Smyrna

Smyrna (Greek: Σμύρνη, Turkish: Izmir) is a city on the western coast of Asia Minor.

Smyrna during the Greek Genocide

In a telegram dated 14 May 1914, addressed to the Vali of Smyrna, and authored by Ali Riza, Chief of Correspondence and co-signed by Talaat Bey, the Minister of the Interior, and İbrahim Hilmi, the Director of the Ministry of the Interior, the deportation of Ottoman Greek subjects from the Smyrna district to provinces several hundred kilometers away was ordered. In this case, the pretext offered by the Turkish authorities was that the Greek civilian population was an internal threat. The document is thought to have been originally sourced by a Greek employee of the Interior Ministry working under Ali Riza.

To the Prefecture of Smyrna

Sir, the Prefect,

The Ottoman Greek subjects who form the majority of the inhabitants in your district benefit from circumstances to provoke a revolutionary current favorable to the intervention of the Great Powers.

The Ottoman Greeks living along the coast of the vilayet of Smyrna work day and night in order to put into execution their great idea.

Consequently, there cannot be any doubt that the existence in the Ottoman Empire of the Ottoman Greeks imbued with such revolutionary ideas is fatal to the State from a political and administrative perspective.

It is urgent for political reasons that the Greeks living on the coast of Asia Minor are obliged to evacuate their villages and to settle in the vilayets of Erzeroum and Chaldea.

If they should refuse to be transported to the places indicated, you will like to give verbal instructions to our Moslem brothers, in order to oblige the Greeks, by excesses of any kind, to emigrate themselves of their own accord. Do not forget to obtain, in this case, certificates stating these immigrants leave their homes of their own initiative, so that later political questions do not result from it.

The Chief of Correspondence,
Ali Riza

The Minister of the Interior,
Talaat Bey

The Director of the Ministry of the Interior,
İbrahim Hilmi

According to the records of the Greek Patriarchate, in the province of Smyrna 9,250 Ottoman Greeks were deported before the start of the Great War alone. It should be noted that some later deportations were hindered by German intervention.

George Horton, the US consul general at Smyrna from 1911-1917 and 1919-1922, wrote in his memoirs that the local Turkish population was incited to turn against and oppress the Greeks:

"A general boycott was declared against them, for one thing, and posters calling on the Mussulmans to exterminate them were posted in the schools and mosques. The Turkish newspapers also published violent articles exciting their readers to persecution and massacre."

On 15 May 1919 the Allied-sanctioned Hellenic occupation of the province of Smyrna began. The military forces of Greece offered protection to Christian minorities but on 9 September 1922 the Turkish army reentered the city.

Anna Birge, the wife of an American missionary stationed at Smyrna, recalled, "Among the many dead bodies, we saw men, women and children shot to death, bodies drawn up in horribly strained postures, with expressions portraying the endurance of excruciating pain." Sergeant Tchorbadjis of the Smyrna fire brigade experienced a horrible scene:

"In all the houses I went into, I saw dead bodies. In one house, I followed a trail of blood that led me to a cupboard. My curiosity forced me to open this cupboard—and my hair stood on end. Inside was the naked body of a girl with her breasts cut off..."

The corpse of a murdered Greek floating in Smyrna's waters, 11 September 1922

Smyrna's bay featured hundreds of floating corpses as a testimony to the brutal massacres that had occurred since the Turkish entry into the city. Georgios Tsoubariotis, a genocide survivor who was eleven years old at the time, later recalled "The sea was full of bodies ... There were so many that if you fell into the water you wouldn't sink because all those bodies would keep you on the surface. And you could see on every body the belly swollen, curving above the surface." Similarly, Helena van der Zee of a wealthy Levantine family wrote in an eyewitness account "Corpses were floating around out boat. It was a macabre spectacle." A British sailor onboard the HMS Serapis described how one dead body in an upright position was repeatedly banging against the side of the Serapis. It was "tied in a sack, which was evidently weighted at the bottom."

3	Sept.	The first Allied warship arrives at Smyrna, the HMS Iron Duke
8	Sept.	The last of all Greek civil servants and troops leave Smyrna including the Greek High Commissioner; Japanese vessel picks up refugees
9	Sept.	Kemalist troops enter Smyrna; Massacres begin
10	Sept.	Mustafa Kemal enters Smyrna
13	Sept.	The fire is set in the Armenian Quarter of the city and quickly spreads to the Greek and European Quarters
16	Sept.	General Nurettin Pasa issues a proclamation ordering the deportation of men between the ages of 18 and 45
24	Sept.	General Nurettin Pasa, in another proclamation, affirms his earlier order for the deportation of men
26	Sept.	The official evacuation of refugees begins
30	Sept	September 30th is the deadline set by Turkish authorities by when the evacuation of Greeks must be completed

Greek-Genocide.org

Greek Genocide 1914-23

Smyrna

Smyrna during the Greek Genocide