The Pontic Greek Genocide: One of History’s Worst Atrocities

The Pontic genocide was an organized program to destruct the indigenous Greek population. Credit: Public Domain

Greece marks May 19th arsenic Pontic Greek Genocide Remembrance Day, to grant the representation of astir 353,000 Pontians exterminated by the New Turks and the Ottoman Empire betwixt 1916 and 1923.

In 1 of the darkest chapters successful Greece’s agelong history, the Pontic Genocide included an organized program to destruct the indigenous Greek colonisation Anatolia. It included massacres, forced deportations involving decease marches, expulsions, executions, and the wholesale demolition of Eastern Orthodox cultural, historical, and spiritual monuments.

The Turks feared that the Greek-speaking Christian colonisation would invited liberation from the Ottoman Empire’s enemies.

At the aforesaid time, the nationalist Turks believed successful the instauration of a modern federation without strong, influential taste and spiritual minorities; this was 1 of the main factors that led to the Greek genocide.

At the outbreak of World War I, determination were galore minorities that had been surviving successful Asia Minor agelong earlier the instauration of the Ottoman Empire, including Greeks, Pontic Greeks, Caucasus Greeks, Cappadocian Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Assyrians, and Jews among others.

The Ottoman Empire was successful accelerated decline, headed by the Committee of Union and Progress (“CUP”). The CUP were, among different things, proponents of Turkish nationalism.

When the Ottomans joined the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary successful 1914, the signifier was acceptable for the archetypal genocide of the twentieth century.

Using Christian rebels colluding with the Russian Army arsenic a pretext, the Ottoman authorities announced a argumentation of spot confiscation and deportations against the Christian minorities of the empire—first amongst them being the Armenians.

The Armenian genocide

The extermination of the Armenian colonisation successful 1915 was the archetypal atrocity that paved the mode for the Greek genocide with it culmination successful 1923 pursuing the Burning of Smyrna.

Most historians judge the last determination to proceed with extermination of the Armenian colonisation was reached astatine the extremity of March oregon aboriginal April of 1915.

Turkish Minister of War Enver Pasha took implicit bid of the Ottoman armies for the penetration of Russian territory and attempted to encircle the Russian Caucasus Army astatine the Battle of Sarikamish, which took spot from December 1914 to January 1915.

The Turkish Army suffered a humiliating defeat, losing much than 60,000 men. However, portion retreating, the Turks destroyed dozens of Armenian villages successful Bitlis Vilayet, massacring their inhabitants.

Upon his instrumentality to Constantinople, successful an effort to deflect blasted for his failures, Enver Pasha publically blamed his decision connected Armenians successful the region, accusing them of siding with the Russians.

The atrocities began with the apprehension of Armenian intellectuals successful Constantinople and the purpose to destruct Armenian leadership, arsenic good arsenic anyone susceptible of organizing resistance.

Those arrested were tortured and yet murdered aft being forced to confess to a nonexistent Armenian conspiracy against the empire. The persecution continued with a centralized docket of deportations, murder, pillage and rape until 1923.

Ordinary Armenians were driven from their homes and sent connected decease marches done the Mesopotamian godforsaken without nutrient oregon water. Armenian sources estimation the fig of deaths to beryllium a staggering 600,000 to 1.5 million.

Ottoman decease squads continually massacred Armenians until determination were lone 388,000 near successful the empire by 1923. This, from a colonisation of 2 cardinal successful 1914. Turkey, however, estimates the full fig of deaths to beryllium 300,000.

Apart from downplaying the fig of victims, Turkish governments have—to this day— continued to contradict the Armenian genocide, calling it conscionable different portion of the First World War.

The genocide of Armenian radical committed by Turkey was yet officially recognized by U.S. President Joe Biden connected April 24, 2021 successful an authoritative declaration.

The Turkish authorities reacted vehemently against the U.S. President’s decision.

The bodies of Pontians are arrayed successful beforehand of a Greek religion successful Asia Minor successful 1916. Public Domain

The Pontic Greek genocide

The past of Pontic Greeks goes arsenic acold backmost arsenic Ancient Greece itself. The archetypal recorded Greek colony, established connected the bluish shores of past Anatolia, was Sinope connected the Black Sea (Pontus), circa 800 BC.

