Smyrna

[Joseph]

http://www.geocities.com/saganakinisi/

[Joseph]

Movie: Aftermath of Smyrna

http://www.geocities.com/saganakinisi/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2B84CyLblk

[Joseph]

South China Morning Post, HongKong
June 8, 2008 Sunday

Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922

by Ed Peters


Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922

by Giles Milton

Sceptre, $320

It is axiomatic that history repeats itself and while Giles Milton is
too subtle a writer to underline a moral, the catastrophe that
overtook Smyrna in 1922 is echoed by more recent events in Rwanda and
Darfur, to name but two degraded places.

The city now called Izmir occupied a unique position on the Aegean
coast in the aftermath of the first world war. Thanks to an indulgent
arrangement with the Turkish government, it enjoyed the status of a
special economic zone and a bevy of merchant princes turned it into
one of the most prosperous entrepôts of the time.

Cosmopolitan and tolerant, Smyrna's numerous nationalities existed
side by side, watched over

by paternalistic, dynastic Levantine families who intermingled and
intermarried, socialised and traded with one another in a latter-day
Arcadia. But the idyll was not to last.

Greece, which harboured territorial ambitions, landed an army in
Smyrna in May 1919, which pushed deep into Anatolia, but after a
lengthy campaign was defeated and driven back to the coast. Avenging
Turkish forces, headed by Mustafa Kemal, followed in hot pursuit and
bent on revenge.

At first the Smyrniots assumed they would be spared, putting up no
resistance and placing their faith in their city's obvious economic
benefit to Turkey. A fleet of Allied warships was anchored in the
harbour, which residents reasoned would keep the Turks in
check. Kemal's cavalry trotted into the city on September 9, 1922.

For Smyrna, it was the beginning of the end.

Large numbers of refugees from the countryside had already descended
on Smyrna and the Turkish army was augmented by a marauding mob of
ill-disciplined irregulars, who soon embarked on a campaign of murder,
plunder and rape. The Turks deliberately set fire to the Armenian
Quarter and the blaze engulfed the entire city, propelling an
estimated 500,000 refugees to the quayside. To compound the tragedy,
the crews of the warships offshore, bound by their neutrality and
their governments' cynical desires to befriend the new Turkish regime,
did nothing to help.

Starving and helpless, the refugees were at the mercy of the Turks,
who robbed and raped with impunity. Corpses bobbed in the harbour and
women gave birth on the filthy pavements. It was a portrayal of hell
that contrasted bitterly with Smyrna's years of easy prosperity.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Into the maelstrom stepped the
foremost hero of Paradise Lost. Asa Jennings was a diminutive, devout
Methodist minister from New York, who worked for Smyrna's
YMCA. Appalled by the atrocities unfolding before his eyes, he bullied
and bluffed an armada of Greek ships to sail to the rescue. Together
with an American doctor, Esther Lovejoy, Jennings oversaw the
evacuation, saving countless thousands of people from death. Their
gallant efforts stand in stark contrast to the record of Mark Bristol,
the American high commissioner in Constantinople, who denied the
genocide, declaring the Turks to be "fine fellows".

Fans of Giles Milton won't need to be reminded that he excels in
seeking out lesser-known yet pivotal events of the past and relating
the tales through the lives of unusual characters, be they medieval
nutmeg traders or Caucasian samurai adventurers. Like 2004's White
Gold, which revealed the extent of the white slave trade in Africa in
the 18th century, Paradise Lost - brilliantly researched from official
and eye-witness accounts and grippingly written - casts a wider net.

When a crisis of international proportions threatens, it is of concern
to the entire world and should not be left to a few resolute
individuals to solve.

[psikokemal]

Re: Smyrna

smyrna , now "izmir" ,
turks changed city's and turks name.
alot of church's changed to mosque . but know there are churchs in turkey . home church and hall . near my house one of and ı have a lot friend.

ps: sorry is not topic - my words

[konachan]

Re: Smyrna

smyrna , now "izmir" ,
turks changed city's and turks name.
alot of church's changed to mosque . but know there are churchs in turkey . home church and hall . near my house one of and ı have a lot friend.

ps: sorry is not topic - my words

well, I'm a person who lived in Izmir for 10 years, and there was a church, right down the street where we lived.
If you do know yourself around Izmir, you'll know Göztepe, and ask anyone there about the street with the church, they'll show ya.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Smyrna

well, I'm a person who lived in Izmir for 10 years, and there was a church, right down the street where we lived.
If you do know yourself around Izmir, you'll know Göztepe, and ask anyone there about the street with the church, they'll show ya.

Early 1930s photo - Derelict church (Armenian?) in a destroyed part of Izmir.
Later in the 1930s there was an International Trade Fair held in Izmir and most of the ruined parts ofthetown were demolished to make way for a park to house it. So I don't know if this church is still standing.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Smyrna

The "St. Stephen" Armenian church in Smyrna.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Smyrna

Another Armenian church in Smyrna.

[TomServo]

Re: Smyrna

What happened to the Armenians of Izmir? They could not see Russia from their houses! What was done to them?

[konachan]

Re: Smyrna

What happened to the Armenians of Izmir? They could not see Russia from their houses! What was done to them?

I don't know.
I didn't even know that Izmir had any significant Armenian population.
The greek population went to greece during the population exchange.
The only native non-muslims I've met in Izmir are J-ws and they have their own district and such, thought many of them left for Israel some time ago.