Πέμπτη 3 Μαΐου 2012

Ελλάδα

Φάνης Μαλκίδης. Ελλάδα και οικονομική κρίση: Ψέματα και προπαγάνδα, αλληλεγγύη και αντίσταση




«Οι Έλληνες έχουμε πληρώσει πολύ ακριβά την ελευθερία μας για να την δώσουμε τόσο φτηνά στον πρώτο τυχόντα»
 
Δημήτριος Υψηλάντης για τα «δάνεια της υποτέλειας» του 1824-1825
 
1. Ψέματα και προπαγάνδα
 
Συμπληρώνονται δύο σχεδόν χρόνια από τότε που μας έλεγαν από μπροστά μας «κοπρίτες», «τεμπέληδες», «διεφθαρμένους», τη χώρα και την οικονομία μας «Τιτανικός», και έδιναν ψευδή στοιχεία για το «χρέος» και από πίσω μας συζητούσαν μυστικά με το ΔΝΤ, την ΕΚΤ, την ΕΕ, τους συμβούλους τους που έπαιξαν και παίζουν το θάνατό μας στα τοξικά, στα ομόλογα και στα άλλα «προϊόντα».
Αφού μας έριξαν στο «ασφαλές» καταφύγιο του ΔΝΤ- δεν τους ενδιέφερε ότι όπου πήγε ο «φιλανθρωπικός» αυτός οργανισμός κατέστρεψε τα πάντα- μας είπαν ότι αν δεν υπογραφεί το πρώτο μνημόνιο που κατέλυσε την εθνική κυριαρχία δεν θα υπήρχαν λεφτά για μισθοί και συντάξεις. Οι νόμοι που μας υποδούλωσαν ούτε καν τους διάβασαν, κατά δήλωσή τους. Μας είπαν ότι θα βγούμε από τις αγορές το 2012, από όπου δεν μπορούσαμε να δανειστούμε γιατί μας είπαν ότι η κρίση είναι δανεισμού και όχι χρέους. Και τα επιτόκια αυξήθηκαν με γεωμετρική πρόοδο. Μας ανέφεραν ότι αν ακολουθήσουμε τις «συνταγές», θα έχουμε πρωτογενή πλεονάσματα, θα γίνουμε «Δανία του Νότου» η οικονομία θα σωθεί και δεν θα έχει πρόβλημα.

Και κάθε μήνα είχαμε και έχουμε και θα έχουμε νέο εκβιασμό για τη δόση από το εξωτερικό και από το εσωτερικό, συν το γεγονός ότι γίναμε «Μπαγκλαντές του Βορρά»

Σε λίγο άλλαξαν όλα και τα μνημόνια, τα μεσοπρόθεσμα και εφαρμοστικοί νόμοι, ενίσχυσαν τις προσπάθειες για «αναδιαρθρώσεις», «μεταρρυθμίσεις» και βεβαίως ιδιωτικοποιήσεις.
Η δημιουργία του Ταμείου για την «αξιοποίηση» της δημόσιας περιουσίας ήταν η απαρχή της προσπάθειας για κοινό αγώνα για «σωτηρία» της πατρίδας. Στο Ταμείο συμμετέχουν πέραν από την Τρόικα, συμμετέχουν και οι εκπρόσωποι των κομμάτων που πήραν μέρος στην κυβέρνηση Παπαδήμου.

Μία κυβέρνηση που παρότι θα έκανε εκλογές στις 19 Φεβρουαρίου, παρότι θα ήταν υπηρεσιακή, έφερε το νέο μνημόνιο και τους εφαρμοστικούς, με το ξένο δίκαιο υποθηκεύοντας τις επόμενες γενιές, και κανείς, ούτε οι ίδιοι, δεν ξέρει πόσες.

Τώρα πανηγυρίζουν για το «κούρεμα», τα ιδιωτικά χρέη έγιναν κρατικά ακόμη και εκείνα στην ΕΚΤ, που ανταλλάχτηκαν ήδη με νέα ομόλογα ίσης αξίας και το χρέος συνεχίζει να αυξάνεται και θα φτάσει σύμφωνα με τις προβλέψεις τους, οι οποίες όπως ξέρουμε όλοι μας έχουν διαψευσθεί ΟΛΕΣ, το 2020-21 στα επίπεδα του 2009!

Δανειζόμαστε για να σωθούν οι τράπεζες, αυτή είναι η αλήθεια και βάζουμε νέα βάρη, χωρίς καμία ελπίδα, χωρίς μία απαλλαγή. Κατά δήλωσή τους έχουν δώσει δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ για «επανακεφαλοποίηση» των τραπεζών.

Η εμφάνιση σαν νίκης της χρεοκοπίας της χώρας, συνδυάζεται με τη μείωση της εθνικής κυριαρχίας, των αξιών γης, του φυσικού πλούτου και των ενεργειακών πηγών, των μισθών και συντάξεων, και όλων αυτών χωρίς μείωση του χρέους. Και όλα αυτά είναι απαραίτητα για τη ομαλή διεξαγωγή των εκλογών μέσα σε κλίμα ελπίδας και έχει στόχο την ενίσχυση των καθεστωτικών δυνάμεων που αγωνίζονται ως εκπρόσωποι των δανειστών και όχι του λαού.

Την ίδια στιγμή καταρρέει και καταστρέφεται η ζωή των Ελλήνων και των Ελληνίδων, που θυμίζουμε είναι άνθρωποι, όχι αριθμοί. Μειώσεις στους μισθούς και στις συντάξεις, απολύσεις, ανεργία και ύφεση που κανείς δεν ξέρει πότε θα σταματήσουν. Παράλληλα σημειώνεται κατάρρευση της υγείας και της παιδείας, της πρόνοιας και της περίθαλψης, κλείσιμο δημόσιων επιχειρήσεων και υπηρεσιών, με οικονομικά και κοινωνικά δεδομένα που μόνο σε πολεμικές περιόδους έχουν εμφανιστεί.

