Greek Genocide of Asia Minor

[Gavur]

Dont fret little body we will not let any unsung hero's go unmentioned
I had as my neighbours in Istanbul always Greeks
They are some of the bravest people you will ever meet

[Gavur]

GENOCIDE of the PONTIAN GREEKS

The Turks have decided upon a war of extermination against their Christian subjects



GENOCIDE of the PONTIAN GREEKS
Background Paper on the Pontian Genocide
By Akis Haralabopoulos [email protected]

Pontus means "sea" in Greek and is located in the south-eastern littoral of the Black Sea. Its connection with Hellenism stretches back to pre-historic times to the legends of Jason and the Argonauts quest for the Golden Fleece and to Heracles obtaining the Amazon Queen's girdle. The coastal region was colonised by the Ionians, especially the city of Miletus which founded Sinope (785 BC), Trapezunta (756 BC) and the numerous other cities along the coast from Heracleia to Discurias in the Caucasus. The Hinterland was gradually Hellenised and this was completed after Alexander's conquests. Its contribution to Hellenism in those 2800 years has been enormous: Diogenes hailed from Sinope and Strabo from Amaseia, it was here that Xenophon found a safe haven, that the great Comneni dynasty reigned, the home of Cardinal Bessarion and the Hypsilandis family; it was also the last Greek territory to fall to the Turks (in 1461). Many famous churches, monasteries and schools are a testament to the resilience of Hellenism. The Pontians are a distinct Greek people with their own dialect, dances, songs and theatre.

For the Pontian Greeks all ended in tragedy in the years 1914-22. Of the 700,000 Greeks living in Pontus in 1914, 300,000 were killed as a result of Turkish government policy and the remainder became refugees. Three millenia of the Greek presence was wiped out by a deliberate policy of creating a Turkey for the Turks. The Pontian people were denied the right to exist, the right of respect for their national and cultural identity, and the right to remain on land they had lived on for countless generations.

The turning point in the treatment of Greeks in Turkey was the alliance between Germany and the Sultan that commenced after the Treaty of Berlin 1878. Germany regarded Anglo French protection of Christians as an obstacle to its interests and convinced the Turkish authorities that the Greeks were working for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Germany opened the Berlin Academy to Turkish military officers and General Gotz was appointed to restructure the Ottoman armed forces. The successful national movements in the Balkans posed a threat that the same would occur in Asia Minor. After the Balkan Wars the Young Turks decided that Asia Minor would be a homeland for Turks alone and that the Greeks and Armenians had to be eliminated. The outbreak of World War I made this possible and Germany willingly sacrificed the Christian minorities to achieve its aim in the Middle East. However, it is the German and Austrian diplomats reports that confirm that what took place was a systematic and deliberate extermination of the Christian population. Genocide. Not security or defence measures, not relocations of population (why forcibly relocate populations?) not war, not retaliation in response to the activities of Pontian guerillas or Russian invasion but GENOCIDE.

Terrorism, labour battalions, exiles, forced marches, rapes, hangings, fires, murders, planned, directed and executed by the Turkish authorities. This can be corroborated by the German and Austrian archives now made public:

24 July 1909 German Ambassador in Athens Wangenheim to Chancellor Bulow quoting Turkish Prime Minister Sefker Pasha: "The Turks have decided upon a war of extermination against their Christian subjects."

26 July 1909 Sefker Pasha visited Patriarch Ioakeim III and tells him: "we will cut off your heads, we will make you disappear. It is either you or us who will survive."

14 May 1914 Official document from Talaat Bey Minister of the Interior to Prefect of Smyrna: The Greeks, who are Ottoman subjects, and form the majority of inhabitants in your district, take advantage of the circumstances in order to provoke a revolutionary current, favourable to the intervention of the Great Powers. Consequently, it is urgently necessary that the Greeks occupying the coast-line of Asia Minor be compelled to evacuate their villages and install themselves in the vilayets of Erzerum and Chaldea. If they should refuse to be transported to the appointed places, kindly give instructions to our Moslem brothers, so that they shall induce the Greeks, through excesses of all sorts, to leave their native places of their own accord. Do not forget to obtain, in such cases, from the emigrants certificates stating that they leave their homes on their own initiative, so that we shall not have political complications ensuing from their displacement.

