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Great Fire of Smyrna

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Great Fire of Smyrna as on 14 September 1922
Great Fire of Smyrna as on 14 September 1922

The Great Fire of Smyrna is the name commonly given to the fire that ravaged İzmir/Smyrna starting 13 September 1922 and lasted for four days until the 17 September. It occurred shortly after the Turkish army regained control of the city on 9 September 1922, thus effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) in the field, more than three years after the Greek army had landed on Smyrna on 15 May 1919. The reason that the fire is not fully determined and is a still widely disputed subject. There has been allegations from all sides, blaming, the Turks, Greeks or Armenians, conflicting press reports at the time as well as analyses later, and there is also a theory that it was an accident caused by chaos. Some sources treat the fire in isolation through its specific relevance to the situation in İzmir, while others view it as a culmination of the destruction caused by the Greek army which had been rapidly retreating across the Anatolian inland since the Battle of Dumlupınar[1].

Accusations against the Turks are partially based on the 1926 account given by George Horton[2], the U.S. Consul in the city during the three years of the Greco-Turkish War, as well as the content of the 1971 book by Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, "Smyrna 1922. The Destruction of a City". However, some doubt Horton and Housepian's impartiality, as Horton had switched to a diplomatic career from journalism and was always Greece-based as a diplomat (consul in Athens twice, in Salonica in between and finally in Smyrna during the Occupation of İzmir), and was married to a Greek-American (Catherine Sacopoulo)[3]. Furthermore, in his book's introduction, Consul Horton states that "he was [in Smyrna] up until the evening of September 11, 1922, on which date the city was set on fire", which would disqualify him as an eyewitness, since the fire had started on 13 September. [3]

Dobkin produces countless eyewitnesses, including French soldiers stationed at the consulate, who had claimed to have seen people in Turkish uniform start the fires. According to Dobkin, the fact that only the Greek and Armenian quarters of the city were burned, and that the Turkish quarter stood, gives credence to the theory that the Turks burned the city. The author herself has family connections to the late M. M. Housepian, the frequent and valuable contributor to the New York Times during the First World War and its aftermath [4]

Portion of the thousands of Greeks, who fled to the water-front (Benaki Museum, Athens).
Portion of the thousands of Greeks, who fled to the water-front (Benaki Museum, Athens).

Turkish sources point out to other documents; for example the official report drawn by the Chief of Smyrna Fire Fighting Department, Paul Grescowich, an Austrian national of Serbian origin, as well as an alleged[citation needed] telegram from Turkish commander in chief Mustafa Kemal. Turkish sources also point out to information given by Mark Prentiss, an American industrial engineer present in Smyrna during the time of the events and who also acting as a free-lance correspondent for the New York Times. Prentiss clearly states the fire was systematically started by the escaping Greek population with the help of the Armenians[citation needed]. Pentiss's account is largely based of the first source, Grescowitch.[citation needed] Critics of Prentiss point out that Prentiss changed his story, giving two very different statements of events at different times. Initially, Prentiss was printed in the New York Times on 18 September 1922 (partially disawoved in the same paper on 14 November) as having cabled an article titled "Eyewitness Story of Smyrna’s Horror; 200,000 Victims of Turks and Flames". Upon his return to the United States, he applied Rear Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol to put a different version on record where he claimed that it was the Armenians who had set the fire. [5]

Ernest Hemingway was also in Smyrna during these events. They inspired his short story "On the Quai in Smyrna" in which Hemingway portrays a crazed British officer who describes the plight of Greek refugees fleeing the city [6].

Contents

Predictions

There were Western predictions of the Turks massacring Greeks and Armenians once they overran Smyrna. The New York Times reported, three months before Smyrna was burnt to the ground: Indications are such as to leave no doubt that the Turks are planning the extermination of this Christian minority (i.e. Greeks and Armenians) .[7]

Furthermore, according to the same paper, the government of Mustafa Kemal had sent a telegram to the Secretary of the League of Nations stating that, on account of the excited spirit of the Turkish population, Ankara Government could not be held responsible for massacres.[8]

Mustafa Kemal's telegram

As the fire spread in Smyrna, Mustafa Kemal, Commander in Chief of Turkish armies sent the following telegram about the events in the city.

