PONTIAN GENOCIDE
90th Anniversary 1919-2009 Updated 2009.05.02 WE NEVER FORGET dedicated to Peter Fogel, Israel
a survivor from the Hebrew Genocide to seal our destiny and friendship Click for a Historical Tour - The evidence - English comments
THE PONTIAN GENOCIDE
MAY 19th, 90th Anniversary 1919 -2009 © Georgios Paraskevopoulos
Event: Day of Remembrance The Slaughter Of Samsun (Amisos)
19th May 2009, 18:00
at the Monument of Pontian Genocide
Plateia Agias Sofias, Thessaloníki
I WILL NEVER FORGET
«Ν’ ανασπάλλω ’κι μπορώ»
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In a way, the Hellenic Genocide still didn't end, as its few
survivors are persecuted right now in all territories ruled by the
Turks, especially in Constantinople and Imvros. For instance, in Imvros, in
1999, a six years old Greek boy was burned alive by the Turks. The Orthodox
Patriarchate, located in Constantinople, which has a similar meaning as the
Vatican, is attacked often. The rights of the few survivors of the Hellenic
Genocide are shamefully denied. The Treaty of Lausanne is
continually disrespected. Even the frequent invasions by Turkey of the airspace
and the territorial sea of Greece (which amount to hundreds every year),
can be considered reflexes of its extermination policy. If for the Turkish
rulers, the Greeks don't have the right to live, they don't have any
rights. This site will contain a detailed work on the Hellenic
Genocide. It will analyse all aspects of that crime against
humanity, with documentation from many sources, which contains hundreds
of accounts on the Hellenic Genocide from eyewitnesses from
several nations, as well as hundreds of photographs, several maps, posters,
documents and films. The work has many references to the Armenians and Assyrians.
It's not possible to research any of the three Genocides using accounts of
eyewitnesses without researching also the other two. The work uses only quotes
from documents that are completely and freely available on the Internet,
which are linked to each quote used. Thus, there's no risk of anything being
used out of its original context and the reader can easily extend their
research.
*Genoctony
(Γενοκτονία) is
the Greek word for genocide
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Pontian
Greek Genoctony is a term used to refer to the fate of the
Pontic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during and in the aftermath of
World War I. It is used to refer to the determined persecutions, massacres,
expulsions and death marches of Pontian Greek populations in the historical
region of Pontos, the southeastern Black Sea provinces of the Ottoman, during
the early 20th century by the Neo-Turk administration. G.W. Rendel of the
British Foreign Office noted the massacres of Greeks in Pontos and elsewhere
during the Turkish national movement, which was organized against Greece's
invasion of western Anatolia.
PONTIAN MONUMENT IN KILKIS MACEDONIA, GREECE
Click above - I LOST MY FATHERLAND
According
to the Greek census of 1926, 182,169 Greeks from the Pontos region had migrated
to Greece during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. The
International Association of Genocide Scholars recognizes the events as a
genocide but other official recognition is limited at present. The question of
whether these incidents constitute a genocide is a matter of dispute between
Greece and Turkey. Turkey similarly denies the historicity of the
contemporaneous Armenian and Assyrian genocides, both of which have also been
recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Click above - A Nice Turkish song - Pontian Genocide
Each year on the 19th of May, Pontian Greeks commemorate the
massacre of 353,000 of it's citizens at the hands of the Turks in Asia
Minor. The 19th of May was chosen as the day to commemorate the
genocide, because it was this day in 1919 that Turkey's then leader
Mustafa Kemal landed in Samsun (Samsounta) a coastal city in Pontos to
begin his campaign of cleansing Turkey of it's last remaining
influential minority, the Greeks.
MEMORIES FROM TURKEY
PONTIAN GENOCIDE
Documents
From the New York Times
By EDWIN I. JAMES.
Copyright, 1922 by The New York Times Company.
Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES
LAUSANNE, Dec. 1.--A black page of modern history was written here
today. Ismet Pasha stood before the statesmen of the civilized world
and admitted that the banishment from Turkish territory of nearly a
million Christian Greeks, who were two million only a few short years
ago had been decreed. The Turkish Government graciously allows two more
weeks for the great exodus.