Ψήφισαν τους νέους νόμους «σωτηρίας» μας και μιλούν για τα νέα μέτρα τον Ιούνιο (!) και απειλούν, εκφοβίζουν, τρομοκρατούν, προπαγανδίζουν, και μας λένε για το τι πρέπει να ψηφίσουμε, εγχώριοι και ξένοι, όταν και εφόσον γίνουν εκλογές.

Γιατί όπως είπε ο Σόιμπλε είναι δικαίωμά σας οι εκλογές, αλλά υποχρέωσή σας η τήρηση των συμφωνιών. Και ρωτάμε ποιες συμφωνίες είναι αυτές; Εκείνες που ψήφισε η Βουλή η οποία δεν έχει καμία λαϊκή νομιμοποίηση και δημοκρατική εντολή από το λαό;

2. Αντίσταση και αλληλεγγύη
Η ελληνική κοινωνία, ο ελληνικός λαός οφείλει να αναλάβει τις ιστορικές του ευθύνες και αυτό πρέπει να γίνει άμεσα. Με αντίσταση και πράξεις, όχι (άλλα) λόγια.

Η αλληλεγγύη είναι η πρώτη κίνηση αντίστασης. Αλληλεγγύη στους ασθενέστερους που έγιναν ασθενέστεροι από τις αποφάσεις που πάρθηκαν, από τα μνημόνια, εφαρμοστικούς, μεσοπρόθεσμα, νόμους και τόσα άλλα. Όπως έχει γράψει ο Ν, Σβορώνος η ελληνική ιστορία είναι μία αντιστασιακή ιστορία και όπως είχε αναφέρει ο Δημήτριος Υψηλάντης όταν εναντιώθηκε στα δάνεια της υποτέλειας του 1824-1825, «οι Έλληνες έχουμε πληρώσει πολύ ακριβά την ελευθερία μας για να την δώσουμε τόσο φτηνά στον πρώτο τυχόντα».

Κυριακή 22 Απριλίου 2012

Οι πέντε Νεομάρτυρες οι εξ Σαμοθράκης (1837) και η μνήμη τους την Κυριακή του Θωμά.

 


Φάνης Μαλκίδης
Οι πέντε Νεομάρτυρες οι εξ Σαμοθράκης (1837) και η μνήμη τους την Κυριακή του Θωμά.

Είναι γεγονός ότι η συμβολή της Θράκης στην Εθνική Παλιγγενεσία αποτελεί ένα ακόμη μέρος της αποσιωπημένης ελληνικής ιστορίας. Μάλιστα η Θράκη έχει και αυτή ολοκαυτώματα και εξόδους ανάλογα της Χίου, των Ψαρών και του Μεσολογγίου. Ειδικότερα, στο νησί της Σαμοθράκης, η κήρυξη της επανάστασης από τα τοπικά μυημένα μέλη στη Φιλική Εταιρεία, ακολούθησε ο γενικός ξεσηκωμός των Ελλήνων, παρά το γεγονός της εγγύτητας προς την πρωτεύουσα του οθωμανικού κράτους.
 
Η αντίδραση από τους Οθωμανούς ήρθε το Σεπτέμβριο του 1821, την 1η του μηνός, την «πρωτοσταυρινιά» όπως λένε οι ντόπιοι, όταν αποβιβάστηκαν δύο χιλιάδες στρατιώτες. Η καταστροφή ήταν ολοκληρωτική, από τις χιλιάδες των νεκρών, μέχρι τις λεηλασίες των οικιών και των εκκλησιών ενώ όσοι σώθηκαν πουλήθηκαν στην Κωνσταντινούπολη σαν σκλάβοι. Εφτακόσιοι από τους κατοίκους που είχαν καταφύγει στα βουνά, οι Οθωμανοί, τους έφεραν πίσω με δόλο δίνοντάς τους την εντύπωση ότι θα τους δώσουν χάρη. Όμως στην τοποθεσία «Εφκάς» στο κάστρο της πρωτεύουσας (της Χώρας), τους δολοφόνησαν σχεδόν όλους. Από τη μαζική αυτή δολοφονία, επέζησαν σύμφωνα με μαρτυρίες ξένων περιηγητών και του Σαμοθρακρακίτη ιερέα Γ. Μανωλάκη από 25 έως 30 οικογένειες, οι οποίες ζούσαν τα επόμενα χρόνια σε άθλια κατάσταση. Σημαντική μαρτυρία για το ολοκαύτωμα αποτελεί το έργο του Ί Δραγούμη «Σαμοθράκη», ο οποίος δε διέσωσε μόνο ένα μέρος του συμβάντος, αλλά και την αναφορά στο τρυπημένο Ευαγγέλιο της εκκλησίας της Παναγίας στη Χώρα, το οποίο φυλάσσεται στο Εθνολογικό Μουσείο. Την καταστροφή της Σαμοθράκης την απεικόνισε ο Γάλλος Αύγουστος Βινσόν (Αuguste Vinchon) ο οποίος ζωγράφισε ένα πίνακα με θέμα τη σφαγή της Σαμοθράκης, που βρίσκεται στο Λούβρο.
Σημαντική παράμετρος του ολοκαυτώματος αποτελεί και ο βίαιος εξισλαμισμός πολλών Σαμοθρακιτών, που κατέληξαν δούλοι. Πέντε από τους επιζώντες του ολοκαυτώματος της Σαμοθράκης, οι Μανουήλ Παλογούδας, Μιχαήλ ο Κύπριος, Θεόδωρος Δημητρίου, Γεώργιος Κουρούνης και Γεώργιος Καλακίκος, γύρισαν το 1835 στη Σαμοθράκη και επέστρεψαν στην αρχική τους θρησκεία.
Για το λόγο αυτό μεταφέρθηκαν στην Μάκρη της Αλεξανδρούπολης, όπου ήταν η τοπική διοίκηση.
Όταν τους οδήγησαν μπροστά στον διοικητή τους ρώτησε για την καταγωγή τους και τη ζωή τους. Οι άγιοι με ήρεμο τρόπο του απάντησαν για την καταστροφή, την αποδοχή του Ισλάμ και την επιστροφή στο Χριστιανισμό.
Αφού βασανίστηκαν θανατώθηκαν στις 6 Απριλίου 1835, Δευτέρα του Θωμά. Ο Μιχαήλ ο Κύπριος κατατεμαχίστηκε από δήμιους, οι Γεώργιος Κορούνης και Θεόδωρος Δημητρίου απαγχονίστηκαν μετά από βασανιστήρια, και οι Μανουήλ Παλογούδας και Γεώργιος Καλακίκος ρίχτηκαν σε σανίδια με αιχμηρά σίδερα. O πρώτος πέθανε, ο δεύτερος όμως θανατώθηκε με όπλο. Η μνήμη τους τιμάται την Κυριακή του Θωμά και αποτελούν τους πέντε νεομάρτυρες του νησιού και όλης της Θράκης. Τα λείψανα των αγίων φυλάσσονται οποίων υπάρχουν στην εκκλησία της Παναγίας στη Χώρα και στις εικόνες στις εκκλησίες του νησιού, όπως και στην απέναντι Θρακική ακτή της Αλεξανδρούπολης, απεικονίζονται με φουστανέλες.
Είναι οι Άγιοι που συνδύασαν όπως άλλοι πολλοί νεομάρτυρες την πίστη στην Ορθοδοξία και τον αγώνα για Ελευθερία, τα βασικά στοιχεία της Επανάστασης και της τελικής της επιτυχίας.