FROM COMMANDER IN CHIEF GAZI MUSTAFA KEMAL PASHA TO THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS YUSUF KEMAL BEY

Tel. 17.9.38 (1922) (Arrived 4.10.38)

To be transmitted with care. Important and urgent.

Find hereunder the instruction I sent to Hamid Bey with Admiral Dumesmil, who left for İstanbul today.

Commander-In-Chief Mustafa KEMAL

Copy To Hamid Bey,

1. It is necessary to comment on the fire in İzmir for future reference.

Our army took all the necessary measures to protect İzmir from accidents, before entering the city. However, the Greeks and the Armenians, with their pre-arranged plans have decided to destroy İzmir. Speeches made by Hrisostomos at the churches have been heard by the Moslems, the burning of İzmir was defined as a religious duty. The destruction was accomplished by this organization. To confirm this, there are many documents and eyewitness accounts. Our soldiers worked with everything that they have to put out the fires. Those who attribute this to our soldiers may come to İzmir personally and see the situation. However, for a job like this, an official investigation is out of the question. The newspaper correspondents of various nationalities presently in İzmir are already executing this duty. The Christian population is treated with good care and the refugees are being returned to their places.[9]

Despite the telegram, the fire could not be contained and much of the city was destroyed. Furthermore, the fact that Atatürk explicitly stated that there should be no official investigation leads many Greeks and Armenians to speculate that he wanted to cover up the actions of the Turkish military in Smyrna. A larger picture portrays a Mustafa Kemal Pasha already focused on the Straits (Chanak Crisis), İstanbul and Thrace, in his title of Commander-in-Chief, and even further ahead, on the foundation of the Republic and the reforms he wanted to carry out, rather than the affairs of İzmir.

Orders Issued at the Scene

According to Greek sources, unfortunately for the Greeks and Armenians at the scene, Atatürk was not in Ionia at the time, and other commanders were at the head of the Turkish army in Smyrna. Despite Atatürk's orders, which they may not have received, Turkish commanders such as Mehmet Azit and Nurettin Pasha ordered the extermination of Greeks and Armenians.

To the Commander of the Central Corps. I call your attention to the following: Death to the Hellenes who lack honour. As soon as you are given the first sign, immediately destroy all. As for whatever regarding the women, don't hesitate. Don't consider neither honour nor friendship when comes the moment of revenge. The commander of the corps Mehmet Azit.[10]

Regardless, Atatürk was not on the scene at the time of the fire, as the Turkish forces were being led by Nureddin Pasha who gave conflicting orders that all of his troops should kill "four or five Greeks or Armenians." [11]

Turkish records did not note down the existence of a Turkish commanding officer by the name of Mehmet Azit during the Turkish War of Independence, or neither before or after.

Sources claiming Turkish responsibility for the Fire and the alleged massacres

Bodies of Greek men, women and children, lie in the beach of Smyrna.
Bodies of Greek men, women and children, lie in the beach of Smyrna.

Some sources have estimated that thousands of Armenian and Greek civilians died when the Turkish army reoccupied Smyrna in addition to the thousands of Turkish civilians killed during the fire. Lord Kinross's biography of Atatürk[12] (1964) refers to the deaths as individual and sporadic and places the total at 2,000. According to Kinross, the fire began when Turks, in trying to round up Armenians to confiscate their arms, besieged a group who had taken refuge in a house. They then decided to burn them out by setting the building alight. According to this account, other Armenians in Smyrna, meanwhile, started another fire elsewhere to divert Turkish attention, and it is argued a strong wind could then have carried both fires from the outskirts of İzmir inward. Many of the buildings, being of flimsy construction, were reduced to ashes. Armenian originated writer Marjorie Housepian Dobkin's more recent study[13] (selected by the Sunday Times Book of the Year in 1972) cites the estimate of Kinross that up to 100,000 people may have perished. Rudolph J. Rummel blames the Turkish side for the "systematic firing" in the Armenian and Greek quarters of the city. Rummel also argues that after the Turks recaptured the city, Turkish soldiers and Moslem mobs shot and hacked to death Armenians, Greeks, and other Christians in the streets of the city; he estimates the victims of these massacres at about 100,000 Christians.[14]

