Anatolian & Pontian Greek Genocide

1914-1923

Presented by
The Asia Minor & Pontos Hellenic
Research Center (AMPHRC)
 Colonization of the Asia Minor and
Pontos region by the Greeks
The Greek presence in Asia
Minor dates back to the 11th
century B.C. Greeks from
mainland Greece migrated
to the western coast of Asia
Minor (Ionia) when other
Greek tribes invaded Greece
from the north. In the 8th
and 9th centuries B.C., new
waves of Greeks from the
mainland settled in western
Asia Minor and the Black
Sea area.
Cities in Asia Minor (Anatolia)

The new settlers

founded cities such as
Miletus, Ephesus,
Phocaea, Smyrna, and
Pergamum on the
western coast of Asia
Minor. In the 8th century
B.C., Miletus, the oldest
and most powerful
Greek city in Asia Minor,
founded numerous
other cities such Sinope,
Amisos, and Trapezus or
Trabzon on the Black Sea
(Pontos or Pontus)
coast.
 Strabo –the Geographer,
Philosopher , Historian from
Pontos Asia Minor gave birth to the
Strabo 64/63 BC – 24 AD first great thinkers of antiquity,
such as Thales, Anaximander,
Anaximenes, Strabo and
Heraclitus. These philosophers
rejected the mythological
explanation of the universe and
were the first to seek a rational
explanation of all things. Thus
Asia Minor was the birthplace
of western philosophy and
science.
 Asia Minor and Pontos
Homer – Poet Herodotus – Historian, Author of
Author of the Iliad and the the first great narrative history in
Odyssey the ancient world
 Following the conquest of Asia
The Spread of Hellenism
Minor by Alexander the Great,
Hellenism spread to the Middle
East and as far as India.
Alexander the Great (356 -323 BC)

The Greek cities of Asia Minor

continued to flourish during the
Hellenistic and Roman times.

It is in Asia Minor that Christianity

found a fertile ground to take root
and spread during the late Roman
and early Byzantine years.
 Byzantium-Constantinople
After the establishment
of Miletus in Asia Minor,
and Sinope and Trabzon in
Pontos, in 667 B.C.
Greeks from the city
of Megara near Athens,
with their leader Byzas,
sailed northeast across
the Aegean Sea and
founded the city of
Byzantium, which much
later would be renamed
Constantinople, the
capital of Byzantine
Empire.
 Christianity
Many Saints and fathers of
the Christian Church were
from Asia Minor - St. Paul, St.
Basil, St. George, St. Nicholas
and others. The Eastern
Roman Empire, also known
as the Byzantine Empire,
with Constantinople as its
capital, was a Greek speaking
empire and was the leading
civilization of Medieval
Christendom.
 Byzantine Civilization and its Influence
Religious Architecture
Hagia Sophia (Αγία Σοφία)
Throughout its millennial history,
and in particular during the rule of
Justinian, culture within
Constantinople flourished.

Early Byzantine architecture dates

from Emperor Justinian –architects
invented a complex system providing
for a smooth transition from a
square plan of the church to a
circular dome (or domes) by means
of pendentives (the placing of a
circular dome over a square or over a
rectangular room).
Byzantine Influence
Dome of the Rock
Byzantine thought dramatically
influenced Medieval art and
architecture throughout Europe
and the Near East. It became the
primary progenitor of the
Renaissance and the Ottoman
traditions that followed its
collapse.

Islamic leaders were impressed

by Byzantine mosaics and invited
mosaicists to work on the Dome
of the Rock.
 Byzantine Empire
Byzantium was the only stable state in Europe in the
Middle Ages. With its military and diplomatic strength
it defended Western Europe from repeated Persian,
Arab, and Turkish invasions.
The Fall of Constantinople
and Trabzon

The Byzantine Empire

lasted 11 centuries
(from the 4th to the
15th century A.D.), and
fell to the Ottoman
Turks in 1453. The
Empire of Trabzon and
(or Trabzon) was the
last Greek ruled area
in Asia Minor to fall to
Turkish hands in 1461.
 The Ottoman Conquest
The Fourth Crusade (1202-04), instead of
Hagia Sophia –converted to Mosque
liberating Jerusalem from the Muslims,
ransacked Constantinople. It was one of
the final acts in the Great Schism between
the Eastern Orthodox Church and the
Roman Catholic Church, and the turning
point in the decline of the Byzantine
Empire.