The settlers of Sinope were merchants from the Ionian Greek metropolis authorities of Miletus. At the time, the shores of the Black Sea were known to the Greek satellite arsenic the “Inhospitable Sea” (in Greek, “Axeinos Pontos”) with the sanction aboriginal changing to “Hospitable Sea” (Euxeinos Pontos” successful Greek).

After the autumn of the Black Sea kingdom of Trebizond (centered astir modern-day Trabzon) to the Ottomans successful 1461 and particularly during the 18th and 19th period wars, Pontians migrated to confederate Russia and the Caucasus.

By the mid-19th century, the Greeks of Pontus were flourishing, economically and demographically. In 1865, determination were 265,000 Pontians, but by 1880 their fig had grown to 330,000.

By the aboriginal 20th century, their colonisation had reached 700,000, and successful 1860, determination were 100 Greek schools successful Pontus on with printing businesses, newspapers, magazines, clubs, and theaters.

The twelvemonth 1908 was a grim milestone for the peoples of the Ottoman Empire. It was the twelvemonth of the enactment of the “Young Turk” movement, the extremist nationalist enactment that launched the persecution of Christian communities to guarantee the Turkification of the region.

These Turks, connected the pretext of “national security,” displaced the bulk of the Greek colonisation successful Asia Minor’s inhospitable hinterland via alleged “labor battalions.”

The men who would not articulation the Turkish Army were forced to articulation these units. They were enactment to enactment successful quarries, mines and roadworthy operation nether crippling, inhumane conditions. Most soon died of hunger and disease.

Reacting to the oppression of the Turks—the murders, deportations, and burning of villages —the Pontic Greeks took to the mountains to salvage what was near of their lives.

After the genocide of the Armenians, the Turkish nationalists nether Mustafa Kemal Ataturk past began the Pontic genocide.

In 1919, the Greeks and Armenians, on with the impermanent enactment of the Eleftherios Venizelos authorities of Greece, attempted to make a standalone Greek-Armenian state.

This program was thwarted by the Turks, who took vantage of the lawsuit to beforehand to their “final solution,” the Pontic genocide.

On May 19, 1919, Ataturk landed successful Samsun to commencement the 2nd and astir brutal signifier of the Pontic Greek genocide nether the guidance of German and Soviet advisers.

By the clip of the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922, the fig of Pontians who died had exceeded 200,000; immoderate historians enactment the fig astatine 350,000.

Those who escaped the Turkish sword fled arsenic refugees to confederate Russia. After the extremity of the 1919 to 1922 Greco-Turkish War, astir of the Pontian Greeks remaining successful the Ottoman Empire were transported to Greece nether the presumption of the 1923 colonisation exchange.

The fig of radical exchanged betwixt Greece and Turkey is estimated to person been astatine 400,000.

Pontian Greek fighters. Public Domain

After the Pontic Greek genocide

In 1996, Turkish researcher Ömer Asan made headlines with his publication the “Culture of Pontus” (Pontos Kültürü) successful which helium suggested that up to 300,000 radical inactive talk Pontic Greek.

Asan, primitively from the portion of Of, successful Trabzon, an country with a beardown Islamic contented and a important Greek-speaking population, was charged with violating Turkey’s “Anti-Terrorism Law” by “propagandizing separatism” earlier helium was acquitted successful 2003.

In a 2000 interrogation with the Greek variation of the International Herald Tribune, the writer maintained that “there are inactive radical successful Turkey contiguous who talk and recognize Pontian, which is the oldest surviving Greek dialect.”

“The members of this assemblage travel from Trabzon and are scattered passim Turkey, oregon person emigrated to different countries. Pontian is spoken successful sixty villages successful the Trabzon region, astir of them successful the Of area,” Assan maintained.

“At a blimpish estimate, I would accidental this dialect is spoken by astir 300,000 people,” helium concluded.

Pontic Greek is an endangered Indo-European connection spoken by astir 778,000 radical worldwide. However, lone 200,000 to 300,000 individuals are considered progressive speakers of the tongue.

The connection is chiefly spoken successful bluish Greece but is besides spoken successful Russia, Armenia, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, arsenic good arsenic by members of the Pontic diaspora worldwide.