Άγιος Ιερομάρτυρας Κύριλλος Στ΄ Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως (1813 – 1818) (μέρος 1ο)






Ο Άγιος Νέος Ιερομάρτυς Κύριλλος Στ' Οικουμενικός Πατριάρχης (1813 - 1818)
Αναγνωρίστηκε ως Άγιος της Εκκλησίας μας από την Ιερά Σύνοδο της Εκκλησίας της Ελλαδος με ενέργειες του Σεβ. Μητροπολίτου κ. Νικηφόρου (Πράξις 403/8-7-1993).

Τρίτη 10 Αυγούστου 2010

Genocide


Greek genocide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Greek Genocide
Background
Young Turk Revolution · Ottoman Greeks · Ottoman Empire
The Genocide
Labour battalion · Death marchForeign Aid and Relief:Relief Committee for Greeks of Asia Minor · American Committee for Relief in the Near EastResponsible Parties:Young Turks or Committee of Union and Progress · Three Pashas: Talat, Enver, Djemal · Behaeddin Shakir · Teskilati Mahsusa or Special Organization · Nureddin Pasha · Topal OsmanTrials:Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919–20 · Malta Tribunals
See also
Great Fire of Smyrna · Istanbul Pogrom · Greeks in Turkey · Population Exchange · Greek refugees
vde
During World War I and its aftermath (1914–1923), the government of the Ottoman Empire instigated a violent campaign against the Greek population of the Empire. The campaign included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, and summary expulsions. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. Some of the survivors and expelled, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire. However, after the end of the 1919–22 Greco-Turkish War most of the Greeks migrated or were transferred to Greece under the terms of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
The government of Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire,[1] maintains that the large-scale campaign was triggered by the perception that the Greek population was sympathetic to the enemies of the Ottoman state. The Allies of World War I took a different view, condemning the Ottoman government-sponsored massacres as crimes against humanity. More recently, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution in 2007 affirming that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire, including the Greeks, was genocide. Some other organisations have also passed resolutions recognising the campaign as a genocide, as have the parliaments of Greece, Cyprus and Sweden.
Contents[hide]
1 Background
2 Origins
3 Events
3.1 Relief efforts
3.2 Contemporary accounts
3.3 Casualties
4 Aftermath
5 Genocide recognition
5.1 Terminology
5.2 Academic
5.3 Political
5.4 Reasons for limited recognition
6 Memorials
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 Further reading
//
[edit] Background
See also: Ottoman Greeks and Pontic Greeks

