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Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City (Anniversary of the forgotten genocide)
christianity-books.com ^ | Marjorie Housepian Dobkin

Posted on 08/29/2003 9:10:39 PM PDT by Destro

In September of 1922, Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk), the victorious revolutionary leader of Turkey, led his troops into Smyrna (now Izmir) a predominantly Christian city, as a flotilla of 27 Allied warships -including 3 American destroyers- looked on. The Turks soon proceeded to indulge in an orgy of pillage, rape and slaughter that the western powers anxious to protect their oil and trade interests in Turkey, condoned by their silence and refusal to intervene. Turkish forces then set fire to the legendary city and totally destroyed it. There followed a massive cover-up by tacit agreement of the Western Allies. By 1923 Smyrna's demise was all but expunged from historical memory.

This book reveals the origins of festering current hostilities in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and attitudes towards the United States, whose diplomatic stance during and after the Smyrna Catastrophe set an enduring pattern.

Marjorie Housepian Dobkin has rendered the first account of what took place within the city. She has used as sources diaries, letters and eyewitness reports of the participants themselves. The result as the historian C.M. Woodhouse has written, "is an authoritative piece of research as vivid as a novel, told with restraint and dignity."

"A poignant, meticulously documented chronicle of an all but forgotten tragedy...beautifully recaptures the flavor and richness of Smyrna in it's prime."

The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Selected one of its 100 Notable Books

"A documentary indictment of the inhumanity of religion, the callousness of Powers and the avarice of commerce"

The Sunday Times Selected as Book of the Year 1972

"One of the keenest impressions which I brought away with me from Smyrna was a feeling of shame that I belonged to the human race."

US. Consul at Smyrna, George Horton

"The victims of the massacre-Greeks and Armenians-were estimated at 150,000. What was left of Smyrna was only its Turkish suburb. This very old and extremely beautiful Greek city had been founded in 3000 B.C. and restored by Alexander the Great. It used to be one of the most important economic centers of the Mediterranean. It used to be full of life and activity. It used to be prosperous. And now from one moment to the the next it was turned into a dead city. To a huge pile of ruins which emitted smoke. Those of its inhabitants who escaped the massacre fled, ousted and miserable, to Greece."

US. Consul at Smyrna, George Horton

"To mention the name of Sherman to a southerner of the United States is to fill him with burning indignation. Even the most ignorant yokel knows that the name Attila is associated with untold horrors and vandalism. Yet the Smyrna affair...has been somehow soft-pedaled and almost expunged from the memory of present day man."

Henry Miller The Colossus of Maroussi

"Go! Kill without Mercy! Who today remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Adolf Hitler to his generals

http://www.christianity-books.com/Smyrna_1922_The_Destruction_of_a_City_0966745108.html

Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City > Customer Review #1:

A book that is must reading

When archeologists excavate in Greece they discover ancient Greek civilization. Similarly, when they excavate in Turkey they still discover ancient Greek civilization. Also, during my studies in the US and Canada I met young Turkish intellectuals who by searching for their roots they traced an old Greek background. Based on the above and on what I read in the international press about the current situation in Turkey it seems to me that the current Turkish regime, whose backbone is the Turkish military, cannot comply with historical truth for if they did so they would collapse in a blink of an eye not because of any foreign intervention but because of the cry of the Turkish people for the implementation of the fundamental human rights. I just wonder how long a fascist regime can resist progress springing from a world that gradually turns to a global village. Therefore, I really understand the agony and insecurity of the detractors of the author of this book but I feel tempted in a humorous manner to add another "fact" to the ones a reviewer listed above: "The Christian population of Smyrna was not massacred by the Turks of Kemal Ataturk, perhaps they committed mass suicide!"

Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City > Customer Review #2:

Scholarly work....