Many accounts proposed by some Western scholars that the Turks burned the Armenian and Greek quarters and Nurettin Pasha, the Turkish commander of troops in Ionia, is accused of starting the fire deliberately in an act of retribution. There exist conflicting eyewitness accounts and evidence over who started the fire. In a stinging criticism of the foreign policy of the Western Powers, the US Consul in Smyrna, George Horton, published his eyewitness account in 1926. He reported that he saw uniformed Turkish soldiers pouring petroleum near the US consulate. This thesis is supported by the fact that the Turkish quarter of the city was not damaged by the fire.[citation needed]

R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol, Commander of the U.S. Naval Detachment in Ottoman waters and then the U.S. High Commissioner to Turkey between 1919-1927 is also accused in the same context. In the memoirs of Sano Halo on the other hand written by her daughter Thea Halo it is claimed that: "R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol also pressed the U.S. not to allow the Allies to investigate reported atrocities. At the height of the slaughters and frenzy in Smyrna, and in the face of overwhelming eye-witness accounts by American missionaries and other reliable sources that Kemal's regular soldiers had systematically set fire to Smyrna, R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol took up the Turkish line of propaganda to blame the Greeks and Armenians." that R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol tried to shift the tone of the news reports concerning accusations of atrocities in favor of the Turks.

Dr. Lovejoy's Account

Another American source which was the subject of a New York Times article on 9 October 1922, Dr. Esther Lovejoy, Chairman of the Executive Board of the American Women's Hospitals and President of the Medical Women's International Association, discussed her experience of what she saw in Smyrna:

Never has there been such systematic robbery. The Turkish soldiers searched and robbed every refugee. Even clothing and shoes of any value were stripped from their bodies. To rob the men another method was used: men of military age were permitted to pass through all the barriers till the last by giving bribes. At the last barrier they were turned back to be deported. The robbery was not only committed by soldiers, but also by officers. I witnessed two flagrant cases committed by officers who would be classed as gentlemen. ... On September 28 [1922] the Turks drove the crowds from the quays, where the searchlights of the allied warships played on them, into the side streets. All that night the screams of women and girls were heard and it was declared next day that many were taken for slaves...And under orders to remain neutral I saw soldiers and officers of all nationalities stand by while Turk soldiers beat with their rifles women trying to reach their children who were crying just beyond the fence. [15]

Mark Prentiss and Grescovich's official report

İzmir's former central fire department building, recently restored, now houses the City Archive and Museum in memory of the late mayor Ahmet Piriştina
İzmir's former central fire department building, recently restored, now houses the City Archive and Museum in memory of the late mayor Ahmet Piriştina

Mark Prentiss, an American foreign trade specialist in Smyrna and an eyewitness to many of the events which occurred in Smyrna, was initially quoted in the New York Times as putting the blame on the Turkish military. Prentiss set foot in Smyrna 8 September 1922, one day prior to Turkish Army setting foot in Smyrna after 3 years of Greek rule, as a special representative of the Near East Relief (an American charity organization whose sole purpose is to watch over and protect Armenians during the event of the war) along with USS Destroyer Lawrence carrying the committee, under command of Capt. Wolleson. His superior was Rear Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol, U.S. High Commissioner to Ottoman Empire between 1919-1927, present in Constantinople. His initial published statements were as follows:

Many of us personally saw-- and are ready to affirm the statement-- Turkish soldiers often directed by officers throwing petroleum in the street and houses. Vice-Consul Barnes watched a Turkish officer leisurely fire the Cutsom House and the Passport Bureau while at least fifty Turkish soldiers stood by. Major Davis saw Turkish soldiers throwing oil in many houses. The Navy patrol reported seeing a complete horsesshoe of fires started by the Turks around the American school.[16].

