European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Turkey on 17 Dec. 2004
Hitler tried to hide many pictures from the public which is not peculiar for the narcissist that he was. Many of those pictures were taken by his photographer Heinrich Hoffman. Hitler asked him to destroy them because they were “undignified”. However Hoffman kept them safe and published them after the war.
Hitler tried to hide these pictures from the world.
You can see why he did it.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created an unwanted situation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and one of the most unexpected effects of his actions is the flipping of former neutral states Finland and Sweden into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Instead of intimidating his Scandinavian neighbors into accommodating his demands, Putin’s invasion has pushed them into the waiting arms of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, where they will join 30 other countries in the collective defense of Europe.
Do Greek and Turkish people live together peacefully in any one country or island? If so, what is it called?
This may come as a surprise to you…but Greeks and Turks nowadays live peacefully together just about everywhere they cohabit.
Football excluded where hotheads will shout and do whatever… Try to think of one instance where there has been a hate crime between Greeks and Turks in recent years. I personally can’t but I’m ready to be corrected if wrong.
Let us take the place where there was and is the most recent history of confrontation: Cyprus. People don’t live together anymore mostly but they visit and work together (There are currently thousands of Turkish Cypriots employed in Greek Cypriot businesses). No hate crimes. The fact that the old generations, embroiled in the old troubles are dying off or too old to care has assisted in this, naturally. Young people don’t want the mistakes of the past.
London and Britain in general. The Cypriot community is large, residing mostly in the capital, and Greek and Turkish Cypriots live side by side with no problems. They have a long standing Cypriot club in North London where they gather too.
Rhodes. The small Turkish minority has lived peacefully with Greeks for decades.
Western Thrace is a peculiar case, since there is contention if the people there are muslim Greeks or Turks. However there is peace none the less.
So who is the instigator of confrontation? It would seem that it’s politicians, revisionists and nationalists. That is, people with no soul, fools and haters. Unfortunately it takes one rotten apple in a position of authority to make the whole barrel go bad.
Christos Terzis
Do Greek people know or care that average Turks like them and wish the best for them?
The answer is yes. Most Greek people know and believe that most Turkish people are decent friendly folk that want nothing more than be good neighbours and develop good relations.
Moreover we care if many of our neighbours wish us well and want the best for us. We would be ungrateful if we didn’t. My father always says “ingratitude is the worst sin”. The mere thought of someone wishing me well is enough to warm my heart. With my biraz türkçe I understand (correct me if I’m wrong) that when Turks say komşu, in regards to countries, they mean Greece and they don’t much use the term for other neighbouring states, and this for me is a compliment. I still remember seeing photos of some Turks who went to the streets of Istanbul to celebrate Greece getting the Euro 2004 cup.
Honestly, from the bottom of my heart and drawing from the love of Jesus, I wish and pray that Greeks and Turks come closer, develop understanding and tolerance and if at all possible be united in determination to overcome any obstacles for peace and fraternity among us. Much blood has been spilled for us to ignore the actions of the past and even worse, repeat them.
A solution to the Cyprus wound would very much help in this. I understand however that the reality of politics, greed, nationalism, finance and rooted hatred are very hard to ignore, let alone set aside, and that politicians with their ubiquitous snake like double tongue will pursue their aims no matter what. I admit that I dislike and distrust the whole Turkish government and opposition apparatus. Hey…I don’t trust our own much anyway… Trust is a hard thing to achieve on the political scene, but the every day Yiannis, Mustafa, Aişe and Maria need not drift in the same path. Praying for the day that we won’t have one arm outstretched for a handshake while we keep the other firmly on the gun.
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.
