence (or Turco – Greek War of 1919-1922 as Greeks call it, Kurtuluş savaşı as Turks call)
Greece in Turco-Greek War of 1919-1922
Shortened version of article “Revisiting the Fire of Izmir” published in Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, V. 41, No. 1, Fall 2017.
September 13, 2012 is the 90th anniversary of the “Inferno of Izmir” when a great fire broke out that destroyed more than three-fifths of the town. Some Western sources have wrongly placed the culpability for the fire on Turks that recaptured the city from occupying Greek army in September 1922. To that end, Governor George Pataki of New York, playing ethnic politics, shamelessly issued a proclamation in 2002 blaming Turks for the fire.
Historical testimonials, however, clearly indicate that, while the retreating Greek army had a role in starting the fire, Armenian terrorists, dressed in Turkish uniforms, did the biggest damage.
Atrocities by Greek and Armenian elements had actually started as early as mid-May 1919 right after the Greek landing in Izmir. Due to the pressure of the Entente’s representatives, the Greek High Command sentenced dozens of criminals in spring 1919; among the sentenced were 12 Armenians. The atrocities continued during the whole Greco-Turkish war, with Armenians participating in the violence and destruction. In a July 1922 report, Elzéar Guiffray, the administrator of the Izmir’s port, estimated that more than 150,000 Turks were killed, or “disappeared,” as a result of the Greek armed forces’ war crimes.
The summer of 1922 was a culmination of the Greek scorched-earth policy. The Greek army forced the Christian population to leave, and burned everything, including houses of the Christians. This scorched-earth policy is established both by the report of Father Ludovic Marseille, chief of the Catholic mission in Eskișehir (who said that the Greeks had lost forever any right to speak about “Turkish barbarity”), and by a dispatch sent by the staff of USS Litchfield to Admiral Mark Bristol, the US High Commissionner at the American Embassy in Istanbul.
According to a report by a the French Navy’s Intelligence Service (Izmir office), dated 15 November 1920, Armenians, both civilians and legionnaires, arrived in Izmir from Cilicia, engaged in arson, and tried to excite the Greek army against the Turkish population. (During the French occupation of Cilicia, the Armenian Legion committed so many crimes that the Legion itself was disbanded in disgrace [phrase used by French General Jules Hamelin in his mémoires] in summer 1920 and at least five Armenians and one Assyrian were hanged by the French military justice in July 1920 alone. The practice of arson by Armenians, especially in Adana, was a recurrent grievance in the French sources). Missionary Alexander MacLachlan, based on his investigation, also concluded that “Armenian terrorists, dressed in Turkish uniforms, set fire to the city.” The terrorists were evidently attempting to bring Western intervention.
The Western sources clearly demonstrate that the attitude of the Turkish army during the final offensive was strikingly correct. For instance, General Pellé, the French High Commissioner in Istanbul, wrote on September 8, 1922, that since a long time, even the Greek patriarchate had not reported to him any “Kemalist massacre.”
After a careful investigation made together with Admiral Charles Dumesnil, chief of the French Navy in the Near East, and other French representatives, French Consul General Michel Graillet of Izmir also concluded that “the Turkish army has clearly nothing to do with the arson,” and that “quite the contrary, it fought the fire to the extent of its meager resources.” Dumesnil knew the Turkish army from the Çanakkale battle where he had fought. If the irregulars (“çete”) of the Turkish army pillaged a house, they faced immediate execution.
The Turkish army, in fact, had no reason to start fire in Izmir. The fleeing Greek army had abandoned huge quantities of military and food supplies that were desperately needed by the Turkish army and civilians. During several weeks after the fire, Turkish commanders were contemptuous of suggestions, made in a few quarters, that they had any responsibility for the burning. The commanders said that, considering what the Greeks had left behind, it would have been foolish of them to set fire to the city.
In short, the “Inferno of Izmir” on September 13, 1922 was mainly committed by Armenian terrorists, but also aided by Greek elements.
Maxime Gauin is a researcher and a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of History, Middle East Technical University.
Although we are dealing with problems that I am not very proud of today; as a Turkish citizen, there is something about my country that I am very proud of. The following photo was taken at the Turkish Embassy in Washington in the 40s:
After this photo was taken, a diplomatic crisis occurred for the first time between the Republic of Turkey and the USA. At that time, discriminatory legal doctrines such as “separate but equal” were active in the United States, and certain “barriers” in public institutions were required by Jim Crow Laws between African Americans and White Americans.
Meanwhile, the Turkish ambassador of the period, Münir Ertegün, was constantly organizing invited proms for Black Jazz artists at the Turkish embassy in the capital, and he was trying to wage a political struggle against black racism at these invitations with the support of American Jewish Committee. The repeated meeting of Whites and Blacks in the same place eventually resulted in a “warning letter” sent to the Turkish Ambassador by the Senate of one of the Southern States:
“I am complaining about you letting Black Individuals into the Turkish Embassy through the front door. I would like to remind you that this is against the Jim Crow Laws.”
And Ambassador Ertegün responded to this warning with a short letter:
“In my country, our friends enter our house through the front door. But if you wish, we can let you in through the back door.”
Freedom is the supreme good for the human spirit, and its just application is a symbol of dignity for civilized man. Therefore, this struggle of a Turkish bureaucrat is the most important achievement that Turkey has officially brought to the world.
The Ertegün Family later established a record label called Atlantic Records and produced the albums of many Black Jazz artists:
Source:
Helin D.
What prisoners do, eat and read in the only one camp for prisoners of war in Ukraine. This report is the beginning of a series of interviews with those who voluntarily joined the illegal armed formations of the so-called “LNR”
Greece (after Russia) really wanted to get its hands on Constantinople after World War One and the surrender of the Ottoman Empire. And given its history as a Greek city and the heart of the classical Greek world, why didn’t Greece get the city? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.
The year was 1299 AD when a ruler of the Turkish tribes in Anatolia had a dream of a mighty tree growing out of him and covering the whole world. This ruler was Osman I, and with the help of his successors, they built the mightiest Middle Eastern Empire of their time. The term Ottoman originates from “Uthman” which is Arabic for Osman, named after the ruler who had the dream of the Ottoman Empire. We are going to review the historic events that marked the chronology of this mighty empire.