Prentiss' statements were later changed, allegedly under pressure from his superior, Admiral Bristol, who was eager to support the Turks in exchange for Atatürk's government granting commercial interests to the United States.

In his report sent in the form of a manuscript to Rear Adm. Bristol, he states that Grescovich, who had been fire chief for 12 years at that time, found evidence, largely based on Prentiss' revised statements, to suggest that Greeks and Armenians were the source of the fire. He states in his report:[citation needed]

"(…)The motive, usually considered of supreme importance in crimes of this sort, does not clearly point to the Turks. They had captured Smyrna. The city, as it stood, was one of the greatest prizes ever taken in Oriental warfare. The Turks had unquestioned title to its foods, its commodities of all sorts, its houses. It was a store house of supplies most urgently needed for its peoples and armies. Why destroy it?

It was a matter of common knowledge, on the other hand, that the Armenians and Greeks were determined not to let this booty fall into the hands of their hated enemies. There was a generally accepted report in Smyrna, for several days before the fire, that an organized group of Armenian young men had sworn to burn the city if it fell to the Turks. Evidence gathered by Paul Grescovich, Chief of the Smyrna Fire Department, and carefully checked by myself, together with information which came to me from other sources, points to the Armenians as authors of the fire.(…)

(…)

While I was there a squad of from fifteen to twenty Turkish soldiers, under the command of the captain, came to take over the hospital for Turkish military purposes. The refugees were searched, as they came from the grounds, and arms of various sorts sufficient to fill a truck were taken from them.(…)

On the following morning, Wednesday, the thirteenth of September, the situation was critical in the extreme. Paul Griscovich, Chief of the Smyrna Fire Department, told me that he had discovered bundles of discarded clothing, rags and bedding, covered with[citation needed] petroleum, in several of the institutions recently deserted by Armenian refugees. Grescovich impressed me as a thoroughly reliable witness(…) Twelve years ago he became chief of the Smyrna fire department, which he continued to conduct in a very efficient manner, for that part of the world, during the Greek occupation. He told me that during the first week of September there had been an average of five fires per day with which his crippled department had to cope. In his opinion most of these fires were caused by carelessness, but some undoubtedly were of incendiary origin. The average number of fires in a normal year, he said, would be one in ten days, and the increase to five a day seemed significant.

(…)Sunday night, Monday and Monday night, and Tuesday, so many fires were reported at such widely separated points that the fire department was absolutely unable to deal with them. They were extinguished by Turkish soldiers.

(…)It was on Wednesday morning that Griscovich himself found evidences of incendiaries. He told me that early that morning had seen two Armenian priests escorting several thousand men, women, children from the Armenian schools and Dominican churches where they had taken refuge down to the quays. When he presently went into these institutions he found petroleum-soaked refuse ready for the torch.

The chief told me, and there is no doubt that he was sure of it, that his own firemen, as well as Turkish guards, had shot down many Armenian young men disguised either as women or as Turkish irregular soldiers, who were caught setting fires Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

At 11:20 Wednesday morning, at least half a dozen fires were reported almost simultaneously around the freight terminal warehouses and the passenger station of the Aidine Railroad.

It is noteworthy that these fires broke out in buildings which it was greatly to the advantage of Turks to preserve, and to the advantage of enemies to destroy.

(…)

During several weeks after the fire I had an opportunity to talk with many Turkish commanders, and they were all of one mind in leveling either bitter or philosophical accusations at their enemies for destroying the city(…) "Why should we burn the city?" they would ask. "Smyrna, with all its wealth and treasure, was ours. The fleeing Greek army had abandoned huge quantities of military stores and food supplies that were desperately needed by our armies and civilians. These have been destroyed, together with the warehouses and stations where many fires broke out. Besides, the fleeing Greeks and Armenians, many of them wealthy as you know, had abandoned everything in their homes and their stores. We were in absolute and undisputed possession. Do you think that we are such fools as to have destroyed everything?"