The statesmen of
the civilized powers accepted the Turkish dictum and set about ways to
get those thousands of Greeks out of harm's way before they should meet
the fate of 800,000 Armenians who were massacred in Anatolia in 1910
and 1917.
New Light on Turkish Massacres.
Here, in the beauty of the Winter sunshine of the Swiss Alps, diplomats
have been for ten days talking political problems with the Turks,
treating them as equals. Massacre and bloodshed seemed far away. But
today a change took place, and a new light was thrown on the situation.
The facts are not new: the world knows the Turks' cruelty and
massacres. But the way their crimes were presented this afternoon came
like a clever stage effect.
As an audience may change from smiles to tears, the diplomats here seem
to have had their souls touched today as Lord Curzon unfolded the
sinister story of the fate of the Greeks in Asia Minor; and today's
events cannot but fail to have an important effect on the final
settlement. In all probability no treaty will be written at this
session, and in two weeks the conference will be adjourned, it is
believed, to meet again in a month or six weeks. In the meanwhile the
Turks will have time to think things over and become more reasonable or
face the consequences.
Today's meeting
was scheduled under the simple heading: "Exchange of Prisoners." The
delegates rolled in luxurious automobiles to the old chateau. They left
it two hours later with solemn faces. Within the ancient walls the
shades of murdered thousands had poured to have their say.
Dr. Nansen Reads His Report.
Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, who had been sent to Anatolia by the League of
Nations, read his report on conditions there and made the radical
recommendation that all Greeks under Turkish sovereignty be got away
quickly to save them from starvation or death by other agencies. It was
immediately apparent that something more than the mere discussion of
the fate of some few thousands of prisoners of war had been staged.
Ismet Pasha arose and said that the Turks were willing to begin the
discussion of means for getting all Greeks out of Turkey and suggested
that the conference proceed at once to take up the subject of
minorities.
Lord Curzon declared that he felt that many thousands of lives were at
stake and said that quick action must be taken. He said that the Turks
had decreed that all Greeks in Anatolia must get out by the last day of
November and added that they had extended the date to December 13.
Immediate steps, Lord Curzon said must be taken to remove the Greeks by
that date.
Ismet Admits Decree of Banishment.
Instead of retreating before Lord Curzon's attack, Ismet agreed that
the Greeks must leave Anatolia and volunteered the statement the Greeks
in Constantinople had better depart also. Lord Curzon protested that
this would mean great economic loss for Turkey. Ex-Premiere Venizelos
declared that if those hundreds of thousands were sent to Greece the
country could not care for them and would have to ask the United States
for aid. When Lord Curzon warned Ismet of danger to the Turks in
Western Thrace, which remains Greek, Ismet coolly replied that it might
be good
idea to trade the Greeks in Turkey for the Turks in Greece.
Lord Curzon then said that he wished to give some statistics in order
that there might be a clear idea what was at stake. He said that
figures from American sources showed that before 1914 there were
1,600,000 Greeks in Anatolia. Between 1914 and 1918 300,000 died, left
the country or otherwise disappeared. Between 1919 and 1922 another
200,00 left Anatolia or disappeared. In September and October of this
year another reduction of 500,000 took place leaving now 500,000 or
600,000 Greeks in Anatolia, most of whom were males between 15 and 60,
to whom the Turks had refused permission to leave.
A Million Greeks Wiped Out.
"In other words" said the British Foreign Minister "a million Greeks have been killed, deported or have died."
Lord Curzon said that there had been 300,000 Greeks in Constantipole,
most of whom were still there, 320,000 Greeks in Eastern Thrace, some
of whose families had been there for a thousand years and more, all had
fled before the dread of the Turks, leaving desert areas behind them.
Turning to the issue of the prisoners of war, Lord Curzon said that the
Greeks held 10,000 Turkish soldiers and about 3,800 Turkish civilians.
The Turks hold about 30,000 Greek soldiers. He further pointed out that
there were in Greece proper, in the Greek islands and Western Thrace
480,000 Moslems. He further mentioned 120,000 Greeks who have been
deported by the Turks into inner Anatolia. He recommended that
immediate steps be taken to solve the tragic problem.
