Greek Persecution in Turkey

The Scotsman, November 6th 1917, page ?.

GREEK PERSECUTION IN TURKEY.
NEW YORK, October 17. -- According to a statement made here to-day be Mr Frank W. Jackson, chairman of the Relief Committee for Greeks of Asia Minor, the Turk has turned against the Greek Christians in his dominions, and more than 700,000 have fallen victims to persecution in the form of death, suffering, or deportation.
“The story of the Greek deportations is not yet generally known,” said Mr Jackson. “Quietly and gradually the same treatment is being meted out to the Greeks as to the Armenians and Syrians. Although closely guarded, certain echoes come out from time to time. There were some two or three million Greeks in Asia Minor at the outbreak of the war in 1914 subject to Turkish rule. According to the latest reliable and authoritative accounts, some seven to eight hundred thousand have been deported, mainly from the coast regions into the interior of Asia Minor. At the declaration of the present war all persecutions were stopped, but the spring of 1915 brought to the stage a tragic, novel drama, unique in the history of the world as to its horrors and destructiveness–that is, the Armenian deportation; under that innocent name the extermination of a Christian race was started. Along with the Armenians most of the Greeks of the Marmora regions and Thrace have bee deported on the pretext that they gave information to the enemy. Along the Aegean coast, Aivalik stands out as the worst sufferer. According to one report, some 70,000 Greeks have been deported towards Konia and beyond. At least 7000 have been slaughtered. The Greek Bishop of Aivalik committed suicide in despair.”
Mr Jackson read a letter from a Greek official, describing some of the atrocities, “Backed by the Germans, the Turks have put into execution and even organised their wilderness,” the letter says. “They have decided to exterminate the Greek element, which is the most important and numerous in Asia Minor.” --Press Association.