Hellenism in Near East during and after the World War I, Showing the areas (Western Anatolia and Eastern Thrace) where the majority of the Greek population was concentrated.
Anatolia or Asia Minor is a peninsula that forms the westernmost region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus and the Iranian plateau to the east, Greater Syria (Upper Mesopotamia) to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean Sea to the west and the Balkan peninsula to the northwest. At the outbreak of World War I, Anatolia was ethnically diverse, its population including Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds, Assyrians, Jews, and Laz people.
Among the causes for the Turkish campaign against the Greek population was a fear that the population would aid the Ottoman Empire's enemies, and a belief among some Turks that to become a modern nation state it was necessary to purge from the territories of the state those national groups who could threaten the integrity of a modern Turkish nation state.[2][3]
According to a German military attaché, the Ottoman Turkish minister of war Ismail Enver had declared in October 1915 that he wanted to "solve the Greek problem during the war... in the same way he believe[d] he solved the Armenian problem."[4]
[edit] Origins
Greek presence in Asia Minor has been dated to at least the time of Homer.[5] Prior to their conquest by the Turkic people the Greeks were one of several indigenous peoples living in Asia Minor.[6] The geographer Strabo referred to Smyrna as the first Greek city in Asia Minor.[6] Greeks reffered to the Black Sea as the "Pontos Euxinos" or "hospitable sea" and starting in the eighth century BCE they begun navigating its shores and settling along its coast.[6] The most notable Greek cities of the Black Sea were Trebizond, Sampsounta, Sinope and Heraclea Pontica.[6] In medieval times Trebizond became an important trade hub and capital of its own state, the Empire of Trebizond.
[edit] Events
In the summer of 1914 the Special Organization (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa), assisted by government and army officials, conscripted Greek men of military age from Thrace and western Anatolia into labor battalions in which hundreds of thousands died.[7] Sent hundreds of miles into the Interior of Anatolia, these conscripts were employed in road-making, building, tunnel excavating and other field work but their numbers were heavily reduced through either privations and ill-treatment or by outright massacre by their Turkish guards.[8] This program of forced conscription later expanded to other regions of the Empire including Pontus[citation needed].
Conscription of Greek men was supplemented by massacres and by deportations involving death marches of the general population[citation needed]. Greek villages and towns would be surrounded by Turks and their inhabitants massacred[citation needed]. Such was the story in Phocaea (Greek: Φώκαια), a town in western Anatolia twenty-five miles northwest of Smyrna, on 12 June 1914 where the slain bodies of men, women and children were thrown down a well.[9]
In July 1915 the Greek chargé d'affaires explained that the deportations "can not be any other issue than an annihilation war against the Greek nation in Turkey and as measures hereof they have been implementing forced conversions to Islam, in obvious aim to, that if after the end of the war there again would be a question of European intervention for the protection of the Christians, there will be as few of them left as possible."[10] According to George W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office, by 1918 "... over 500,000 Greeks were deported of whom comparatively few survived."[11] In his memoirs, the United States ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1913 and 1916 wrote "Everywhere the Greeks were gathered in groups and, under the so-called protection of Turkish gendarmes, they were transported, the larger part on foot, into the interior. Just how many were scattered in this fashion is not definitely known, the estimates varying anywhere from 200,000 up to 1,000,000."[12]

1914 Ottoman Turkish Statistics record the Ottoman Greek population as numbering approx. 1.8 million
On 14 January 1917 Cosswa Anckarsvärd, Sweden’s Ambassador to Constantinople, sent a dispatch regarding the deportation decision of the Ottoman Greeks:
What above all appears as an unnecessary cruelty is that the deportation is not limited to the men alone, but is extended likewise to women and children. This is supposedly done in order to much easier be able to confiscate the property of the deported.[13]
Methods of destruction which caused death indirectly - such as deportations involving death marches, starvation in labour camps, concentration camps etc. - were referred to as "white massacres".[11]
The Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 saw charges brought against a number of leading Turkish officials for their part in ordering massacres against both Greeks and Armenians.[14].
In an October 1920 report a British officer describes the aftermath of the massacres at Iznik in north-western Anatolia in which he estimated that at least 100 decomposed mutilated bodies of men, women and children were present in and around a large cave about 300 yards outside the city walls.[11]
The systematic massacre and deportation of Greeks in Asia Minor, a program which had come into effect in 1914, was a precursor to the atrocities perpetrated by both the Hellenic and Turkish armies during the Greco-Turkish War, a conflict which followed the Hellenic occupation of Smyrna[15][16] in May 1919 and continued until the Great Fire of Smyrna in September 1922.[17] Limited[16] Massacres of Turks were also carried out by the Hellenic troops during their mandate over a region of western Anatolia in May 1919 through to September 1922.[17]
For the massacres that occurred during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, British historian Arnold J. Toynbee wrote that it was the Greek landings that created the Turkish National Movement led by Mustafa Kemal:[18] "...The Greeks of 'Pontus' and the Turks of the Greek occupied territories, were in some degree victims of Mr. Venizelos's and Mr. Lloyd George's original miscalculations at Paris."
[edit] Relief efforts

Photo taken after the Smyrna fire. The text inside indicates that the photo had been taken by representatives of the Red Cross in Smyrna
In 1917 a relief organization by the name of the Relief Committee for Greeks of Asia Minor was formed in response to the deportations and massacres of Greeks in Turkey. The committee worked in cooperation with the Near East Relief in distributing aid to Ottoman Greeks in Thrace and Asia Minor. The organisation disbanded in the summer of 1921 but Greek relief work was continued by other aid organisations.[19]
[edit] Contemporary accounts
German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats, as well as the 1922 memorandum compiled by George W. Rendel on "Turkish Massacres and Persecutions", have provided evidence for series of systematic massacres of the Greeks in Asia Minor.[11][20][21] The quotes have been attributed to various diplomats, notably the German ambassadors Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim and Richard von Kühlmann, the German vice-consul in Samsoun Kuchhoff, Austria's ambassador Pallavicini and Samsoun consul Ernst von Kwiatkowski, and the Italian unofficial agent in Angora Signor Tuozzi. Other quotes are from clergymen and activists, notably the German missionary Johannes Lepsius, and Stanley Hopkins of the Near East Relief. It must be noted that Germany and Austria-Hungary were allies of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
The accounts describe systematic massacres, rapes and burnings of Greek villages, and attribute intent to Turkish officials, namely the Turkish Prime Minister Mahmud Sevket Pasha, Rafet Bey, Talat Pasha and Enver Pasha.[11][20][21]
Additionally, The New York Times and its correspondents have made extensive references to the events, recording massacres, deportations, individual killings, rapes, burning of entire Greek villages, destruction of Greek Orthodox churches and monasteries, drafts for "Labor Brigades", looting, terrorism and other "atrocities" for Greek, Armenian and also for British and American citizens and government officials.[22][23] The newspaper was awarded its first Pulitzer Prize in 1918 "for the most disinterested and meritorious public service rendered by an American newspaper—complete and accurate coverage of the war".[24] More media of the time reported the events with similar titles.[25]
Henry Morgenthau, the United States ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916 accused the "Turkish government" of a campaign of "outrageous terrorizing, cruel torturing, driving of women into harems, debauchery of innocent girls, the sale of many of them at 80 cents each, the murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to and starvation in the desert of other hundreds of thousands, [and] the destruction of hundreds of villages and many cities", all part of "the willful execution" of a "scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian Christians of Turkey."[26]
United States Consul-General George Horton reports that "[o]ne of the cleverest statements circulated by the Turkish propagandists is to the effect that the massacred Christians were as bad as their executioners, that it was '50-50.' " On this issue he clarifies that "[h]ad the Greeks, after the massacres in the Pontus and at Smyrna, massacred all the Turks in Greece, the record would have been 50-50—almost." As an eye-witness, he also praises Greeks for their "conduct [...] toward the thousands of Turks residing in Greece, while the ferocious massacres were going on...", which, according to his opinion, was "one of the most inspiring and beautiful chapters in all that country’s history."[27][28]
[edit] Casualties

