19
MAY DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR
THE GREEK GENOCIDE
1.
Introduction: History
The
Greeks who live in Black Sea or Pontus-Greek
word for “sea”- Asia Minor, Thrace, Kappadokia, in former Ottoman
Empire, today Turkey is an
especially significant part of the Greeks outside Greece, which after a
long-term existence in this particular area, was forced to abandon it
through violent means.
The
persecutions which started soon before
the beginning of the World
War I from the Young Turks were
increased during this war, and they continued as well as culminated after
1919, when Mustafa Kemal acquired the de facto authority in the tottering
Ottoman state. The persecutions, which then developed into genocide, were
the most tragic moment and 1.000.000 Greeks lost their lives. The Greek
genocide is one of the biggest crimes against humanity which still remains
unpunished, since an important part of the Greek nation which inhabited
the territories of the Ottoman state were murdered. The Greeks who
survived, were exiled under inhumane conditions, which had targeted to its
total extermination, thousands were converted to Islam and remained in
Turkey, while the remains of this mass murder became refugees in the whole
world .
Most
of them were found in Russia and the former Soviet Union, in Greece, and
later in Germany, in the USA and Canada, in Australia. A great number of
years have been essential for their identity and memory to recover. The
massive assassination of the Greek people was undeniably a crime which was
committed, a crime which after a certain period of silence became known in
the entire world. Turkey, the Young Turks and the supporters of Mustafa
Kemal from 1914 to 1923 organized and implemented the Genocide of the
indigenous Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians.
Yet,
the Turkish state denies the genocide of these populations and distorts
reality while trying to deny its major responsibilities. The reaction
policy of Turkey about the matter of the genocide against the indigenous
populations, continually uses the same excuse: the Armenian and Greek
threat against the Ottoman empire, the state of the Young Turks and the
established order of Mustafa Kemal. Consequently, due to this, the
Armenians, the Greeks, the Assyrians and others, from 1908 to 1924
experienced the extermination and persecutions. In this way the massive
crime and the uprooting of historical populations from their mother
country were committed. That was actually the ‘final solution‘ for the
Armenian and Greek issue. It was the ‘ final solution ‘ , the first
genocides of the 20th century and as there had been lack of
punishment, the Hebraic holocaust then followed. ‘ Who remembers the
Armenians ‘ Hitler had said while planning his own ‘ final solution
‘ and who revealed the matter of the Greek holocaust to avoid the
continuity in Constantinople , Imvros , Tenedos , Cyprus , Pontus ?
Nearly
one century later, the Turkish policy of the genocide denial has not
changed at all as far as the Turkish politicians and governments are
concerned, although in the last years more and more people in Turkey
attempt to state the historical truth.
This
status does not allow these different opinions to be heard openly or tends
to criticize them or suppress them with every possible means, such as the
assassination of the Armenian journalist Hran Dink in 2007.
However,
it seems that violence cannot silence the truth completely. ‘The
struggle of the humanity against any imposition is the struggle of memory
against oblivion’, wrote the well-known Czech writer Milan Kountera. And
he is absolutely right: although many people, who are not related to
humanity, ignore the historical crimes because of their
political, financial and other reasons, humanity is obliged to
strive against these with all its powers. As time goes by, this will not
be an obstacle for the new generations of the Greeks and of all the
democratic people throughout the world and definitely in Turkey. All these
people will not forget and will not abandon this struggle, because they
know that sooner or later the time will come that it will be unthinkable
to deny the genocide of the Greeks and the battle of memory struggling
against oblivion will be resolved. Only then, all the populations will
live peacefully, truly twinned and in friendly terms, and light will have
defeated darkness.
2.The
Greek Genocide
The
decision for the genocide was taken by the Young Turks (Cemal, Enver and
Talat pasha) in 1911, was put into practice during the
World War I and was
completed by Moustafa Kemal (1919 – 1923).
The
persecutions were originally appeared in the form of cases of violence,
destruction, deportations and exiles. Soon though, they became better
organised and extensive and turned massively against the Greeks (against
the Armenians).
The
first phase of the Genocide of the Greeks is traced in 1908 and lasts
until the beginning of World War I, when the Eastern issue, the rise of
the Young -Turks in powerful positions in the ottoman empire, the Balkan
Wars and Germany’s assistance as a strategic ally of the Ottoman state,
created the right conditions for the initiating the expulsions of the
Thracian Greeks. During that period, there are no longer declarations by
the Young- Turks about fair and equal treatment of all in the state, on
the contrary the Greeks are to be exterminated. Major part in this
extermination has the “Special Organization” , which, having a para-military
structure, makes the Greeks and the Armenians a target.
The
second period started in 1914, when the conflicts that arose during World
War I, promoted the genocidal policies. The Young -Turk government orders
a number of actions taken in order to further continue the extermination
of the Greeks, together with the genocide of the Armenians.
