When it comes to genocide, the first thing that comes to mind may be what Nazi Germany did to the Jews during World War II, but in fact, the Turks also carried out a massacre against the Greeks in the country, but it was not as famous as the former, but the cruelty was even greater, and even Hitler claimed to be a student of Mustafa Kemal. So now let's look at the beginning and end of this massacre.
In 1829, the Greek War of Independence ended and the Greek side won the victory, and the Greek nation regained its independence from the 300-year-long enslavement of the Ottoman Empire. After the independence of Greece, many Greeks living in parts of the European territory of the Ottoman Empire immigrated to Greece to live, but there were still many Greeks living in Asia Minor, who did not return to Greece for various reasons and chose to continue to survive in the Ottoman Empire, which laid the groundwork for the future genocide of the Ottoman Empire.
Greek War of Independence
The Greeks lived in Asia Minor for a long time, even to the late Bronze Age. Due to the seafaring and commercial activities of the Greeks, there were many Greek cities on the west coast of Asia Minor, and many well-known ancient Greeks were born in or lived in Asia Minor, such as Homer, the author of Homer's Epic. Alexander's crusade greatly expanded the influence of Greek culture in the eastern Mediterranean, and the "conqueror of the world" established a vast empire spanning three continents, and Greek culture influenced not only the inland regions of Asia Minor, but even Egypt, which later generations will call the "Hellenistic Era". Although Alexander died shortly after the end of the Crusades and his empire fell apart, the Hellenistic kingdoms established by several of his successors continued for a long time, and under the rule of these Greek nobles, Greek culture became more and more influential in the eastern Mediterranean, and the local inhabitants and Greeks continued to merge and gradually assimilate into The Greeks.
Alexander's Empire
In the late Roman Empire and during the Byzantine Empire, Asia Minor was Christianized again, so for a long time the majority of Asia Minor's inhabitants were Christian (Orthodox), Greek-speaking Greek peoples. Even after the Ottoman Empire pursued a policy of Turkization in Asia Minor, many Greeks still lived in Asia Minor.
The Byzantine Empire collapsed in 1453
Due to changes in the domestic and international situation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire's position declined rapidly, and they began to see the minorities in their country (mainly Greeks) as a threat to the state. In order to solve the Greek ethnic problem in Asia Minor, the Ottoman Empire began in 1913 to implement means including forced immigration, racial persecution, etc. The Ottoman government emptied the inhabitants of many Christian villages, and some local officials were ordered to carry out acts of violence against the Greek nation. The Ottoman Empire claimed to be unaware of these atrocities. One of the worst acts of destruction occurred on the night of June 12, 1914, when a Greek town near Smyrna was destroyed by Turkish irregular forces, killing about 50-100 civilians and forcing the remaining residents to flee to Greece.
In addition to surprise attacks, the Turks adopted other forms of persecution against the Greeks. The Ottoman government recruited a large number of Greek men of the right age from Thrace and Anatolia into labor camps, who were forced to work hard work such as building roads and tunnels, and under ill-treatment, many Greeks died innocently and tragically.
Massacre of the Greeks
In order to solve the greek national problem at home, the Ottoman Empire also adopted certain diplomatic measures in addition to ethnic cleansing. The Ottoman Empire and the Greek government had reached a population exchange agreement between the Turks living in Greece and the Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire, but this agreement was shelved due to the outbreak of The First World War, but even during the population exchange negotiations, the Persecution of the Greek nation in the country by the Ottoman Empire did not stop.
World War I and the subsequent Greek-Turkish War brought the Ottoman persecution of the Greek nation to its peak. During World War I, the Ottoman Empire joined the Allies, while Greece remained neutral and then joined the Allies. As a condition for Greece to remain neutral, Germany initially demanded that the Ottoman Empire stop the persecution of the Greek nation, although the central government of the Ottoman Empire repeatedly instructed the country to stop the persecution of the Greeks, but the local officials still went their own way, continuing to attack and extort the Greeks in the country, which made Greece gradually enter the arms of the Allies.
The Greek-Turkish War
In 1916, the war situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable to the Ottoman Empire, and the Allied armies began to attack the Ottoman territory. In this context, the persecution of Greeks by the Ottoman government deepened, men were taken into labor camps, women and children were attacked, and Greek villages were destroyed. The Swedish ambassador to Istanbul once mentioned that "the Ottomans expelled not only men, but also women and children in order to better receive the property of the deportees".
In 1918, the Ottoman Empire surrendered, the Allies tried to divide it, and the Turks began a struggle under the leadership of the revolutionary Mustafa Kemal, which led to the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922. The Greeks hoped to take the opportunity to drive the Turks out of Europe permanently and retake Constantinople (i.e., Istanbul). During the Turkish-Greek War, Mustafa Kemal continued the massacre and expulsion of the Greeks under the pretext of the national movement.
Mustafa Kemal
As for the number of deaths caused by the persecution of the Greek nation by the Turks from 1914 to 1922, the academic community believes that it is about 300,000-700,000, and some even think that it can reach up to 1 million. The Treaty of Sèvres had accused the Turkish regime of being a "terrorist" who should repair as much as possible the negative impact of the massacres inflicted on the Greek nation during the war. However, the Treaty of Sèvres was eventually replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne, which was accompanied by an "Amnesty Declaration", so that Turkey's sins committed in the war were not prosecuted. The population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, and the Massacre of Istanbul in 1955, put an end to the history of Greeks living within Turkey.
Turkey's actions towards the Greek nation in the country undoubtedly meet the criteria of the Genocide Convention for "intent to destroy in whole or in part". In 2007, the International Genocide Society also adopted a resolution affirming that Turkey's actions against Greeks and Armenians during the period 1914-1923 were genocide and urging the Turkish government to admit its crimes.
The actions of the Ottoman Empire and later the Turkish Republic towards the Greeks also became a "model" for Nazi Germany, hitler declared himself a "student" of Mustafa Kemal and called the latter a "star in the dark", and the Nazi German media has always promoted the Turkish state's policy of ethnic cleansing of the Greek nation. It can be seen that the tragedy of the Jews is, in a sense, a continuation of the fate of the Greek nation. Both the Nazi massacre of Jews and the Turkish massacre of Greeks are undoubtedly an eternal stain on human history.
1. Caroline Finkel, Ottoman Empire 1299-1923, Democracy and Construction Press, 2019.
2. Roderick Beaton: Three Hundred Years of Greece, CITIC Press, 2021.
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