The first thing I want to say about SMYRNA 1922 is that I am of neither Greek nor Turkish descent so I have no vested interest in the "truth". Secondly, I have an Armenian friend who once told me in a sad but offhand way as we were trading confidences over coffee, that her grandparents had been buried in the sand up to their necks and had their heads lopped off by Turkish soldiers. Thirdly, I had an occasion once where I met with a Turkish delegation as part of my job and listened to them for two hours while they talked about "Armenian lies." Two things struck me about this rather bizarre meeting: 1) Why did they care what I or anyone else in my agency thought about something that happened many years ago? 2) Why did they go on for two hours denying something no one had accused them of, at least no one in my office?

Marjorie Dobkins insightful book is about the failure of the Great Powers, including the U.S., to facilitate a peaceful outcome in Anatolia in the period following WWI. SMYRNA covers the subsequent destruction of the city by the forces of Kemal Attaturk (although he apparently lay the blame for the massacre at his predecessors door). Following the destruction of Smyrna, almost two million Greek and Armenian Christian refugees fled what is today Turkey and was then the Ottoman Empire.

At the Cannes film festival this year, "Ararat" has won all sorts of praise. The film by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) tells the story of the Armenian holocaust in 1922. I dont know if Dobkins book is the basis of the film, but it certainly would make great background reading. I suspect Ararat will become to the Armenians what Schindlers List has become to the Jews. Since Turkey is apparently vowing to fight its distribution (New York Times, Arts, 6/7/02) it remains to be seen whether the film will make it to the states.

Dobkin has assembled a huge amount of information for her book and provides copious footnotes so you can check the sources. However, many of the U.S. sailors and other eyewitnesses have died since the first edition was published about 30 years ago. Following the initial publication, Dobkin became aware of much more material, and she incorporated much of the new material in the book. Dobkin writes well--like an excellent investigative reporter, which she very well may be. Earnest Hemingway covered the disaster as a Toronto news reporter, and Dobkins writing is comparable his, as well as being very scholarly.

Ive spent most of my life reading about genocide and inhumanity in one form or another, but SMYRNA has to be one of the most harrowing tales Ive ever read. Think Dachau. Think Auschwitz. Think the worst. To bad CNN wasnt filming, although believe it or not someone did film the event--and Dobkin obtained a photo of the quay lined with over 200,000 people which is shown on the cover of the book. Smyrna makes Kosovo look like a picnic.

Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City > Customer Review #3:

spot on

This is a book about one of the most tragic yet forgotten moments in the history of the Near East. It gives a good account(based on third party observers as well as direct participants), of the destruction of one of the most diverse cities in that part of the world. The description of the event is very lively and really makes the reader become absorbed in the account of events. It is a must read for students of history as well as those who would like to understand certain aspects the middle east problem, its root causes, and what often dictaes the superpowers foreign policies. I would also like to take this opportunity to comment on the review of the young old reader from Dallas. It illustrates the kind of thinking and selective quoting from history books that modern generations apply to rationalize human tragedies of enormous proportions.

Any student of history can verify the following facts easily:

1. The Greek people have had a continuous historical presence in what is now the Aegean coast of Turkey from about 800 B.C. until 1922 A.D. This civilization, centered around the city of Ephesus had flourished under Persian, Roman, and even Ottoman Turkish rule. It was violently destroyed by the founders of modern day Turkey who decided to punish civilians for the results of a war they did not even cause. 2. The Turks arrived in that part of the world around 1300 A.D. and destroyed an organized, Hellenized, Christian society they found. So no one can say objectively that what is now Turkey is historically pure Turkish land. 3. In 1919, the Greeks were given permission by the WWI allies to land in Smyrna to prevent Turkish massacres of Christian populations, that were already underway.

The church of Taxiarchis turned to a liquor storehouse.

Another photo of the massacres of the Greeks of Asia Minor.

Grandfather and grandson slain together.

Smyrna in flames.

Boats the only hope for salvation.

The inhabitans in panic prefer drowning to slaughter.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anniversary; armenia; balkans; bookreview; christianity; genocide; lies; smyrna; turkey; worldhistory
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To: Destro
Revisionist history at it's best, BLAME the Bad Turks, the Turks are bad, etc, etc.