In 1204 Trabzon became a Byzantine

Greek Successor state after the fall of the
Byzantine Empire.

In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottoman

Turks, and in 1461 they conquered Trabzon.
 Under the Ottoman
Oppressive Rule Paidomazoma-Janissaries
For nearly four centuries, the
Christians (Greeks, Armenians,
Assyrians) and other ethnic minorities
were tolerated by the Ottoman rulers
as long as they paid burdensome
taxes. Although most Christians were
lower-class farmers, many became
successful businessmen and cultural
leaders.

It was in the early part of the 20th

century that all Christian minorities in
Asia Minor became victims of ethnic
cleansing. First the Young Turks, and
later the Nationalist Turks, put into
action their plans to eliminate the
Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians in
order to create an entirely Turkish
state.
 The Ottoman Rulers

The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Sultans from

the capital city of Constantinople. The Sultan’s
power was absolute. Sunni Islam was the official
religion of the Empire, and minority groups –
including Christian Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians
and Ottoman Jews – were dhimmi: non-Muslim
subjects living under Ottoman Turkish protection at
the will of the Sultan.
Sultan Abdul Hamid II enjoyed absolute power
over the territories of the Ottoman Empire from
1876 until 1909. The Sultan had a special hatred
for the Ottoman Armenians.
This highly charged political atmosphere gave rise
to an opposition group called the Young Turks - the
Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) - who
opposed the Sultan and sought a constitutional
government.
The CUP stripped Sultan Abdul Hamid of his power
in a bloodless coup in July 1908.
 The Collapse of the Ottoman Empire

The 1821 Greece's revolution, Thousands of Muslims fled or were expelled from the
the establishment of the Balkans and from Caucasus's areas after the defeat of
Greek Kingdom in 1832 the Ottoman armies in the Turkish–Russian and in the
under the London Protocol, Balkans wars.
the events at the beginning of
the 19th century and the
subsequent Balkan Wars
(1912-1913) led to the
disastrous defeat of the
Ottoman Empire.

With the loss of 70% of its

European population and 85%
of its European territory, the
Ottoman Empire faced
collapse.
Ottoman Empire Enters World War I
Various major factors, such as the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the
Balkans and pressure by the European powers for reforms, convinced the
Young Turks (CUP) leadership to align with the Central Powers (Imperial
Germany and the Austria-Hungarian Empire) against the Allied Powers
(Britain, France, and Russia) and enter World War I on October 28, 1914.
 Ottoman Empire Enters World War I
The wartime emergency situation provided the CUP the opportunity to put
into action its plans to defend the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire and to
get rid of the minorities who were considered traitors. The Young Turks
needed a scapegoat for their failure and convinced themselves that the
defeat could only have been caused by the treacherous minorities, especially
Armenians and Greeks.
 Greco –Turkish Wars
By 1913 the island of Crete, Macedonia,
Epirus and the North Aegean Islands
gained their freedom to unite with the
new Greek state in accordance with the
Megali Idea – Great Idea (introduced in
1844) i.e., the goal of uniting all Greeks
into one country. Before then the
population of the new state numbered
800,000, representing less than one- In 1919, the Greek government was
third of the 2.5 million Greek inhabitants authorized to land troops to protect the
in the Ottoman Empire. surviving Greek communities in the
Smyrna region and the new Turkish
Greece entered the war on the side of leader, Kemal Ataturk, turned defeat
into victory.
Allies in 1917. The Ottoman Empire was
defeated, and the CUP was dissolved in The Megali Idea started to fade
1918 and many of its former members away after the events following the
joined the nationalist movement landing of the Greek Army in Smyrna
forming a new government in 1919. The and the Greco – Turkish War (1919-
Greeks were targeted again in Asia 1922).
Minor and especially in the Pontos area
with new waves of expulsions to the
interior.
The Greek Army in Smyrna The Landing of the Greek
On May 15, 1919, Greece Army in Smyrna
sent armies into the
predominantly Greek coastal
city of Smyrna at the request
of the Allies.

