Posted on 01/04/2003 9:38:15 PM PST by a_Turk
And my family in Smyrna knows about you too.
That might be because the Byzantine Empire was a Greek empire, eh?
The Greeks have been in Asia Minor since Jason and the Argonauts, which is essentially a stylized story of colonization and the search for new sources of firewood.
Click for an interactive map of Greek and Phoenician colonization.
My paternal grandfather was from Lesbos and my grandmother from Smyrna (Izmir). Decendants of the Achean Greeks, we're the ones to beware of when bearing gifts.
Acheans, Byzantines, Levantine Greeks, whatever one wishes to call them, have been there forever.
The stalled American attack of January 2003 with many congruencies to the halting of the US Third Army in September 1944. Each time American momentum has been disipated by failure of logistical "experts" to do the job they are tasked with. Each time the Supreme American commander (Eisenhower, Bush) has failed to abandon established "truisms" of modern warfare in lieu of a classical understanding of Guderian-style blitzkrieg.
This delay will result in several thousand additional American casualties during the final attack on Baghdad. Just as two thirds of US WW II ETO casualties came after the September 1944 halt -- the vast majority of coming American and Brit KIA will directly result from the ongoing defensive buildup by Iraqi engineers around the capital.
Ankara understands this dynamic much better than Washington now and cleverly is most patient with DC. This superior comprehension should permit Turkey to increase its aid package to closer to 35 billion USD. There is a new Congress coming to DC Tuesday and the vast majority of these people have little understanding of foreign affairs.
Every commander wants to go into battle with overwhelming superiority and believe the opposition will roll over and collapse. US psy-war operations are at peak efficiency now and far too many Capitol Hill types are also taken in by the faux hype. Every day of delay in the attack increases the slim but real possibility of a US-Brit defeat.
Meanwhile rumblings in Bosnia and the Philippines indicate the Islamic entente fully prepared to launch counter-offensives versus Western soft targets. London still under the gun from coming WMD assault and the entire Western economic structure continues to hang from a thread. Where is spot oil today?
Where will it be in six weeks?
DC should immediately give Ankara a very generous economic compensation package and encourage grass roots business development between the US and Turkey. The Northern front is key to the entire Western attack -- without Turkey's support the US cannot launch, let alone win, a war versus Iraq.
And don't worry too much about Greece. Athens with a multitude of sins on their head -- they will be dealt with most accordingly once the smoke clears and the world is remade in blinding flashes from Moscow to London.
Amazingly, the West now holding the winning hand but wanting to discard and draw three...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
Until I show up and post my links and the Muslim sympathizers/Serb domonizers suddenly go silent.
Well, at least for 3200 years, until Turks took care of them and of Armenians. Turkish invasion of Asia Minor (todays Turkey) after the battle of Manzikert in 1071 was the major disaster for the Eastern part of Christiandom.
Whereas, the Empire State is home to many ethnic communities whose members benefit from the freedom and democracy upon which our Nation was founded; as a global leader in many areas of basic human and social rights, New York State has a prominent role in acknowledging events in history -- many of them tragic and distressing -- that teach valuable lessons from which our greater society benefits; such events are the destruction of the city of Smyrna and the Genocide of the Greeks of Pontus and Asia Minor, tragedies that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Greek civilians during World War I; and Whereas, these Greeks, whose ancestors had lived in communities along present-day northern Turkey near the Black Sea for three millennia, were singled out by the Turkish authorities for expulsion from their ancestral lands along with Armenians and Assyrians; from 1915-1923, Greeks of Asia Minor endured immeasurable cruelty during a Turkish Government-sanctioned systematic campaign to displace them; destroying Greek towns and villages and slaughtering additional hundreds of thousands of civilians in areas where Greeks composed a majority, as on the Black Sea coast, Pontus, and areas around Smyrna; those who survived were exiled from Turkey and today they and their descendants live throughout the Greek diaspora; and
Whereas, in 1922, Smyrna, the largest city in Asia Minor called "the jewel of the Mediterranean", a cosmopolitan hub populated by a highly educated Greek community and flourishing commercial and middle-classes, was sacked and burned and its inhabitants massacred by the Turkish forces; the pier of Smyrna became a scene of final desperation as the approaching flames forced many thousands to jump to their death, rather than be consumed by flame; George Horton, the Consul General of the United States in Smyrna at the time of the catastrophe, is quoted as saying, "...the destruction of Smyrna happened, however, in 1922, and no act ever perpetrated by the Turkish race in all its bloodstained history has been characterized by more brutal and lustful features, nor more productive of the worst of human sufferings inflicted on the defenseless and unarmed. It was a fittingly lurid and Satanic finale to the whole dreadful tragedy..."; and
Whereas, it is believed by many that acknowledgment and awareness of this shameful event will not only teach future generations, but also will help mankind prevent such crimes from being repeated; this concept is particularly important as our State works to instill in youth, a universal respect for other cultures, races, religions and viewpoints; and
Whereas, it is fitting that all freedom-loving people worldwide and New Yorkers alike, share in the solemn commemoration of the of Great Catastophe of Asia Minor of 1915-23, and join with the Greek-American community and its many religious, communal and philanthropic organizations as they honor the sacrifices and memory of their noble ancestors;
Now, Therefore, I, George E. Pataki, Governor of the State of New York, do hereby proclaim October 6th, 2002 as the 80th Anniversary of the Commemoration of the Burning of Smyrna and the Persecution of the Greeks of Asia Minor in the Empire State.
Yes, he did! Amazing that speaking the truth only seemed to help him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.