The Greeks are as much to blame for Cyprus, actually more so, then the Turks.

Same old blame game, different day.

As I said, the revisionist history, the lily white virgin crap, and the hatred that I see spouted in this thread is a sad thing to see.

Learn from it and move on, or your hatred and vengeful attitude will eventually make sure that it happens again.

I will find that sad in the extreme.

To blame everything totally on the Turks, as I have been seeing, is as bad as religious zealotry as far as I am concerned.

You look at whatever version of history will match your prejudices and ignore anything that disagrees with it.

Sad, just sad.

You all are a stark expample of why history repeats itself.

And from the hatred etc that I have seen on this thread, history is going to repeat itself, I just hope the Turks are prepared to defend themselves against you when the time comes. Actually, there is no hope about it, I know for a fact that they are.
81 posted on 08/30/2003 10:44:16 AM PDT by Aric2000 (If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
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To: Dave S
Hello.... All my ancestors came over on the MAYFLOWER or helped to settle the JAMESTOWN colony.

You are certainly an idiot about some things aren't you ... you are OBVOUSLY bigoted against Greek Christians or Armenian Christians .

Aren't you one of those islamic apologists that we so often see posting on FR??

Nevermind.... I KNOW the answer.

Take off bigot!!

82 posted on 08/30/2003 11:36:07 AM PDT by Lion in Winter
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To: Aric2000
Spoken like a true islamic apologist.
83 posted on 08/30/2003 11:39:57 AM PDT by Lion in Winter
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To: Dave S
1922? You sound as nutty as the arabs or the Bosnian Christians bitching about something that happened to them hundreds of years ago. Grow up.

The Armenians will quit complaining about what happened in 1922 about the time that the Jews decide to forget that little unpleasantness in 1930-45.

84 posted on 08/30/2003 12:31:13 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
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To: Travis McGee; Dave S; a_Turk
The point is that the Turks not only have never accepted what was done, they not only lie about the genocide, they celebrate it to this day.

As an example, see a_turk's post #23:

August 30, 1922. The day the 3 year occupation of Western Turkey by Greek forces ended..

Long live August 30, 1922.


85 posted on 08/30/2003 12:40:45 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
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To: Lion in Winter
And you speak as a true christian apologist.

Give me a fricking break.

That's it, a small group attacks us, so we will just toss the whole lot of them in.

Sounds a bit racist to me.

Let me guess, there was NOTHING wrong with tossing all the Japanese citizens in this country in camps during WWII either, right?

You people never cease to amaze me with your outright bigotry sometimes.

Conservatives are the least racist people I know, and I know many of them, I am one, but you painting with such a broad brush sounds just a like a liberal screaming about how ALL republicans are nazis.

You sound just as foolish as the idiot liberal does.
86 posted on 08/30/2003 12:42:12 PM PDT by Aric2000 (If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
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To: Destro
I'm glad you posted this! I had read about this atrocity by Moslems in 'Islam: The Sword of the Prophet'. It tells of an American sailor (maybe British) who was standing on the deck of his destroyer and watching a cluster of women's heads tied together like a bunch of coconuts, floating by. If my memory serves me, weren't there about 300,000 Christians butchered by the spawn of satan? I do recall the story about the Greek Patriach of the city, who was grabbed and being dragged through the streets by his beard. As the people were crying and screaming, he was blessing them with his free hand. This so angered the devil's minions that they cut off his arm then hacked him to pieces.
87 posted on 08/30/2003 12:49:53 PM PDT by hardhead ('Curly, don't say its a fine morning or I'll shoot you.' - John Wayne, 'McLintock' 1963)
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To: hardhead
In 1922, the merciful and tolerant Muslims put an end to the last Christian enclave in Turkey—the bustling and cosmopolitan port city of Smyrna. By the time they were finished, 200,000 Christians had been murdered, the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Chrysostomos had had his eyes plucked out by an enraged mob and his hand had been chopped off when he attempted to bless his persecutors and had said, “Father, forgive them.” American and British warships anchored in the harbor did nothing.
88 posted on 08/30/2003 1:14:56 PM PDT by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorisim by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Dave S
1922? You sound as nutty as the arabs or the Bosnian Christians bitching about something that happened to them hundreds of years ago. Grow up.