31 July 1915 German priest J. Lepsius: "The anti-Greek and anti-Armenian persecutions are two phases of one programme - the extermination of the Christian element from Turkey.

16 July 1916 German Consul Kuchhoff from Amisos to Berlin: "The entire Greek population of Sinope and the coastal region of the county of Kastanome has been exiled. Exile and extermination in Turkish are the same, for whoever is not murdered, will die from hunger or illness."

30 November 1916 Austrian consul at Amisos Kwiatkowski to Austria Foreign Minister Baron Burian: "on 26 November Rafet Bey told me: "we must finish off the Greeks as we did with the Armenians . . . on 28 November. Rafet Bey told me: "today I sent squads to the interior to kill every Greek on sight." I fear for the elimination of the entire Greek population and a repeat of what occurred last year" (meaning the Armenian genocide).

13 December 1916 German Ambassador Kuhlman to Chancellor Hollweg in Berlin: "Consuls Bergfeld in Samsun and Schede in Kerasun report of displacement of local population and murders. Prisoners are not kept. Villages reduced to ashes. Greek refugee families consisting mostly of women and children being marched from the coasts to Sebasteia. The need is great."

19 December 1916 Austrian Ambassador to Turkey Pallavicini to Vienna lists the villages in the region of Amisos that were being burnt to the ground and their inhabitants raped, murdered or dispersed.

20 January 1917 Austrian Ambassador Pallavicini: "the situation for the displaced is desperate. Death awaits them all. I spoke to the Grand Vizier and told him that it would be sad if the persecution of the Greek element took the same scope and dimension as the Armenia persecution. The Grand Vizier promised that he would influence Talaat Bey and Emver Pasha."

31 January 1917 Austrian Chancellor Hollweg's report: ". . . the indications are that the Turks plan to eliminate the Greek element as enemies of the state, as they did earlier with the Armenians. The strategy implemented by the Turks is of displacing people to the interior without taking measures for their survival by exposing them to death, hunger and illness. The abandoned homes are then looted and burnt or destroyed. Whatever was done to the Armenians is being repeated with the Greeks.

Thus, by government decree 1,500,000 Armenians and 300,000 Pontian Greeks were annihilated through exile, starvation, cold, illness, slaughter, murder, gallows, axe, and fire. Those who survived fled never to return. The Pontians now lie scattered all over the world as a result of the genocide and their unique history, language (the dialect is a valuable link between ancient and modern Greek), and culture are endangered and face extinction.

A double crime was committed - genocide and the uprooting of a people from their ancestral homelands of three millenia. The Christian nations were not only witnesses to this horrible and monstrous crime, which remains unpunished, but for reasons of political expediency and self interest have, by their silence, pardoned the criminal. The Ottoman and Kemalist Turks were responsible for the genocide of the Pontian people, the most heinous of all crimes according to international law. The international community must recognise this crime.

Produced by the Hellenic Council of New South Wales May 1996

[Gavur]

Turks protest dedication of Pontiac Greek 'genocide' monument

The New Anatolian / Istanbul



Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) held a protest on Monday in Istanbul against the dedication of a monument in Salonika, Greece commemorating Pontiac Greek genocide claims.

The group gathered in front of Galatasaray High School and marched to the Greek Consulate in Istanbul carrying Turkish flags and chanting slogans against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and those aiming to partition Turkey.

Families of victims of terrorism also joined the march, which ended in a ceremony at which protestors laid a black wreath in front of the Greek Consulate.



(Gav-next you'll see the idiots protest a Buick )

[Joseph]

The New Anatolian / Istanbul



Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) held a protest on Monday in Istanbul against the dedication of a monument in Salonika, Greece commemorating Pontiac Greek genocide claims.