Ismet demanded that the Greeks free at once the Turkish civilians whom
they held, whom he called hostages. He said that some of Lord Curzon's
figures were too high, but he did not deny that the Turks had decreed
that all Greeks must leave their territory. The outcome of the
discussion was the appointment of a subcommittee to consider means for
getting the Greeks out of Turkish territory.
This story of the fate of 2,000,000 Greeks who were in Turkey takes no
account of the wiping out of an almost equal number of Armenians of whom
the Turks wished to be rid. After the massacres of war times only about
300,000 Armenians remain in Turkey. There is almost an equal number in
Constantinople and Thrace. They must go somewhere else or be killed, in
all probability.
The Turks have been invited by the Allies to become members of the
League of Nations. They have replied that they will join when their
friends, the Reds of Moscow, are admitted.
Recess From About December 15 Planned.
Facing a situation which seems almost impossible, the leaders of the
Lausanne Conference have about decided to try to arrange a temporary
settlement of the most pressing issues between the Turks and the Greeks
and take a recess from about December 15 until the middle of January or
the first of February. It is reported that meanwhile Ismet Pasha will
go to Angora to explain the allied position on the larger questions.
On the issues of the exchange of prisoners, the protection of
minorities, the capitulations, the customs and the Ottoman debt, the
diplomats believe that an agreement can be reached with the Turks. But
on the issues of the European frontier of Turkey, the future of the
Straits and the Anatolian boundary line, it appears unlikely that as
long as Ismet Pasha sticks to his instructions, any agreement can be
reached.
According to present plans, Ismet will take to Angora the proposals of
the Allies relating to these questions and endeavor to bring back new instructions.
This proposal originated with Ismet Pasha and was tentatively approved
by Lord Curzon, who today communicated the suggestion to the *** ***
*** including the Americans *** *** *** would be taken to allow Ismet
to confer with the Angora Government in person, conversations with the
Turkish delegates reveal another idea, namely, that the Brussels
conference may produce a change in the complexion of the allied
negotiations with the Turks. The Turks feel that the allied unity at
Lausanne which they did not expect, is due to a bargain between England
and France by which England has promised France aid in the solution of
the latter's economic problems, including reparations.
The Turks reason that after the Brussels Conference the French will
either have the fruits of their bargain or will be ready to act against
Germany without British help. In either eventuality they calculate that
France may be ready to stand less firmly by the side of England against
themselves.
It seems scarcely believable
that the Poincare Government could have given the Turks any
encouragement in such hopes, but nevertheless the Turks seem
confidential that they will lose nothing by waiting.
Turks Working With Russians.
On the issue of the Straits the Russians, whose chief delegate, George
Tchitcherin, arrived tonight, are ready to fight to the end the British
claims, whatever they may be. The Turks so far are working closely with
the Russians and are denying the British demands for the
demilitarization of the Straits. Coached by the Russians, they now
refuse to listen to the proposal to have the League of Nations guard
the Straits, although three weeks ago in Paris, Ismet said that the
solution would be acceptable. While the British demand the right to
send their warships through the Straits into the Black Sea, the
Russians demand that the Straits be closed to all warships, as before
the World War.
With respect to the European frontier the Turks demand a bridgehead on
the western side of the Maritsa River, on the ground that it contains
the railroad station of Adrianople. The Allies refuse to allow the
Turks to cross the Maritsa, on the ground that it gives them an
excellent bridgehead for offensive operations in Europe.
The Anatolian frontier issue hinges on the Mosul oil fields, which the
British intend to keep within the borders of the Mesopotamian mandate,
but which the Turks claim for themselves.
On none of these three issues has the slightest progress been made
toward a settlement.
It is true the Turks maintain stoutly that the British have made them
proposals by which the Turks would get sovereignty over the district in
return for an assurance of oil concessions, the British giving
assurances that they could dispose of the French, Italian and American
claims. Lord Curzon himself authorized a denial that any such proposal
has been made.