The authorization by the

Allied Powers was to protect
the ethnic Greek population
living in and around the city.

The Greek landing was

celebrated by the local
population but quickly
resulted in ethnic violence in
the area and decreased
international support for the
occupation and also led to a
rise of Turkish nationalism.
The Defeat of the Ottoman Empire & the Rise of Turkish
Nationalism
The defeat and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and
subsequent occupation of Constantinople by the Allies gave rise to Turkish
nationalism. Turkish revolutionaries considered those actions as part of an
international conspiracy against Ottomans.

In May 1919, Mustafa Kemal (named later on Atatürk

–father of Turkey) began a nationalist revolution in Anatolia,
organizing resistance to the peace settlement imposed on
Turkey by the victorious Allies. This was particularly focused
on resisting Greek attempts to seize Smyrna and its
hinterland. Victory over the Greeks enabled him to secure
revision of the peace settlement in the Treaty of Lausanne
in 1923.
 Kemal Ataturk
Mustafa Kemal, leader of the nationalist movement, founded the Turkish republic in
1923. He built on the ideological foundations of the CUP. This included the creation
and imposition of national identity, national culture, national economy and the
creation of a homogeneous nation.

Final Turkification occurred in 1922 in Smyrna and

as such was the direct result of massacres, a great
fire and the expulsion of its large Christian
population. What made this example of ethnic
cleansing and destruction even more compelling
was that Kemal Ataturk was actually present at the
time and in command of the occupying troops in
Smyrna. He was directly responsible for the
massacres of thousands of innocent civilians and the setting of the
great fire.
 The Great Fire of Smyrna
On September 8, 1922 the Greek army completed its evacuation from Smyrna. The
following day, the victorious Turkish forces entered the city and the looting, armed robbery,
rape, and killings began. The situation worsened when fire broke out on September 13, and
after three days, some two-thirds of Smyrna blackened and smoldered. The Armenian,
Greek, and European quarters were almost totally destroyed, and those who survived the
holocaust were compelled to join the ranks of the refugees on the quay.

Without food and water, some 300,000 helpless souls

were now so pressed together that "one could not lie
down without being crushed to death - women gave
birth to stillborn babies and sheltered them against their
dried-up breasts, for lack of a burial place…waiting for a
momentary pathway to open up for them to lay their
burdens in the all-receiving sea… Melville Chater,
"History's Greatest Trek," The National Geographic
Magazine 48, no. 5 (November 1925).
 Dr. Constantine Hatzidimitriou’s Lecture
• For me, it’s all personal- because I am “The Genocide of Anatolian
the son of Anatolians—my mother, Elli, Christians and the Destruction
was born in Boutza, a beautiful suburb of Smyrna: Scholarship and the
of Smyrna one of Hellenism’s great
cosmopolitan centers which tragically, Evidence, Ninety Years Later”
like so many others, no longer exists. Chicago – Sept 15, 2012

• I came to this subject because of a

key—the key to our lost home—and,
because, the Catastrophe was
something that I learned about as a
child in a very personal way. My
grandparents always hoped to go
home to their hameni patrida (lost
homeland)—but they never did--
 The Refugee Crisis & The Greek population of Asia Minor and Pontos
the Compulsory was violently expelled or massacred especially in
Population Exchange 1922 and 1923 before the Lausanne Treaty on
July 24, 1923. Those who escaped flooded the
Of the 1.5 million of Greeks who Greek Islands and eventually were transferred to
left Asia Minor, most had followed the mainland of Greece, whereas others
the retreat of the Greek Army after Managed to reach countries in Europe, southern
it lost the Greco-Turkish War to
Russian territories and the United States of
Turkey; the last 150,000 left as part
America.
of the compulsory population
exchange.