The group gathered in front of Galatasaray High School and marched to the Greek Consulate in Istanbul carrying Turkish flags and chanting slogans against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and those aiming to partition Turkey.

Families of victims of terrorism also joined the march, which ended in a ceremony at which protestors laid a black wreath in front of the Greek Consulate.



(Gav-next you'll see the idiots protest a Buick )

A new "Pontus Genocide" statue unveiled in Thessaloniki


In the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, a new statue in commemoration of the "Pontus genocide," an extermination of Greek Orthodox populations living along Turkey's eastern Black Sea region which some Greek authorities claim took place between 1916-1923, has been unveiled in the city center. Yesterday in Thessaloniki, there was a ceremony held to honor the statue, which is of a crying woman, made out of bronze.
Thessaloniki Mayor Vasilis Papayeorgopulos spoke at yesterday's ceremony, saying "This statue has been set here to honor patriotism, and to remember those who lost their lives." Interestingly, Papayeorgopulos heads for the Turkish city of Izmir next month to take part in celebrations which mark Izmir and Thessaloniki becoming sister cities. In 1994, the Athens government voted to mark May 19 as "Pontus Genocide Remembrance Day."

[Gavur]

19 May, day of Genocide for Greeks, day of joy for Turks

http://members.fortunecity.com/fstav1/pontos/pontos.html

[Gavur]

Greek ties marred by Pontus monument

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Erdoğan and Karamanlis, in their Vienna meeting, fail once again to set a date for Karamanlis’ planned visit to Turkey

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül complained yesterday that a pall had been cast over relations with neighboring Greece when a monument to what the Greeks claim was a genocide against Pontus Greeks in the early part of the 20th century in Turkey was unveiled.

Gül said relations between Turkey and Greece were proceeding on a positive course but complained that the Greek monument was likely to prompt a counterreaction from Turkish nongovernmental organizations.

One such initiative is the planned opening of a monument in northwestern Turkey to commemorate those who were killed by Greek troops in Anatolia during the Turkish War of Independence in 1918-1922.

“Such steps would not benefit anyone,” Gül told the Anatolia news agency. “One should have avoided such initiatives that offend the other side.”

He backed a decision by the Greater İzmir Municipality to call off plans to sign an agreement declaring İzmir and Thessaloniki sister cities in protest of the monument.

The monument, unveiled in Thessaloniki last weekend, presents a strain in relations, which have been improving in the past few years. The progress in ties has weakened recently over a host of issues including Cyprus, Greek demands on the status of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul and the reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary closed since 1971.

The prime ministers of the two countries, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Costas Karamanlis, met for the second time in less than 10 days on Thursday evening in Vienna on the sidelines of a European Union and Latin American summit. But the two leaders failed once again to set a date for a planned visit of Karamanlis to Turkey, already postponed more than once in past months.

Similar to their meeting last week, Erdoğan and Karamanlis focused on the bright side of the relationship, namely economic and trade cooperation, and avoided politically contentious issues.

“What can be done to boost our cooperation in the field of tourism -- this and other issues were discussed,” State Minister Ali Babacan, who accompanied Erdoğan in Vienna, told reporters yesterday.

“There was also a decision to look at the full half of the glass and to have more discussions in the future,” Babacan said.

He played down the failure to set a date for Karamanlis' visit to Turkey, saying it had no special meaning.

Earlier this week, the Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed disappointment over the participation of Greek government officials, parliamentarians and military officials in a ceremony to unveil the monument to the so-called genocide of Pontus Greeks and dismissed the allegations as “baseless.”

Greece claims that between 1916 and 1923 the Greek Orthodox population then living in the eastern Black Sea region of Turkey fell victim to a systematic policy of extermination initiated by the Turkish authorities of the day and that those who were able to escape did so by taking refuge in Greece. The Greek Parliament adopted May 19 as the “Day for Commemorating the Turkish Genocide Against the Pontus Greeks” in 1994.