The basic trouble here is that the Turks present themselves as
conquerors having whipped the Greeks in 1922, while the Allies present
themselves as conquerors, having whipped the Turks in 1918. Ismet
Pasha, leading one side, acts on the basis of the Mudania armistice
which marked the halt of the victorious Turkish troops while Curzon,
leading the other side, acts on the basis of the Mudros armistice,
which marked the halt of the victorious Allied troops. Russian
intervention on the one hand and *** intervention on the other, serve
to muddy the waters with the result of a confusion which is almost
complete.
M. Tchitcherin on his arrival went into a three-hour conference with
Ismet Pasha, head of the Turkish delegation. Tomorrow the Turks will
entertain the Russian delegation at luncheon.
In a statement to the press M. Tchitcherin said:
"Two principles will guide the Russian delegation at the Lausanne
conference.
"One is the principle of self-determination and the other is the need
for peace in the world. The first obviously applies to Turkey as well
as to other nations and, therefore, the Russians will demand an
independent Turkey. As for the second principle, we consider one of the
essential conditions for peace in the Near East is that the Straits
shall be effectively closed to all foreign warships."
Bulgaria Threatens to Fight Greece
Premier Stambouliwaki of Bulgaria, in an interview tonight, declared
that he had quitted the Balkan League and was going to work with the
Turks. Furthermore, he said if the conference did not give Bulgaria the
port of Dedeaghatch and a corridor to the Aegean, the Bulgars would "go
and get it."
"It is foolish to talk about the Balkan block," he said. "There is no
such thing. If this conference does not give us Dedeaghatch as demanded,
we will fight the Greeks for it."
"The Bulgarian Government is in complete accord with Turkey and ready to
support all her claims in return for Turkish support for our demand for
an outlet to the Aegean, which has been promised us and which we mean to
have."
M. Stambouliwaki said that as for the proportion of the Ottoman debt
owed by the parts of Bulgaria won from Turkey. Bulgaria would not pay
one cent.
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1922
Page 1, Col. 1
TURKS PROCLAIM BANISHMENT EDICT TO 1,000,000 GREEKS
Ismet, in Lausanne Conference, Gives Those Remaining in Turkey Two Weeks' Grace.
ALLIES ACCEPT THE DICTUM
Proceed to Discussion of Means of Evacuation -- Greeks in Constantinople
Included.
CONFERENCE RECESS SOON
Leaders, Despairing of Agreement Now, Plan for an Adjournment About Dec.15
Sunday, December 3, 1922
New York Times Editorial
Page 6, Col. 2, Section 2,
A BLACK FRIDAY
There have been many Black Fridays in recent history. Most of them have
been days of financial panic. There has been none of blacker foreboding
than last Friday. And the blackness is not loss or fear of loss in
stocks and bonds. It is the blackness of loss of home, the blackness of
exile and suffering and the peril of death. But that which deepens the
darkness that has come upon the earth in the broad daylight of the
twentieth century is civilization's prompt acceptance of the Turks'
decree of banishment not only of a million Greeks, but incidentally of
all Christian minorities within the Turkish realm beyond the
Hellespont, which the Aryan crossed over three thousand years ago.
Light blackens such a blot. Lord Curzon but urged that the Greeks be
gotten out as
quickly as possible in order to escape massacre. For the rest there was,
so far as reported, only quiet acquiescence.
Meanwhile, the dispatches from Washington of the same date report that
the Administration believes that the United States "is not without
influence at Lausanne," that not only the Allies but the Turkish
representatives appear to be "wholly satisfied" with the part that the
United States is playing at Lausanne, and that the very latest reports
from Ambassador Child enable the Department of State to draw the
conclusion that the work of the "gathering" at Lausanne is "proceeding
satisfactorily." Let us assume that the "very latest reports" do not
include the happenings of Friday. If the government were knowingly
"wholly satisfied" with that day's record, then black were white. It is
inconceivable that the American people can be as "wholly satisfied"
with our part as the Turks are reported to be.
Is this to be the end of the Christian minorities in Asia Minor--that
land where, thirteen centuries and more before the Turk came first to
rule it, Paul had journeyed as a missionary through its length and
breadth, and where the first "seven churches that are in Asia stood," to
which the messages written in the Book of Revelation were sent?