Smyrna burning during the Fire of Smyrna

Smyrna citizens trying to reach the Allied ships during the Smyrna fire, 1922. The photo had been taken from the launch boat of a US battleship
According to various sources the Greek death toll in the Pontus region of Anatolia ranges from 300,000 to 360,000. Estimates for the death toll of Anatolian Greeks as a whole are significantly higher.
According to the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples, between 1916 and 1923, up to 350,000 Greek Pontians were reportedly killed in massacres, persecution and death marches.[29] Merrill D. Peterson cites the death toll of 360,000 for the Greeks of Pontus.[30] According to George K. Valavanis "The loss of human life among the Pontian Greeks, since the Great War (World War I) until March 1924, can be estimated at 353,000, as a result of murders, hangings, and from punishment, disease, and other hardships."[31]
Constantine G Hatzidimitriou writes that "loss of life among Anatolian Greeks during the WWI period and its aftermath was approximately 735,370."[32] Edward Hale Bierstadt states that "According to official testimony, the Turks since 1914 have slaughtered in cold blood 1,500,000 Armenians, and 500,000 Greeks, men women and children, without the slightest provocation."[33]. At the Lausanne conference in late 1922 the British Foreign Minister Lord Curzon is recorded as saying "a million Greeks have been killed, deported or have died."[34]
[edit] Aftermath
Article 142 of the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, prepared after the first World War, called the Turkish regime "terrorist" and contained provisions "to repair so far as possible the wrongs inflicted on individuals in the course of the massacres perpetrated in Turkey during the war."[35] The Treaty of Sèvres was never ratified by the Turkish government and ultimately was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne. That treaty was accompanied by a "Declaration of Amnesty", without containing any provision in respect to punishment of war crimes.[36]
In 1923, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey resulted in a near-complete elimination of the Greek ethnic presence in Turkey and a similar elimination of the Turkish ethnic presence in much of Greece. According to the Greek census of 1928, 1,104,216 Ottoman Greeks had reached Greece.[37] It is impossible to know exactly how many Greek inhabitants of Turkey died between 1914 and 1923, and how many ethnic Greeks of Anatolia were expelled to Greece or fled to the Soviet Union.[38]. Some of the survivors and expelled took refuge in the neighboring Russian Empire (later, Soviet Union)[citation needed].
[edit] Genocide recognition
[edit] Terminology
The word genocide was coined in the early 1940s by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent. In his writings on genocide, Lemkin is known to have detailed the fate of Greeks in Turkey.[39] In August 1946 the New York Times reported:
Genocide is no new phenomenon, nor has it been utterly ignored in the past. ... The massacres of Greeks and Armenians by the Turks prompted diplomatic action without punishment. If Professor Lemkin has his way genocide will be established as an international crime ...[40]
The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 and came into force in January 1951. It defines genocide in legal terms. There are a number of other genocide definitions used by historians and genocide scholars which some consider better suited for academic use.[41]
Before the word genocide came to exist in the 1940s, the destruction of Ottoman Greeks was known, by Greeks, as 'the Massacre' (Greek: η Σφαγή) or 'the Great Catastrophe' (Greek: η Μεγάλη Καταστροφή) or "the Great Tragedy" (Greek: η Μεγάλη Τραγωδία).[42] Primary source accounts would use improvised terms, such as "annihilation", "systematic extermination", "persistent campaign of massacre" and "wholesale massacre".[27][43]
[edit] Academic
In December 2007 the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), an organization of the world’s foremost experts on genocide, passed a resolution affirming that the 1914-1923 campaign against Ottoman Greeks constituted genocide.[44] Employing the term "Greek Genocide", it affirmed that Ottoman Greeks were subject to genocide alongside other groups, namely Armenians and Assyrians. The resolution was adopted on 1 December 2007 and the press release issued by the organization on 16 December.[45] The IAGS resolution was passed with an "overwhelming" majority. However, a few members of the organisation argued that more scholarship should be completed before a genocide resolution was endorsed. They included scholars who had researched and published on the Armenian Genocide, namely Taner Akcam, Peter Balakian, Stephen Feinstein, Eric Weitz and Robert Melson.[46]
Mark Levene has speculated that some historians avoid using the term genocide in order to prevent their magnification by comparison with the Armenian Genocide.[3]. Historian Mark Mazower states that the deportation of Greeks by the Ottomans was on a "relatively small scale and do not appear to have been designed to end in their victims' deaths. What was to happen with the Armenians was of a different order."[47]. On the other hand, and as per the IAGS resolution, Niall Ferguson, for instance, has drawn a comparison with the fate of the Armenians and believes the term genocide is fitting.[48] Moreover, genocide scholars, such as Dominik J. Schaller and Jürgen Zimmerer, have stated that the "genocidal quality of the murderous campaigns against Greeks" is "obvious".[49]
Seminars and courses in several western universities examine the events. These include the University of New Mexico[50] the College of Charleston[51], the University of Michigan Dearborn [52] and the University of New South Wales [53] which has a dedicated research unit.