[katsaridas]

Pontian Greek Genocide Commemoration Day

11 Parliament MPs refer to observance for Pontian Greek genocide.
19 May, 2006

Eleven parliament deputies from the country's two major political parties, ruling New Democracy and main opposition PASOK, have called for a minute of silence to be observed during a Parliament plenary session on May 19 in memory of the Pontian Greek genocide victims.

In a letter addressed to Parliament President Anna Benaki-Psarouda, the 11 MPs stressed that the Pontian Greek genocide is a historically documented event, as the persecutions endured by the Pontians (ethnic Greeks of the Black Sea region, particularly in modern-day northeastern Turkey) were part of an organized extermination plan targeting all minorities living in Asia Minor prior, during and following the First World War by successive Turkish regimes.

MPs also noted that Parliament, via a unanimous decision in March 1994, declared May 19 as "Pontian Greek Genocide Commemoration Day".



Source: Athens News Agency

[Joseph]

11 Parliament MPs refer to observance for Pontian Greek genocide.
19 May, 2006

Eleven parliament deputies from the country's two major political parties, ruling New Democracy and main opposition PASOK, have called for a minute of silence to be observed during a Parliament plenary session on May 19 in memory of the Pontian Greek genocide victims.

In a letter addressed to Parliament President Anna Benaki-Psarouda, the 11 MPs stressed that the Pontian Greek genocide is a historically documented event, as the persecutions endured by the Pontians (ethnic Greeks of the Black Sea region, particularly in modern-day northeastern Turkey) were part of an organized extermination plan targeting all minorities living in Asia Minor prior, during and following the First World War by successive Turkish regimes.

MPs also noted that Parliament, via a unanimous decision in March 1994, declared May 19 as "Pontian Greek Genocide Commemoration Day".



Source: Athens News Agency

May 20, 2006

HOME




The Australian — The Nation


Turks fuming over genocide claim
Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter
May 17, 2006

A LABOR MP of Greek descent who raised genocide allegations in the Victorian parliament has sparked an international row with the Turkish Government.

Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned backbencher Jenny Mikakos against accusing Turkey of committing a "holocaust" comparable to Adolf Hitler's.
"This claim is just the distortion of historical facts," it said in a statement issued to The Australian yesterday that is likely to infuriate the Greek Government and Greeks throughout the world.
"These baseless claims are counter-productive and in contrast with co-operation and (the) dialogue spirit which we endeavour to develop between Greece and Turkey."
Ms Mikakos's comments also incensed a fellow Labor MP, Michael Leighton, who is the son of a holocaust survivor whose relatives died in Hitler's wartime slaughter of Jewish people.
The row started when Ms Mikakos called on Turkey to apologise for the alleged killing of more than 350,000 Greeks in the so-called Pontian genocide between 1916 and 1923.
"Unlike Germany, which has taken responsibility for the Jewish holocaust, Turkey has never apologised to its victims," she said.
Ms Mikakos defied Premier Steve Bracks's efforts to quell the row yesterday by releasing a statement repeating her accusations of genocide, although she dropped any mention of the holocaust.
Labor sources said Mr Bracks privately "carpeted" Ms Mikakos for her comments last week amid fears they would spark race-based bickering within the party in the lead-up to the November election.
The two Labor MPs of Turkish descent in the parliament, John Eren and Adem Somyurek, who interjected during her speech on May 4, refused to fan the row yesterday, despite Ms Mikakos repeating the genocide claim.
"I raised the genocide of Pontic Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians in the Victorian parliament in the lead-up to this Friday's commemoration," she said.
"I have never vilified any community."
Her comments relate to incidents during and after World War I, a period when Turkey and Greece were fighting each other.
"Between 1916 and 1923 over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia Minor and in Pontos, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result of the 20th century's first but less known genocide," she told parliament.
"Over a million Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding years, 1.5 million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts of Turkey also perished.
"Most victims died from exhaustion or dehydration on forced marches or work in the so-called labour battalions."
But the Turkish Government continues to deny that a holocaust involving Pontian Greeks, Armenians or Assyrian Christians took place. "The so-called Pontian genocide is devoid of historical basis," the Foreign Ministry told The Australian.
"We suggest that the Greek authorities and scholars evaluate the historical events in an objective manner instead of coming forward with these kind of allegations which would damage the Turkish-Greek bilateral relations."
The two countries have vastly improved their relationship in recent years with Greece now supporting Turkey's inclusion in the European Union.