About 380,00 Turks in northern

Greece were allowed to be
transferred to Turkey as part of the
Lausanne Treaty.
 Genocide
 1908 - The Young Turks (Turkish
Nationalists) gained control of the
government by revolting against
Sultan Hamid.
 1911 - The Young Turks had taken
severe measures to undermine the
minority communities.
 Banning all ethnic and cultural
organizations
 Banning all political
associations
 Instituting a boycott of Greek
and minority products & services
 Taking Greek schools away
from the jurisdiction of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate &
placing them under the control
of Ottoman Ministry of Education

Mehmed Talaat Pasha

 Genocide
 1912-1913 - A major turning point
came with the defeat in the Balkan Wars
which started the rupture in Muslim-
Christian relations throughout the Empire.

 1913 – The Committee of Union and

Progress (CUP), the ultra nationalist wing
of the Young Turks, seized direct power in
January after the loss of Albania,
Macedonia, the Aegean Islands and much
of Thrace.

 1914 - Ahmed Jemal Pasha was the

second member of the executive
committee of the Young Turks who was
appointed as Minister of the Navy in
February of 1914.
 Genocide
• The Turkish government
infested its society with
propaganda against the
Greeks.

• The Turkish government

felt vulnerable, especially
because it lost much
territory. In their opinion,
there was nothing else
left for them to do
except commit genocide.

Enver Pasha
Genocide
 Christian recruits tried to avoid
military service at all cost because of
the oppressive, discriminating and
brutal treatment of Christian recruits.
Turkish Bands violated Greek
households, abusing and robbing
inhabitants on the pretext of looking
for military deserters.
 Crimes against Christians,
without recourse to justice, became a
daily affair, especially with the
settlement of thousands of Muslim
migrants from the Balkans and the
Caucasus in the Greek villages and
towns of Pontos, Thrace and Western
Anatolia. They did much to incite the
local Muslims against the Greeks and
the Armenians.
 HENRY MORGENTHAU
In the words of Henry
Morgenthau, American Ambassador
to Turkey, 1913-1916, from his book
titled Ambassador Morgenthau’s
Story 1918:
…….“The Armenians are not the
only subject people in Turkey which
have suffered from this policy of
making Turkey exclusively the
country of the Turks. The story
which I have told about the
Armenians, I could also tell with
certain modifications about the
Greeks and Syrians [Assyrians].
Indeed the Greeks were the first
victims of this nationalizing idea ….”
Newspaper Article
 Labor Battalions
• Labor Battalions or Amele Tabourou were created as part of the
general mobilization. All men between the ages of 20-50 were told to
report for military service within eleven days. The Christians were purposely
assigned to irregular units where they were not allowed to bear arms, they
were overworked and lacked food, clothing and shelter. The life expectancy
was less than 4 months.
 A Survivor’s Story
Elias Venezis –Number The Horrors of Labor Battalions
31328 The sun was ascending the skies, burning,
hostile, and merciless. And so, thirst began
Venezis with 18 survivors to burn. The dust became glued to our
of the 3,000 men forced tongues….We cried out, “Water, water!”
into labor battalions “What?” replied the officer of the guard.
“Su, su (water),” we would shout out in
Turkish.
We arrived near a spring. But they kept us some
20 meters distant from the spring. The prisoners
cried out, “Mercy,” but to no avail.
Then they marched the prisoners off for about
half an hour until they came to a swamp…many
mosquitoes.
“Here, drink!” the commander ordered…
 Village Looting
 Between December 1916 and February 1917, the German Consul in Samsun
reported that in his region alone, on the pretext of seeking 300 Greek
deserters, some 88 Greek villages were torched.