Greeks successful Asia Minor

Greeks had inhabited Asia Minor astatine slightest since the Late Bronze Age (1450 BC). The writer Homer, who wrote the Iliad and Odyssey, lived successful the portion astatine astir 800 BC.

The geographer Strabo referred to Smyrna arsenic the archetypal Greek metropolis successful Asia Minor with galore humanities Greek figures recorded arsenic hailing from the area.

The mathematician Thales of Miletus (7th century), philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (6th period BC), and the laminitis of Cynicism Diogenes of Sinope (4th period BC) were among them.

The Hellenization of the portion accelerated nether Roman and aboriginal Byzantine regularisation with the Koine Greek language dominating until the precocious Middle Ages.

Almost each indigenous inhabitants of Asia Minor practiced Greek Orthodox Christianity  aft the East–West Schism with the Catholics successful 1054 and spoke Greek arsenic their archetypal language.

When the Turkic peoples began their precocious medieval conquest of Asia Minor, Byzantine Greek citizens were the largest radical of inhabitants already contiguous successful the area.

After the Turkic conquests and the autumn of Constantinople, the Greek natives of Asia Minor gradually became a number implicit the pursuing 4 centuries nether the Turkish civilization which had by past go ascendant successful the region.

Census earlier the burning of Smyrna

Smyrna was a multicultural and cosmopolitan halfway until September 1922. Opposing sources assertion that Greeks and Turks constituted the bulk successful the city, according to their constituent of view.

According to Katherine Elizabeth Flemming, successful 1919 to 1922, the Greeks successful Smyrna numbered 150,000, forming conscionable nether fractional of the colonisation and outnumbering the Turks by a ratio of 2 to one.

The metropolis besides had sizeable Armenian, Jewish, and Levantine communities. According to Trudy Ring, earlier World War I, Greeks unsocial numbered 130,000 retired of a colonisation of 250,000, excluding Armenians and different Christians.

According to the Ottoman census of 1905, determination were 100,356 Muslims, 73,636 Orthodox Christians, 11,127 Armenian Christians, and 25,854 individuals of assorted different backgrounds; the updated figures for 1914 amusement 111,486 Muslims compared to 87,497 Orthodox Christians.

The American Consul General successful Smyrna astatine the time, George Horton, wrote that earlier the fire, determination had been 400,000 radical surviving successful the metropolis of Smyrna of whom 165,000 were Turks and 150,000 were Greeks.

In addition, determination were 25,000 Jews, 25,000 Armenians, and 20,000 foreigners, comprised of 10,000 Italians, 3,000 French, 2,000 British, and 300 Americans. Most of the Greeks and Armenians were Christians.

Moreover, according to scholars, anterior to the war, Smyrna had much Greeks surviving successful the metropolis than determination were Greeks residing successful Athens, the superior of Greece.

The Ottomans of that epoch referred to the metropolis arsenic Infidel Smyrna (Gavur Izmir) owed to the galore Greeks and ample non-Muslim population.

Smyrna Fire refugees successful 1922. Public Domain

The Greco-Turkish War

In November 1914, Turkish troops destroyed Christian properties and murdered respective Christians astatine Trabzon (Trebizond).

However, Germany intervened and asked the Turks to halt the unit against Greeks. This was aft Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos had promised Greece’s neutrality to the German ambassador successful Athens.

Venizelos had besides threatened to undertake a akin run against Muslims who were surviving successful Greece.

Arbitrary unit and killings of Greeks by the Turks continued, nevertheless. According to George W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office, by 1918 “over 500,000 Greeks were deported—of whom comparatively fewer survived.”

The United States ambassador to the Ottoman Empire betwixt 1913 and 1916 wrote: “Everywhere the Greeks were gathered successful groups and, nether the alleged extortion of Turkish gendarmes, they were transported, the larger portion connected foot, into the interior.”

“Just however galore were scattered successful this manner is not decidedly known, the estimates varying anyplace from 200,000 up to 1,000,000,” the study said.

A 1919 Patriarchate relationship recorded the evacuation of galore villages, with looting and murders taking place, portion galore died arsenic they were relocated to uninhabitable places.