[ozdemir]

May 20, 2006

HOME




The Australian — The Nation


Turks fuming over genocide claim
Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter
May 17, 2006

A LABOR MP of Greek descent who raised genocide allegations in the Victorian parliament has sparked an international row with the Turkish Government.

Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned backbencher Jenny Mikakos against accusing Turkey of committing a "holocaust" comparable to Adolf Hitler's.
"This claim is just the distortion of historical facts," it said in a statement issued to The Australian yesterday that is likely to infuriate the Greek Government and Greeks throughout the world.
"These baseless claims are counter-productive and in contrast with co-operation and (the) dialogue spirit which we endeavour to develop between Greece and Turkey."
Ms Mikakos's comments also incensed a fellow Labor MP, Michael Leighton, who is the son of a holocaust survivor whose relatives died in Hitler's wartime slaughter of Jewish people.
The row started when Ms Mikakos called on Turkey to apologise for the alleged killing of more than 350,000 Greeks in the so-called Pontian genocide between 1916 and 1923.
"Unlike Germany, which has taken responsibility for the Jewish holocaust, Turkey has never apologised to its victims," she said.
Ms Mikakos defied Premier Steve Bracks's efforts to quell the row yesterday by releasing a statement repeating her accusations of genocide, although she dropped any mention of the holocaust.
Labor sources said Mr Bracks privately "carpeted" Ms Mikakos for her comments last week amid fears they would spark race-based bickering within the party in the lead-up to the November election.
The two Labor MPs of Turkish descent in the parliament, John Eren and Adem Somyurek, who interjected during her speech on May 4, refused to fan the row yesterday, despite Ms Mikakos repeating the genocide claim.
"I raised the genocide of Pontic Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians in the Victorian parliament in the lead-up to this Friday's commemoration," she said.
"I have never vilified any community."
Her comments relate to incidents during and after World War I, a period when Turkey and Greece were fighting each other.
"Between 1916 and 1923 over 353,000 Pontic Greeks living in Asia Minor and in Pontos, which is near the Black Sea, died as a result of the 20th century's first but less known genocide," she told parliament.
"Over a million Pontic Greeks were forced into exile. In the preceding years, 1.5 million Armenians and 750,000 Assyrians in various parts of Turkey also perished.
"Most victims died from exhaustion or dehydration on forced marches or work in the so-called labour battalions."
But the Turkish Government continues to deny that a holocaust involving Pontian Greeks, Armenians or Assyrian Christians took place. "The so-called Pontian genocide is devoid of historical basis," the Foreign Ministry told The Australian.
"We suggest that the Greek authorities and scholars evaluate the historical events in an objective manner instead of coming forward with these kind of allegations which would damage the Turkish-Greek bilateral relations."
The two countries have vastly improved their relationship in recent years with Greece now supporting Turkey's inclusion in the European Union.

GREAT.... get on the bandwagon why dont you ! When are people going to start looking forward for a change. This day..that day. So is every event of past wars now going to have a 'day' assigned to it ? My friends, this tack is not going to take you anywhere.

[katsaridas]

right, we should take lessons from Turkey on progress, show us the way forward to enlightenment.

if you don't acknowledge the past how can you go forward? there is always the trace of the past within the future, it is part of its structure. you can look at a building and ignore a few of its bricks, they do not change because you ignore them.