 In brief, between 1914-1918 over 100,000 Pontian Greek unarmed civilians

of all ages and gender perished at the hands of the Turks, and many others
fled to Russia and Greece.
 A Survivor’s Story
Sano Themia Halo (1909-2014) Her story and extraordinary memory
The only survivor of her family
brought to life the details of how the
Pontian Greeks lived in mountain
villages of the Black Sea region of Turkey
in the early 20th century and her
community’s devastating death march to
exile in 1920.

When asked if she wanted restitution

from the Turkish government for the loss
of her family and her home, Sano
responded that she wanted an apology
from the Turkish government. “We had
everything to live for and they sent us to
die on the roads.”
 A Survivor’s Story Yannis mother, relatives and others on their
of Yannis Petridis way to exile from Bafra to Tosia (Theodosioupolis)

“Eh, Mrs….” Paraskevi (Yannis’ mother) uttered

A survivor’s story “The in a trembling voice to a Turkish woman “Do
Promised Journey: Pontos – you want this boy to keep in your house to help
Cephallonia” written by his with your work?”
daughter Sophia.
The Turkish woman turned surprised to see
A desperate mother begs a who was talking to her. She saw a wrinkled
Turkish woman to take her ill woman with a great worry covering her face,
son so that he will not die on
dresses in rags and beside her a boy who was
their way to exile.
skin and bone, ready to fall down.
With a quick eye the Turkish woman examined
the boy….“Leave him with me… We will provide
a bit of food for him. He will not die of
hunger…”
 Evidence of Genocide

Alphabet Reform of 1928 changed the Turkish script from Arabic to Latin letters.
Newspaper Articles
Newspaper Articles
Raphael Lemkin

“By ‘genocide’ we mean the destruction of a

nation or of an ethnic group. This new word,
coined by the author (Raphael Lemkin) to
denote an old practice in its modern
development, is made from the ancient Greek
word genos(race, tribe) and the
Latin cide (killing)….

It is intended rather to signify a coordinated

plan of different actions aiming at the
destruction of essential foundations of the life
of national groups, with the aim of annihilating
the groups themselves.

Genocide is directed against the national group

as an entity, and the actions involved are
directed against individuals, not in their
individual capacity, but as members of the
national group.
 Dr. Richard Hovannisian’s Lecture
Our memory is who we are; it is a part of us…
Three peoples are remembered today, the
Assyrians, the Armenians, and the Hellenes of
Asia Minor and Pontus…” So began
Hovannisian’s lecture on May 15, 2010, in a
lecture organized by the Pontian Greek
Society of Chicago.

He stated that the Ottoman Empire was not

egalitarian; that the above-mentioned people
had to accept their second-class status in the
society; that they were inferior and they
were gavoors.

Thousands upon thousands were forced to

renounce their Christian religion. Some, at
first, pretended to convert to Islam, but
eventually they became Turkish-Speaking
Muslims.
 Denial of Genocide
 Turkish society maintains a
certain denial attitude toward
the subject of the Genocide
following the government’s
policy.

 Since Turkish society is not

openly taking a stance toward
the official state policy, some
attitudes and characteristics
include:
Ignorance
Apathy
Fatalism
Reticence
Silence
Denial
 Final Stage of Genocide
 Denial is the final stage of genocide.

 Genocide is such a moral embarrassment that not only the perpetrators but
even those who had nothing to do with the genocide seek to suppress it.

 Do not want to be reminded of

the past because of the great
bitterness associated with what
happened

 Do not have the courage to

confront face to face preferring to
either suppress or forget.

 Claiming that they too were

victims of the war and they too
suffered.

 We forget our grief. You should

do the same.
 Final Stage of Genocide
 A continual sense of being
accused is something
unbearable and therefore is
best forgotten.

 These events belong to the

past and do not relate to
present Turkey.

 The feelings of guilt are

further complicated by a fear
of punishment; if we accept
the Genocide, then the claim
for reparations will follow.

What happened to the Christians in Anatolia were not

random acts of violence but a case of GENOCIDE.