[edit] Political
The Greek Parliament has passed two laws on the fate of the Ottoman Greeks; the first in 1994 and the second in 1998. The decrees were published in the Greek Government Gazette on 8 March 1994 and 13 October 1998 respectively. The 1994 decree affirmed the genocide in the Pontus region of Asia Minor and designated 19 May a day of commemoration, while the 1998 decree affirmed the genocide of Greeks in Asia Minor as a whole and designated 14 September a day of commemoration.[54].
The Republic of Cyprus also officially recognizes the events as genocide.[55]
In response to the 1998 law, the Turkish government released a statement which claimed that describing the events as genocide was "without any historical basis". "We condemn and protest this resolution" a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said. "With this resolution the Greek Parliament, which in fact has to apologize to the Turkish people for the large-scale destruction and massacres Greece perpetrated in Anatolia, not only sustains the traditional Greek policy of distorting history, but it also displays that the expansionist Greek mentality is still alive" the statement added.[56] The law passed by the Greek government also met some opposition domestically. For example, incorrectly interpreting the decree as pertaining to the Smyrna 1922 events and believing it to be politically motivated, the late Greek historian Angelos Elefantis claimed the Greek parliament was acting "like an idiot".[57]
On 11 March 2010, Sweden's Riksdag passed a motion recognising "as an act of genocide the killing of Armenians, Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldeans and Pontiac (sic) Greeks in 1915".[58]
[edit] Reasons for limited recognition
The United Nations, the European Parliament, and the Council of Europe have not made any related statements. According to Constantine Fotiadis, professor of Modern Greek History at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, some of the reasons for the lack of wider recognition and delay in seeking acknowledgment of these events are as follows:[59]
The Greek Genocide was overshadowed by a larger Armenian Genocide, a view also shared by the historian Mark Levene.[3]
In contrast to the Treaty of Sèvres, the superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 dealt with these events by making no reference or mention, and thus sealed the end of the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
A subsequent peace treaty (Greco-Turkish Treaty of Friendship in June 1930) between Greece and Turkey. Greece made several concessions to settle all open issues between the two countries in return for peace in the region.
The Second World War, the Civil War, the Military junta and the political turmoil in Greece that followed, forced Greece to focus on its survival and other problems rather than seek recognition of these events.
In his book With Intent to Destroy: Reflections on Genocide, Colin Tatz argue that Turkey denies the genocide so not to jeopardize "its ninety-five-year-old dream of becoming the beacon of democracy in the Near East".[60] In their book Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, Elizabeth Burns Coleman and Kevin White present a list of reasons explaining Turkey's inability to admit the genocides committed by the Young Turks[61]
[edit] Memorials
Memorials commemorating the plight of Ottoman Greeks have been erected throughout Greece, as well as in a number of other countries including Germany, Canada, the United States and, most recently, Australia.[62]
[edit] See also
Academic quotes on the Greek genocide
Armenian Genocide
Assyrian Genocide
Genocide denial
Greek refugees
Istanbul Pogrom
Human rights in Turkey
Megali Idea
Republic of Pontus
[edit] Notes
^ Rae, Heather (2002). State identities and the homogenisation of peoples. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 129. ISBN 0-521-79708-X.
^ Bloxham. p. 150
^ a b c Levene (1998)
^ Ferguson (2006), p. 180
^ Hobsbawm, E. J. (1992). Nations and nationalism since 1780 programme, myth, reality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 133. ISBN 0-521-43961-2.
^ a b c d Travis 2009, p. 637.
^ Hull (2005), p. 273.
^ King, William C. (1922), p. 437
^ Staff, The Atlanta Constitution, 17 June 1914, p. 1.
^ Avedian, Vahagn, The Armenian Genocide 1915: From a Neutral Small State's Perspective: Sweden, p. 40
^ a b c d e Rendel G. W. (20 March 1922)
^ Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, New York, 1919.
^ Avedian, Vahagn, The Armenian Genocide 1915: From a Neutral Small State's Perspective: Sweden, p.47
^ Akçam, Taner (1996). Armenien und der Völkermord: Die Istanbuler Prozesse und die Türkische Nationalbewegung. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition. p. 185.
^ Toynbee, p. 270.
^ a b Rummel (Chapter 5)
^ a b Taner Akcam, A Shameful Act, p. 322
^ Toynbee (1922), pp. 312-313.
^ Nikolaos Hlamides, ‘‘The Greek Relief Committee: America’s Response to the Greek Genocide,’’ Genocide Studies and Prevention 3, 3 (December 2008): 375–383.
^ a b Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: the genocide and its aftermath
^ a b Halo pp. 26, 27, & 28
^ The New York Times Advanced search engine for article and headline archives (subscription necessary for viewing article content).
^ Alexander Westwood and Darren O'Brien, Selected bylines and letters from The New York Times, The Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2006
^ Our Company, Awards, New York Times. See also Pulitzer Prizes awarded to the New York Times' staff.
^ Kateb, Vahe Georges (2003). Australian Press Coverage of the Armenian Genocide 1915-1923, University of Wollongong, Graduate School of Journalism
