BLACK
SEPTEMBER
HELLENIC
GENOCIDE
The month of September brings with it the end of summer, the
beginning of a new year on the Orthodox calendar, and the
anniversaries of dates that have ravaged Hellenic civilization and
culture. On September 14, we commemorate the Hellenic Genocide. We
remember once again the Hellions of Asia Minor who were
systematically murdered by the governments of the Young Turks and
Mustafa Kemal Pasha.
The destruction of Asia Minor Hellenism began in 1071 when the
Byzantine armies were defeated by the Seljuk Turks. In this
historical event lies the origin of the Hellenic Holocaust which
continues up to the present day. In 1453, Constantinopoulis fell
to the Turks. The great, honorable, and brave Constantinos
Palaiologos led 5,000 brave Greek soldiers against 80,000
Ottoman Turkish soldiers. The fall of Constantinopoulis, and the
fall of the Empire of Trebizond eight years later extended the
Hellenic holocaust to all Hellenic regions.
The Ottoman Empire brought with it massacres, torture, slavery,
the kidnapping of boys for the Janissaries, the enslavement of
women into the harems, and intolerable political and economic
pressure that resulted in the further decimation of Hellenism.
For even when Hellenes were not massacred, the destruction
of Hellenism occurred with the loss of national identity.
Conversions to Islam and Turkification contributed to the
nightmare of the loss of independence and national sovereignty.
In May 1919, the armies of a a free and independent Greece
entered the glorious and long suffering city of Smyrna. For a
brief time it appeared that the extermination of the Hellenic
race had ceased. During the First World War, the Young Turks began
to murder the Hellenic populations in Asia Minor, along with the
Armenians and the Assyrians.
Ultimately, Mustafa Kemal Pasha became an instrument of western
imperialism and as such Turkish racism earned the
unconditional assistance of the United States, Great Britain,
France, and Italy. The murderous psychopath Mustafa Kemal was
aided by the western powers while the Greek Army in Asia Minor
was cut off by an embargo imposed by the western powers. In
September 1922, beautiful Smyrna was conquered by the Kemalists
and burned. Over 100,000 Greeks and 30,000 Armenians were
slaughtered.
Special mention must be made of Metropolitan Chrysostom of
Smyrna. This brave and noble Greek Orthodox Cleric supported the
Greek liberators in 1919, and was a voice for the aspirations of a
nation that had been enslaved, humiliated, massacred, and
denigrated for centuries. When the news broke that the Kemalist
aggressors would retake Smyrna, it became apparent that the
Greeks and the Armenians would not survive.
Metropolitan Chrysostom was offered refuge by the French
Consulate. This Saint refused the offer of safety and chose to
share the fate of his flock. Metropolitan Chrysostom was
handed over to a fanatical Muslim mob by the crazed and
sadistic Kemalist General Noureddin Pasha. He was humiliated
by having his beard cut off, and then his eyes, ears, nose, and
hands were cut off. Metropolitan Chyrsostom was canonized
as a Saint by the Orthodox Church of Greece in 1992. (He is
very much AXIOS and deserves to be remembered and
prayed for).
When the Kemalist-Young Turks murder machines ceased-over
1,500,000 Armenians, 1,000,000 Greeks, and 800,000 Assyrians
had lost their lives. The decimation of Hellenism continued when
the west supported Kemal's plan to ethnically cleanse Asia
Minor and Eastern Thraki of well over 1,000,000 Hellenes. In this
day and age, we are inundated with stories of ethnic cleansing
throughout the world, but there is still no recognition of the
horrors that have been perpetrated against Hellenism.
Over 1,000,000 Hellenes were forced to abandon the land and
homes where their ancestors and descendants had lived for over
3,000 years. This ethnic cleansing and Genocide was supported
by the "civilized" powers in the west and legitimized by
the Treaty
of Lausanne. Today the world commemorates Aushwitz and the
crimes of Stalin, but there are no memorials for the dead of Smyrna
and Pontus in those ancient Hellenic lands.
On September 6, 1955 crimes against humanity took place in
a country that was a member of the NATO alliance. The Turkish
government of Adnan Menderes (of the so called
"democratic"
party) incited terrorism against the Hellenes of Constantinopoulis
and Imbros. First, the Turks bombed their own consulate in
Thessaloniki and then blamed the Greeks. Then they organized
the fanatics, the criminals, and the parasites, and encouraged
them to attack the Greek population, the Churches, homes,
and businesses.
In Smyrna, Greek Army officers serving with NATO were assaulted
and their wives violated. Throughout these terrorist attacks, the
police did not interfere. On September 6 we remember the end of
Hellenism in Constantinopoulis and Imbros. In the 1960's, the Turkish
authorities proceeded to finish the job by ethnically cleansing the
last remnants of Hellenism.