December 4, 1922
The New York Times
Page 16, Col. 3
THE STATESMANSHIP OF EXTERMINATION
What The Times thinks about the morality of the Turkish plan to drive
every Greek and Armenian out of Turkey--which means that a great many
of them will die or be murdered on the way, and that others will fall
victims to famine or pestilence in their places of refuge--has already
been said. It has been pointed out, too, that the serious thing is not
so much the morality of the Turk, which has been fairly well known to
the world for several centuries but that of the so-called Christian
Powers which stood by and were consenting.
The British Government protested in the name of humanity when the Greek
revolutionaries shot a group of ex-Ministers and Generals. But when the
Turks announce that a million Greeks are to be expelled from the
country where they have lived since two thousand years before the Turks
were heard of, and driven out to die, Lord Curzon's moral scruples are
satisfied with a request for two weeks delay. Politicians it seems can
be knocked by killings only when the victims are other politicians.
Even granting that this eviction on a grand scale will be
successful--as apparently it will--what is to become of Turkey? What
will become of the deported Greeks and Armenians is, unhappily plain
enough. What of the Turks who will be left to undisturbed enjoyment of
the country which has been somewhat inexactly called their homeland?
Their friends make much of their "racial vitality" which has been
demonstrated by the national revival. But racial vitality which
exhausts itself in a capacity for
fighting diplomatic intrigue and a low grade of agriculture is poor
equipment for a nation in the twentieth century, especially for a
nation occupying a country of enormous strategic and military
importance. Already there is trouble in Smyrna. The expulsion of the
Greeks and Armenians has ruined the town. What has happened in Smyrna
will happen in Constantinople if the Christian population is expelled.
Turkey will be left a nation of peasants, and the business which was
formerly done by Greeks and Armenians will have to be done by somebody
other than the Turks.
It is too much to suppose that the world will leave the Turks to till
their fields and enjoy the pleasant spectacle of deserted and ruined
cities undisturbed by the complications of modern business. Somebody is
going after the iron and the oil. The great cultured nations of Western
Europe which watch calmly the annihilation of some of the oldest stocks
of European culture may be calm because they think they will get a
bigger share of the business with resident business men out of the way.
But business there must be: even the Turks will need it. And the
killing off of the races that have done the business hitherto will
merely widen the field for that foreign intrigue which the Near East
has known for centuries and will continue to know so long as weak or
incompetent States lie in the zone between Asia and Europe.
There is some justice in the Turkish complaint that the Christian
minorities were used as pawns in foreign diplomatic games: but the
games will go on with other pawns. The Turks will not be let alone, nor
will the Near East cease to be a breeding ground of European wars. The
Turks have found themselves unable to get along with races whose
collaboration was essential if Turkey was to continue to exist under
modern conditions. They knew no way to solve that problem but the
extermination of the minorities. Yet this murder of hundreds of
thousands of men, women and children will in the long run bring no
profit either to the Turks who do it or to the European Powers which
are apparently going to allow it.
December 9, 1922
The New York Times
Letter to the Editor
THE EXPELLED GREEKS.
Turkey's Defiance of All the Laws of Civilization.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
The last decree of the Angora government that 300,000 Greeks who were
living peaceably in Turkey should leave that country at once and the
refusal of the same Government to allow Greek ships to take them away
was a gross breach action by the American Government. It is true that a
nation may require individuals who are unfriendly and suspected of
crime to leave the country. But that is a very different thing from
compelling immediate deportation of 300,000 men, women and children
with the warning that if they do not go at once, they will be carried
off to the interior. This means, as experience with the Angora
Government shows, that the men will be killed and the women enslaved.
These people were living in their homes, earning an honest living,
quite independent of the charity of foreign nations. The President of
the United States had called upon the American people to relieve the
distress of the multitudes who had been already driven out of Turkey
and many of whose friends had been murdered by the Turks. The Times has
given us pictures of these Christian refugees who are temporarily
sheltered in tents and are being cared for by the American Near East
Relief and by the Red Cross. Now the Turk is proposing to put upon us
the burden of over 300,000 more. It is a most unfriendly act and one
that we should resent
and defeat by every means in our power.