^ Morgenthau Calls for Check on Turks, New York Times, 5 September 1922, pg. 3
^ a b Horton[page needed]
^ James L. Marketos (2006). "George Horton: An American Witness in Smyrna". ahiworld.org. http://ahiworld.org/pdfs/George_Horton_remarks.pdf.
^ United Nations document E/CN.4/1998/NGO/24 (page 3) acknowledging receipt of a letter by the "International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples" titled "A people in continued exodus" (i.e., Pontian Greeks) and putting the letter into internal circulation (Dated 1998-02-24)If above link doesn't work, search United Nations documents for "A people in continued exodus"
^ Peterson[page needed]
^ Valavanis, p.24.
^ Hatzidimitriou, Constantine G., American Accounts Documenting the Destruction of Smyrna by the Kemalist Turkish Forces: September 1922, New Rochelle, New York: Caratzas, 2005, p. 2.
^ Bierstadt[page needed]
^ "Turks Proclaim Banishment Edict to 1,000,000 Greeks", The New York Times, 2 December 1922, p.1.
^ Treaty of Sevres
^ Bassioun, pp. 62-63
^ Geniki Statistiki Ypiresia tis Ellados (Statistical Annual of Greece), Statistika apotelesmata tis apografis sou plithysmou tis Ellados tis 15-16 Maiou 1928, pg.41. Athens: National Printing Office, 1930. Quoted in Kontogiorgi, Elisabeth (2006-08-17). Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: The Forced Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930. Oxford University Press. pp. 96, footnote 56. ISBN 978-0199278961.
^ Ascherson p. 185
^ MA Mcdonnell, AD Moses, "Raphael Lemkin as historian of genocide in the Americas", Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 7, Issue 4, December 2005, pp. 501-529
^ "Genocide", New York Times, 26 August 1946
^ Karin Solveig Björnson, Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations in Comparative Perspective: In Comparative Perspective, Transaction Publishers, 1998 ISBN 0-7658-0417-4, 9780765804174. p 133
^ See e.g. Hatzidimitriou, Constantine G., American Accounts Documenting the Destruction of Smyrna by the Kemalist Turkish Forces: September 1922, New Rochelle, New York: Caratzas, 2005, p. 1
^ Morgenthau, p.153
^ Genocide Scholars Association Officially Recognizes Assyrian, Greek Genocides
^ Greek Genocide 1914-23 Resolution from an IAGS press release as issued on 16 December 2007
^ http://www.genocidescholars.org/blog/?cat=40
^ http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n03/mazo01_.html
^ Ferguson (2007) p.182
^ Schaller, Dominik J.; Zimmerer, Jurgen, "Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies", Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 10, Issue 1, March 2008, pp. 7-14.
^ The University of New Mexico University Honors Program, The Holocaust, Genocide, and Intolerance (.pdf), p.28 Archived on December 21, 2006, from http://www.unm.edu/~honors/students/courses/PDFDescription-booklet-SPRING07-UPPER.pdf
^ College of Charleston, New Carolina, Managing Diversity Syllabus, Migration Patterns. Retrieved on 2007-02-04.
^ Before the Silence,The Armenian and Greek Genocides
^ The Pontian Genocide and Asia Minor Holocaust Research Unit
^ Issue 2645/98 & 2193/94, Government Gazette of the Hellenic Republic
^ Cyprus Press Office, New York City
^ Office of the Prime Minister, Directorate General of Press and Information: Turkey Denounces Greek 'Genocide' Resolution (1998-09-30). Retrieved on 2007-02-05
^ Fisk, Robert (13 February 2001). "Athens and Ankara at odds over genocide". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/athens-and-ankara-at-odds-over-genocide-691559.html. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
^ "Motion 2008/09:U332 Genocide of Armenians, Assyrians/Syriacs/Chaldeans and Pontiac Greeks in 1915". Stockholm: Riksdag. 11 March 2010. http://riksdagen.se/templates/R_PageExtended____21484.aspx. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
^ Fotiadis,[page needed]
^ Tatz[page needed]
^ Negotiating the Sacred: Blasphemy and Sacrilege in a Multicultural Society, Elizabeth Burns Coleman, Kevin White, p.82
^ The Greek Genocide 1914-23: Memorials Accessed on 2008-09-18
[edit] References
Ascherson, Neal (1995). Black Sea, New York: Hill and Wang, ISBN 0-8090-3043-8.
Avedian, Vahagn, The Armenian Genocide 1915: From a Neutral Small State's Perspective: Sweden, Unpublished Master Thesis Paper, Uppsala University, 2009 http://www.armenica.org/material/master_thesis_vahagn_avedian.pdf
Bassioun, M. Cherif (1999). Crimes Against Humanity in International Criminal Law, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, ISBN 90-411-1222-7.
Bierstadt, Edward Hale (1924). The Great Betrayal; A Survey of the Near East Problem, New York: R. M. McBride & Co.
Bloxham, Donald (2005). The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ferguson, Niall (2006). The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, New York: Penguin Press, ISBN 1-59420-100-5.
Ferguson, Niall (2006). The War of the World: Twentieth-century Conflict And the Descent of the West, Penguin Press.
Fotiadis, Constantinos Emm. (2004 ed.). The Genocide of the Pontus Greeks by the Turks: Volume 13, Thessaloniki: Herodotus.
Horton, George (1926). The Blight of Asia. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company. http://www.hri.org/docs/Horton/.
Hull, Isabel V. (2005). Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hulse, Carl (2007). U.S. and Turkey Thwart Armenian Genocide Bill, New York Times, 26 October 2007
King, Charles (2005). The Black Sea: A History, Oxford: Oxford University Press
King, William C. (1922). King's Complete History of the World War: Visualizing the Great Conflict in all Theaters of Action 1914-1918, The History Associates, Massachusetts.