During these attacks in Constantinopoulis, Imbros, and Smyrna,
there were absolutely no condemnations, protests, or sanctions
coming from Washington (that universal protector of "human
rights" and "democracy"). Following the September 6
pogroms, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wrote identical
letters to Greek Prime Minister Alexander Papagos and Turkish Prime
Minister Adnan Menderes urging the "allies" to consider
NATO. There was no sympathy for Greece expressed, nor was there any
condemnation of Turkey's blatant aggression.
Hellenism is today being eradicated in Cyprus. Over 200,000 Greeks
have been ethnically cleansed in the occupied territories. In 1996,
Turkish death squads murdered Cypriots Tasos Isaac and Solomos
Solomou. As in Asia Minor in 1922, and Constantinopoulis in 1955,
there is not a single protest emanating from the "civilized
powers."
Black September, a month to commemorate and recall our losses,
and to reevaluate where Hellenism stands today in Cyprus, Macedonia,
the Aegean Sea, and Northern Epirus. The losses of Hellenism have
been numerous in terms of lives lost, and in terms of territory
that has been conquered. Let us remember, commemorate, and mourn
all that has been lost in Asia Minor and Constantinopoulis.
Remember Smyrna and Pontus, and the victims of the Hellenic
Genocide.
Documentation
of the Hellenic Genocide
----------------------------------------------------------
Let us remember and honor the memories of those who worked
to protect Hellenes, Armenians, and Assyrians from the Turkish
aggressors. Let us honor prominent American officials such as
George Horton and Henry Morgenthau who worked tirelessly to
assist the refugees that fled from Asia Minor. Let us honor them
also because their important work remains alive in their important
writings and texts. George Horton documented the Hellenic Genocide
in "The Blight of Asia", and Henry Morgenthau documented the
ethnic cleansing of Hellenes in his important, "I was sent to Athens".
Further documentation and texts on the Hellenic Genocide
include Edward Hale Bierstadt's "The Great Betrayal"
which was published in 1924, and which Turkish supporters in America
worked to discredit. This is a powerful and moving document
describing the agony of Asia Minor Hellenism. Journalist
Edward Herbert Gibbons has left behind accounts of Turkish
Genocide against Hellenism in his 1920 biography of Prime
Minister Venizelos.
The American Hellenic Society, an early version of the Greek
lobby in America has left behind an important document,
"Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey" which
describes in great detail the atrocities of the Greeks in Asia Minor
during the First World War. Specific atrocities, statistics of the dead in
various regions, numbers of victims deported and ethnically
cleansed, and the names of Hellenic villages where the Turkish
exterminations took place during the First World War are all recounted
here.
The American Hellenic Society has also left behind a document
submitted by Prime Minister Venizelos, "Greece Before the
Peace Congress of 1919", which was submitted to the victorious
powers of the First World War. The Prime Minister makes
frequent references to the exterminations of Greeks and
Armenians in the case he put forward for the rights of Greece in
Asia Minor and Constantinopoulis.
Marjorie Housepian Dobkin's, "Smyrna 1922 the Destruction of a
City" is a briliantly researched account of the events that
led to
the final extermination of Asia Minor Hellenism. Thea Halo's
"Not Even my Name" is a memoir recalling the Genocide
that
affected Hellenism in Pontus.
"The Miracle" by Leonidas Koumakis is an invaluable
contribution
to the documentation of the destruction of Hellenism in
Constantinopoulis and Asia Minor. The author recounts the
conspiracy against Hellenism during the 1950's and 1960's,
and describes the ethnic cleansing of Hellenes by the Turkish
state. "The Crucifixion of Christianity" by Dimitrios
Kaloumenos
is a recounting of the September 1955 pogroms in
Constantinopoulis and contains numerous photographs of the
destruction that serve as an indictment against the Turkish
state.
"In 1992, Helsinki Watch published, "Denying Human
Rights and Ethnic Identity, The Greeks of Turkey". The document
refers to specific harassment against the Greeks of
Constantinopoulis,
and Imbros and Tenedos". The document is further
evidence of
the ethnic cleansing of Hellenism by the Turkish authorities.
Up to our own day, Hellenism remains under assault. The
State Department's "Country Reports on Human
Rights" has
documented the terrorist bombings against the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, and the discriminatory closing of the Halki
Seminary.
Cypriot Hellenism suffers under the Turks today. The plight
of
the Cypriots is recounted in the Documentary film,
"Attila 74
the Rape of Cyprus" by film director Michael Cacoyannis.
Furthermore, the destruction of Cypriot culture is described
in
the text, "The Occupied Churches of Cyprus" by a
Greek
Cypriot priest, Rev. D. Demosthenous.
You can find most of the above books at HEC bookstore www.greece.org
Let
us remember the agony of Hellenism.
HEC-Hellenic
Electronic Center