The rule which should govern civilized nations was well stated by
Daniel Webster, when he was Secretary of State in 1842, in a dispatch
to our Minister in Mexico. Referring to American citizens who had been
captured when they were alleged to be members of a large Texan force
acting in hostility to Mexico, he said, "It is still the duty of this
Government to take so far a concern in their welfare as to see that as
prisoners of war, they are treated according to the usage of modern
times and civilized States. Indeed although the rights of the safety of
none of their own citizens were concerned, yet if in a war waged
between two neighboring States, the killing, enslaving, or cruelty
treating of prisoners should be indulged in, the United States would
feel it to be their duty, as well as their right, to remonstrate and to
interfere
against such a departure from the principles of humanity and
civilization. These principles are common principles, essential alike
to the welfare of all nations, and in the preservation of which all
nations have, therefore, rights and interests."
The extreme cruelty with which the Turks carried on their previous
deportations is described in the report of the American Military Mission
to Armenia, dated October 16, 1919. It sums up the slaughter thus: "The
dead from this wholesale attempt on the race are variously estimated at
from 500,000 to more than a million, the usual figure being about 800,000."
We hear much about the new Turk. As far as appears, the new Turk of the
Angora Government is only new in that he has revived the fanaticism and
cruelty of the Turks when first they conquered Asia Minor and captured
Constantinople. The Sultan, whom they dethroned, had at least some
moderation in his crimes. Henry Morgenthau, in his article recently
published in The Times, states the case very clearly:
"Only the Turks are ready and eager at this moment for a strong
offensive movement against civilization. In the light of recent events
this constitutes a very grave danger to the whole world. Other nations,
worn and weary, ask only for peace. The Turks have no commerce, no
manufactures, no merchant marine. They have nothing to lose. They have
no culture. They have no training save in bearing arms, no science save
the science of war, no art save the lethal art. They are mere
marauders."
The questions for America now to consider are these: Will Congress
support the recommendations of the Secretary of War and the Secretary
of the Navy and authorize an army and navy of sufficient force to
protect civilization, of which America is still a part, from these
marauders, and will the President use the force he now has as a police
to do our part in the struggle? And will he notify the Angora
Government that it must revoke at once this order for deportation, or
have we become a new America--cowardly, selfish and
short-sighted--forgetful of the principles of our great statesmen and the action of our Government in
previous administrations, and mindful only of our own immediate ease?
God forbid.
EVERETT P. WHEELER.
New York, December 6, 1922.
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
1915-1916
The Armenian Genocide April 24th, 94th Anniversay
"The Armenians are not the only subject people in
Turkey which have suffered from this policy of making Turkey exclusively the
country of the Turks. The story which I have told about the Armenians I could
also tell with certain modifications about the Greeks and the Syrians. Indeed
the Greeks were the first victims of this nationalizing idea."
Ambassador Morgenthau's Story
CHAPTER XXIV
Henry Morgenthau - 1918
Click above
"O CHORON" PYRRICHIOS
The Dance of Dances
Serra, Serra, Serra
Click above
Picture: Rhea Zeus and Two Idaean Dactyls in the dance of Life - Pyrrichios
The dance of Dances- "Serra - O Choron"
ΤΗΝ ΠΑΤΡΙΔΑ Μ' ΕΧΑΣΑ
Την πατρίδα μ’ έχασα, έκλαψα και πόνεσα. Λύουμαι κι’αρόθυμο, Ωι, Ωι ν’ ανασπάλω ’κι επορώ. Τά ταφία μ’ έχασα ντ’ έθαψα ’κι ενέσπαλα. Τ’ εμετέρτς αναστορώ, Ωι, Ωι και ΄ς σο ψ'όπο μ’ κουβαλώ. Εκκλησίας έρημα, μοναστήρα ακάντηλα, πόρτας και παράθυρα, Ωι, Ωι επέμναν ακρόνυχτα Μίαν κι’ άλλο ΄σην ζωή μ’ σο πεγάδι μ’ σην αυλή μ’. Νέροπον ας έπινα, Ωι, Ωι και τ’ ομμάτα μ’ έπλυνα.
Kindly Regards Georgios * Genoctony (Γενοκτονία) is the Greek word for genocide
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