The Ottomans capitulated connected October 30, 1918 astatine the extremity of World War I. In the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919 to 1920, a fig of starring Ottoman officials were accused of ordering massacres against some Greeks and Armenians.

However, the killings and deportations continued, unofficially, starring to the inevitable Greco-Turkish War, which raged from May 1919 to October 1922.

Greece’s equipped forces arrived successful Smyrna connected May 15, 1919 nether screen of the Greek, French, and British Navies.

Atrocities connected some sides took spot successful the warfare that stopped lone to commencement up erstwhile again. After large subject and governmental errors made by the Greek government, the Turkish service regained power of the metropolis connected September 9, 1922.

The aboriginal for the Christian colonisation of Greeks and Armenians successful the metropolis was successful peril. Following a bid of catastrophic events, the bulk would beryllium wiped disconnected the look of the world arsenic portion of the Greek genocide.

The Burning of Smyrna and Greek Genocide

The re-taking of Smyrna by Turkish troops meant the extremity of the metropolis arsenic it had been known up to that time.

Eyewitness reports authorities that the large occurrence of Smyrna began connected September 13, 1922 and lasted for astir 9 afloat days until September 22nd. The results were catastrophic, arsenic the full Greek and Armenian quarters of the metropolis were wholly wiped disconnected the map.

Churches, ornate villas, and mansions of large architectural importance, arsenic good arsenic schools and full marketplace areas, were gone forever—without a trace.

The full metropolis and the harbor were ablaze. Thousands of homeless, panic-stricken radical surged backmost and distant connected the quay.

The shrieks of women and children, on with the blaze, formed an infernal wail. People were seen throwing themselves into the water, and lone immoderate would scope a vessel and safety.

The wide of frenzied radical would not let immoderate vessel to attack the harbor. The ambiance was perfectly stifling. Many drowned, and immoderate were crushed by the howling, hopeless mob.

Official information astir the fig of victims of the Smyrna fires and the 1922 Greek genocide are nonexistent. Experts judge that the fig of Greek genocide victims is betwixt 10,000 and 100,000.

The fig of refugees who were forced to permission the metropolis and its surrounding countryside was betwixt 25,000 and 100,000.

The metropolis suffered specified tremendous harm to its infrastructure that overmuch of it virtually had to beryllium rebuilt from ashes.

Greek neighborhoods, wherever immoderate of the astir beauteous homes, churches, and buildings were located, and the full forty hectares of what was erstwhile the astir elegant portion of the city, had go a hellish inferno with nary gathering near lasting but razed to the ground.

Red Cross photograph, titled “Turkish atrocities,” of dormant Greek radical recovered aft the burning of Smyrna. Public Domain

The Greek genocide

The cataclysmic occurrence of Smyrna was the culmination of the Greek genocide. It was an extermination program that had gone on, mostly unhindered, for a decade.

British Prime Minister Lloyd George stated earlier the House of Commons that “tens of thousands of [Greek] men, women and children were expelled and dying [in the Ottoman Empire]. It was intelligibly a deliberate extermination.”

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks were killed betwixt 1914 and 1923. They were not soldiers but mean civilians whose ancestors had lived successful the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years—and had lived successful Asia Minor since clip immemorial.

The American ambassador astatine the time, Henry Morgenthau, wrote to the United States aft becoming alarmed astatine the extermination campaigns launched by the Turks. There are galore first-hand memoirs, specified arsenic that of Grigoris Balakian, that recount the horrors of those years.

However, ever since those horrendous years, Turkey has described the Christian deaths arsenic simply the casualties of war. The satellite knew precise good that a Greek genocide had happened, but determination were nary consequences.

Unlike aft World War II, determination was nary Nuremburg oregon different warfare tribunals. There was nary compensation for the victims’ families, and beingness successful the wider satellite simply continued arsenic if thing had happened.

There was 1 satellite person who remembered precise good what had happened, however. Adolf Hitler, who was soon to prehend powerfulness successful Germany, uttered the operation “Who remembers the Armenians?” erstwhile helium plotted however helium would transportation retired different genocide—this clip connected European soil.

Whether Armenian oregon Greek, nary 1 came to the assistance of these past peoples erstwhile they became the victims of 1 of the top atrocities successful the world.