The
period 1919-1923 is the
third, last and more intense face of the genocide, as the establishment of
Mustafa Kemal (Attaturk) in the interior of the Ottoman state which is
coincident with the establishment of the Soviet Union and the aid provided
towards the nationalistic movement of Kemal, as well as the change of
course in the exterior policy affairs of the great European forces.
The
Young-Turks, and Kemalist authorities pre-planned and realized the
genocide. The orders for the deportations of the Greek populations to
Kurdistan, Syria and elsewhere, either in the form of governmental
decisions, either as a bill of the National Assembly, such as 1041 of the
12th June 1921 and 941 of the 16th June in the same
year, had been signed both by the Young-Turks and Kemal himself.
Consequently
until 1923, the Young-Turks and the Kemalists, having taken harsh measures
against the Greeks, through the means of expel, rape, slaughtering,
deportations and hangings, exterminated hundreds of thousands of Greeks.
Among
the victims of the genocide there was a great number of women and
children, groups of the Greek population that consisted a particular plan
of the extermination plan.
This
can be verified through the reports and documentations of the foreign
ambassadors, consuls, embassies, and others, where one can find references
on the acts of slaughtering and brutality.
The
Genocide forced the surviving Greeks, to abandon their homeland.
The final chapter of this mass murder deals with the forcible
removal of the survivors from their homeland. With the treaty referring to
the population exchange, signed both by Greece and Turkey in 1923, the
uprooting of the Thracian Greeks from their land is completed, closing the
issue of one of the bloodiest mass murders in the history of mankind.
After
27 centuries of presence, prosperity and contribution of a historical
nation, the Greeks of Thrace, Pontus, Asia Minor, Cappadocia, abandoned
the land of their ancestors, their homes, churches, graves, a culture of
world wide appeal.
The
Greeks from former Ottoman Empire, nowadays in Greece, in the U.S.A., in
Canada, in Australia, in
Europe, and throughout the world wants
justice to be attributed in the name of their ancestors that were
murdered during the genocide from the Ottoman State. A genocide that
consists part of a greater crime committed against that cost the life of
1.000.000 Greeks and more
than 1.220.000 Greeks became refugees.
3.
The Epilogue (?)
The
presence of Greeks in Thrace,
Pontus, Asia Minor, Cappadocia,
after the Ottoman domination over this region, the Greek influence
and their contribution to various cultural achievements were threatened.
The authority system and the government, the discriminations against the
Christians, the conditions of the financial and political life threatened
the continuity of the Greeks in the region.
With
the creation of the Young Turks group in the ottoman state, a
nationalistic ideology appeared and consolidated, and with the domination
of power in 1908, there was a desire for the Christian populations to
become extinct, a dream which came true during World War I,
the Greeks were a central target.
When
the genocide of the Armenians was about to end, it was time for the Greeks
to be exterminated by the same means: massacres, atrocities, massive
violence, arrests of women and children, violent conversions to Islam,
marches of death. These facts are confirmed by survivors of the genocide
as well as foreign witnesses, whereas lots of people left the region
taking refuge in Russia.
The
Greek genocide continued even after the end of World War I and
systematically after 1919, when on May 19th of the same year Mustafa Kemal
arrived at Sampsunta. Operations of massive assassinations, deportations,
banishments, destruction of cultural and religious places took place as
well as burning down villages and cities. Nobody can explain these crimes
and this fact is confirmed by the Turks, many foreigners and allies of
Kemal’s coup.
Between
1916 and 1923 approximately 1.000.000 from more than 2.600.000 Greeks
(census 1914) were lost due
to massacres, deportations and marches of death. This premeditated
destruction of the 50%
of the Greeks, constitutes genocide according to the criteria of U.N. Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(article 2, paragraphs a, b, c, d and e).
A
struggle to ask for and point out the truth will find a lot of nations
agreed. In order not to repeat the crimes, the responsible and the reasons
that led them have to be found out. The truth must be sought and presented
to the international public opinion, which knows how to judge and sentence
without self-interest. Nowadays, when other nations suffer genocides from
racist states, it is time for the first step to be taken to recognize the
crime of Greek genocide of the. On the other hand, the contemporary
Turkish state has to answer for the Greek genocide, without making
propaganda and pleads inconsistency as a state in order to be exculpated
from the charge. This state, as the creation of Mustafa Kemal, and the
Young Turks are responsible for the crime of genocide. Each nation has the
right to intensely demand from the authorities of the crimes and offences
committed against it to recognize them. The greater the harm and the
longer the facts were hidden, the more intense the desire for such
recognition becomes. Recognition, which is a substantial way to fight
against genocide; Recognition which constitutes the confirmation of a
nation’s right to the respect of its existence according to the
international law and the historic truth.
