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I plan to collect historical documents and articles by various authors in this blog, usually without comments. Opinions expressed within the articles belong to the authors and do not always coincide with those of mine.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Greek Atrocities in Anatolia: A Small Sample

Professor Stanford J. Shaw, 'The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic,' New York University Press, New York (1991).

Page 239:

The Greek army that occupied much of southwestern Anatolia starting in May 1919 slaughtered thousands of Jews and Muslims in the course of its attack, not only during its initial landings at Izmir, but also in the interior during the subsequent two years, and particularly during its final retreat to Izmir, when it ravaged and burned Bursa and other towns and villages along the way. Albert Nabon, Principal of the AIU [Alliance Israelite Universelle] Boy's School in Izmir, reported to the Alliance on 6 July 1919:

"The city was put on fire and sacked, the people dispoiled of all they possessed. There is no food, putting the entire population on general, and our co-religionists in particular, in danger of suffering greatly from these privations"

going on to describe how most Jews, not only from Izmir but also from Greek attacks at Aydin, Bergama and Manisa, took refuge in his school, where they were suffering from overcrowding, lack of food, and medicine. [90]

Page 240:

Jewish notables, like the Muslims, were beaten and executed, many Jewish homes and shops were ravaged and burned, and hundreds of Jews were deported to almost certain death in the countryside. As the Greek army retreated in panic late in the war, moreover, it burned the Jewish and Muslim quarters of Izmit, Manisa and Bergama, destroying synagogues, yeshivas and hospitals as well as homes and businesses while killing hundreds and forcing the remainder of the non-Christian population to flee in panic, ...[95]

[90] Similar reports came from Nabon to the AIU on 2 July 1919 (no.23/915), 9 July 1919 (no.26/927), 12 July 1919 (no.27/932) and 14 July 1919 (no. 28/933). In Nabon's report of 17 July 1919 (no.30/935), he stated that the Greeks at Aydin had burned 200 Jewish houses and 13 shops, had dispoiled all the local Jews of their money and property, and had strangled two Jews as well as driving the remainder to seek refuge in the local AIU school: 'At Aydin, Manisa, Tire and everywhere else, our Jews live in an atmosphere of suspician by the Greek inhabitants' who suspect that they favor the Turks. On 23 July 1920 Nabon reported that all the Jews had left Izmir, the synagogue had not been burned, but the Greeks had taken all its valuables as well as the property of local Jews, and the streets were full of bodies.

[95] Univers Israelite, 2 September 1921, p.467-48, quoted in Guleryuz; see also Galante, Anatolie II (1939), 70-100; and 'Manissa', EJ XI, 878-79.

Prepared by: Murat Yazıcı

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