Right on, Brother!! Finally a voice of reason. What's just as bad is these people that aren't even from New York City getting all upset about that 9/11 thing. I don't know about you, but why should I care about a bunch of people that died in New York a few years ago. I mean, sheesh, can't these people just get over it? I didn't know any of them and most of 'em were probably Yankees fans anyway.

Check out some of the threads about Islam. There's a lot of nuts out there that aren't even from New York that are still holding a grudge against Muslims for something that happened years ago. They need to let it go and grow up too.

89 posted on 08/30/2003 3:59:37 PM PDT by getoffmylawn
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To: Aric2000
Aric, you are aware that Smyrna was put to the flame 3 days after the Greek army withdrew right?

Perhaps the civilians did it? Right?

Case in point, we (Greeks) are not without blood, but to say we came evern CLOSE to the organized/massive massacres out Turkish neighbours commited is SILLY.

They annihilated an entire island for Christ's sake.
90 posted on 08/31/2003 1:56:51 AM PDT by Phatheon
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Comment #91 Removed by Moderator

To: Phatheon
Annihilated an entire Island, I assume you are talking about Cyprus?

If so, you have been reading WAY too much propaganda, and not enough ACTUAL history.

I will leave it at that.

When one side blames the other, and then Blows what that side did, COMPLETELY and ABSOLUTELY out of all possible proportions, then you have to sit back and figure out what the ACTUAL history looks like.

The Greeks have hated the Turks for forever, and the Turks have hated the Greeks since forever, bur the Turks don't run around screaming genocide at the top of their lungs at the drop of a hat. Because the Turks have the common sense to know what an ACTUAL genocide is, whereas the Greeks seem to whine a lot about it, but are really clueless as to what it means.

Or so it seems to me.

I couldn't care less about who did what to whom in war, war is hell, as it should be.

To burn a city that they had just captured, with all of it's supplies etc, makes absolutely NO tactical sense, you may think that Turks are that stupid, but I KNOW better.

The citizens burned that city down themselves, in order to keep the Turkish troops from getting those supplies, and the greeks have used it as a propaganda tool ever since.

Greeks may allow their anger to make them stupid, but I know that Turks do not, they use their anger, focus it, they do NOT waste it.

Yes, I tire of all this crap from the Greeks, you are all a bunch of whiners as far as I am concerned.

Your hatred consumes you, the Turks come in and defend themselves and the next thing we know the Greeks are attacking and whining again.

Sad, just sad, all those that did the killings, burned the city, raped, pillaged and plundered are all now safely dead. It is time to learn from it, so that it won't happen again, and move on to the future.

By concentrating so hard on the past, you will be doomed to repeat it, and if it repeats, then you will really whine about it, oh, and some people, YOUR people will die.

So, move on for god's sake, and cut it out with the whining.

The ACTUAL guilty parties are ALL DEAD, so MOVE ON!!!
92 posted on 08/31/2003 10:49:31 AM PDT by Aric2000 (If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
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To: Aric2000
Aric, no I am speaking about the island of Chios, where our friends annihilated 150,000 men, women and children.

You son of a b'itch, what genocide was commited on the murderers? Of course they didn't see 500,000 Pontian Greeks slaughtered like we did. They didn't see 1.5 million Armenians massacred did they? Nope. Innocent little gents they are.

Wake up and smell the coffee you ignorant man. The fact is our neighbours are as guilty as their ancestors for not owning up to their crimes.