Koromila, Marianna (2002). The Greeks and the Black Sea, Panorama Cultural Society.
Levene, Mark (1998). Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878–1923, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 12, Number 3 Winter 1998, pp. 393–433. (abstract).
Lieberman, Benjamin (2006). Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe, Ivan R. Dee.
Mildrasky, Manus I. (2005). The Killing Trap, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Morgenthau, Henry (1918). Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Garden City New York Doubleday, Page & Company.
Naimark, Norman M. (2001). Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe, Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
Peterson, Merrill D. (2004). Starving Armenians: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915–1930 and After, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press
Rendel, G. W. (20 March 1922). Foreign Office Memorandum on Turkish Massacres and Persecutions of Minorities since the Armistice
Rummel, R. J.. "Statistics of Democide". Chapter 5, Statistics Of Turkey's Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP5.HTM. Retrieved 4 October 2006.
Staff "Massacre of Greeks Charged to the Turks",The Atlanta Constitution, 17 June 1914.
Stanford J. Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw. "History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey", Cambridge University.
Taner, Akcam (2006). A Shameful Act
Tatz, Colin (2003). With Intent to Destroy: Reflections on Genocide. Essex: Verso. ISBN 1859845509. http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN1859845509&id=khCffgX1NPIC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&vq=&sig=VgQBQ4-HVjDy2Kju1RpfDdy3N8E.
Halo, Thea (2001). Not Even My Name, New York: Picador USA.
Totten, Samuel; Jacobs, Steven L (2002). Pioneers of Genocide Studies (Clt). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0765801515. http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN0765801515&id=g26NmNNWK1QC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=pontian+isbn=0765801515&num=100&sig=D8lv0QCu9iCqIji5nfiYvhBRC_Q&hl=en.
Toynbee, Arnold J. (1922). The Western question in Greece and Turkey: a study in the contact of civilisations, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Travis, Hannibal (2009). "The Cultural and Intellectual Property Interests of the Indigenous Peoples of Turkey and Iraq". Texas Weleyan Law Review, (Texas Wesleyan University School of Law) 15: 601–680. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1549804.
Valavanis, G.K. (1925). Contemporary General History of Pontus (Σύγχρονος Γενική Ιστορία του Πόντου), Athens.
[edit] Further reading
Books
Akcam, Taner. From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide, New York: Zed Books, 2004.
Andreadis, George, Tamama: The Missing Girl of Pontos, Athens: Gordios, 1993.
Barton, James L. The Near East Relief, 1915-1930, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1943.
Barton, James L., Ara Sarafian, "Turkish Atrocities": Statements of American Missionaries on the Destruction of Christian Communities in Ottoman Turkey, 1915–1917, December 1998
Compton, Carl C. The Morning Cometh, New Rochelle, N.Y.: Aristide D. Caratzas, 1986.
Karayinnides, Ioannis. Ο γολγοθάς του Πόντου (The Golgotha of Pontus), Salonica: 1978.
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.. The Murder of a Nation, New York: Armenian General Benevolent Union of America, 1974, 1918.
—. I Was Sent to Athens, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co, 1929.
—. An International Drama, London: Jarrolds Ltd., 1930
Hofmann, Tessa (ed.), Verfolgung, Vertreibung und Vernichtung der Christen im Osmanischen Reich 1912-1922, Münster: LIT, 2004. ISBN 3-8258-7823-6. (pp. 177–221 on Greeks)
Housepian Dobkin, Marjorie. Smyrna 1922: the Destruction of a City, New York, NY: Newmark Press, 1998.
Murat, Jean De. The Great Extirpation of Hellenism and Christianity in Asia Minor: the historic and systematic deception of world opinion concerning the hideous Christianity’s uprooting of 1922, Miami, Fla.: [s.n.], (Athens Greece: A. Triantafillis) 1999.
Oeconomos, Lysimachos. The Martyrdom of Smyrna and Eastern Christendom; a file of overwhelming evidence, denouncing the misdeeds of the Turks in Asia Minor and showing their responsibility for the horrors of Smyrna, London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1922.
Papadopoulos, Alexander. Persecutions of the Greeks in Turkey before the European War: on the basis of official documents, New York: Oxford University Press, American branch, 1919.
Pavlides, Ioannis. Pages of History of Pontus and Asia Minor, Salonica, Greece, 1980.
Tsirkinidis, Harry. At last we uprooted them…The Genocide of Greeks of Pontos, Thrace, and Asia Minor, through the French archives, Thessaloniki: Kyriakidis Bros, 1999.
Ward, Mark H. The Deportations in Asia Minor 1921-1922, London: Anglo-Hellenic League, 1922.
Articles
Bjornlund, Matthias, "The 1914 cleansing of Aegean Greeks as a case of violent Turkification", Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 10, Issue 1, March 2008, pp. 41–58.
Hlamides, Nikolaos, "The Greek Relief Committee: America’s Response to the Greek Genocide", Genocide Studies and Prevention, Volume 3, Issue 3, December 2008, pp. 375–383.
Vryonis, Speros, "Greek Labor Battalions in Asia Minor", The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies (ed. Hovannisian, Richard), New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers, 2007, pp. 275–290.
Internet Resources
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Greek genocide
Greek Genocide 1914-23
The Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
The Greek Genocide:1914-1923: Pontus, Asia Minor, Thrace