9-1-what again?
93 posted on 08/31/2003 9:52:48 PM PDT by Phatheon
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To: superflu
And you Turk, wheened on fairy tales about the 'brave' Mehmetian soldiers outnumbered-ougunned bla bla bla.

http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/gap/greece/fgreekturk1921.htm

Yes, somehow a nation 1/4 the size of Turkey outnumbered it eh? Yeah right. 4:1 the other way around it was.

As for who burned Smyrna, how could the Greeks have done it if they were 3 days gone? Eh? Time doesn't agree with you.

And for GOD'S sake your people (Turkics) must be the most vile scum the world has seen. Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians, Cypriots, Assyrians, Armenians, Kurds etc, they ALL wronged you and ALL are wrong in their hate for you. They ALL at one time deserved what they got (a whole lot of death) and ALL are overreacting to it.

Yes yes, the Turk is known for his literature, or his hospitality and humanity. Great works of art abound from the Turk. N-O-T.

All you people are renowned for are genocide(s), kebab and Turkish cells. Be proud my Turkish friend, be proud. Never fear though, you will always find Americans to support your endeavours as you have for the last 50 years. Yes yes, we are all touched with the "concern" our American allies have shown for the Kurds, but some of us find it rather two faced when they turn around and arms and set loose their biggest murderers on them (you on the Kurds). Of course those poor souls wronged you as many others have. What with their wish for freedom of speech etc. Shame on them!

By the way, the Kurd was alongside the Turk slaughtering us for 500 years, but we have quietly buried the hatchet.
94 posted on 08/31/2003 10:01:04 PM PDT by Phatheon
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To: Phatheon
The point of the matter is, no organized/large scale/brutal lass murder of Turks was ever carried out against them. Not anything approaching 1/10 of what they did to their former subjects. This might not mean anything to Americans in the U.S, but living next door to these people who still deny they ever killed/rapped your people is HELL. We have long memories and their intransigence on these issues doesn't help a real reconciliation.

Will you people forget Pearl Harbour? Would you forget a Pearl Harbour 1000 times over on your major population centers? Not for a while I think.
95 posted on 08/31/2003 10:03:56 PM PDT by Phatheon
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To: Phatheon
The ACTUAL guilty parties are ALL DEAD, so MOVE ON!!!

96 posted on 08/31/2003 10:05:25 PM PDT by Aric2000 (If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
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To: Aric2000
My friend, do you think we are stupid? Of course the ones who commited the actual crimes are dead (except the Cypriot criminals), but the fact that they continue to surpress/quite their ancestors actions make them party to the crimes in one way.

Until they take responsibility for the crimes of their ancestors, we will not let it go. We cannot. You wouldn't either.

But we look to the future. Our country is not a 3rd world berg like theirs. Yes, very 'constructive' anger they have. Perhaps if they spent some time fixing their morally/economically broke society there could be a true peace.
97 posted on 08/31/2003 10:17:01 PM PDT by Phatheon
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To: Destro
Wow. I've been to Izmir/Smyrna, and I didn't know a thing about this..... what an ignorant fool.
98 posted on 08/31/2003 10:22:57 PM PDT by squidly
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To: superflu
The Turks burned Smyrna.

Sydney Morning Herald September 16 1922 p.13

A woman, the chief of the American Collegiate Institute, alleges that a Turkish sergeant or officer entered the first building in which flames broke out. He was carrying small tins, apparently of paraffin. The fire broke out immediately he departed.

It is estimated that there are 1000 dead.

European and American financial losses are heavy, probably aggregating 12,000,000 pounds. The destruction includes large, crowded stores.

The Near East Relief Committee of the Armenian and Greek villages outside the city also were set on fire, with the residential suburbs of Bournabat at Soudja.

99 posted on 08/31/2003 10:42:04 PM PDT by Destro (Know your enemy! Help fight Islamic terrorisim by visiting www.johnathangaltfilms.com)
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To: Destro
FYI, This film is in the U.S. There are about four copies in my local Blockbuster Store (Midwest-Kansas). Came in about two or three weeks ago.
100 posted on 08/31/2003 11:06:10 PM PDT by swany
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