My attention has been called to many statements published broadcast in this country (United States) that the Turks were seen pouring petroleum around the American Consulate. I was in the vicinity of the Consulate most of the time and saw no petroleum.

(…)I have been able to find no evidence that either Turkish soldiers or Turkish civilians deliberately fired the city or wished its destruction.

The evidence all points in another direction..."[citation needed]

George Horton's account

Quoted from his book "The Blight of Asia":

THE last act in the fearful drama of the extermination of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire was the burning of Smyrna by the troops of Mustapha Khemal. (...)

(...) Sir Valentine Chirol, Harris Foundation lecturer at the University of Chicago in 1924, made this statement (“The Occident and the Orient”, page 58): “After the Turks had smashed the Greek armies they turned the essentially Greek city (Smyrna) into an ash heap as proof of their victory.”

(...) The main facts in regard to the Smyrna fire are:

1. The streets leading into the Armenian quarter were guarded by Turkish soldier sentinels and no one was permitted to enter while the massacre was going on.

2. Armed Turks, including many soldiers, entered the quarter thus guarded and went through it looting, massacring and destroying. They made a systematic and horrible “clean up,” after which they set fire to it in various places by carrying tins of petroleum or other combustibles into the houses or by saturating bundles of rags in petroleum and throwing these bundles in through the windows.

3. They planted small bombs under the paving stones in various places in the European part of the city to explode and act as a supplementary agent in the work of destruction caused by the burning petroleum which Turkish soldiers sprinkled about the streets. The petroleum spread the fire and led it through the European quarter and the bombs shook down the tottering walls. One such bomb was planted near the American Girls’ School and another near the American Consulate.

4. They set fire to the Armenian quarter on the thirteenth of September 1922. The last Greek soldiers bad passed through Smyrna on the evening of the eighth, that is to say, the Turks had been in full, complete and undisputed possession of the city for five days before the fire broke out and for much of this time they had kept the Armenian quarter cut off by military control while conducting a systematic and thorough massacre. If any Armenians were still living in the localities at the time the fires were lighted they were hiding in cellars too terrified to move, for the whole town was overrun by Turkish soldiers, especially the places where the fires were started. In general, all the Christians of the city were keeping to their houses in a state of extreme and justifiable terror for themselves and their families, for the Turks had been in possession of the city for five days, during which time they had been looting, raping and killing. It was the burning of the houses of the Christians, which drove them into the streets and caused the fearful scenes of suffering which will be described later. Of this state of affairs, I was an eye-witness.

5. The fire was lighted at the edge of the Armenian quarter at a time when a strong wind was blowing toward the Christian section and away from the Turkish. The Turkish quarter was not in any way involved in the catastrophe and during all the abominable scenes that followed and all the indescribable sufferings of the Christians, the Mohammedan quarter was lighted up and gay with dancing, singing and joyous celebration.

6. Turkish soldiers led the fire down into the well-built modern Greek and European section of Smyrna by soaking the narrow streets with petroleum or other highly inflammable matter. They poured petroleum in front of the American Consulate with no other possible purpose than to communicate the fire to that building at a time when C. Clafun Davis, Chairman of the Disaster Relief Committee of the Red Cross, Constantinople Chapter, and others, were standing in the door. Mr. Davis went out and put his hands in the mud thus created and it smelled like petroleum and gasoline mixed. The soldiers seen by Mr. Davis and the others had started from the quay and were proceeding toward the fire.

7. Dr. Alexander Maclachlan, President of the American College, and a sergeant of American Marines were stripped, the one of his clothes and the other of a portion of his uniform, and beaten with clubs by Turkish soldiers. A squad of American Marines was fired on.

British refugees from Smyrna

Mr. H. Lamb, the British Consul General at İzmir reported that he "had reason to believe that Greeks in concert with Armenians had burned Smyrna" [17]. This was also stated by the correspondent of the Petit Parisien at İzmir in a dispatch on 20 September 1922.

There were not only Greeks and Armenians but also British taking refuge from İzmir as the invasion ended. While some fleeing to İstanbul, where they think it can still be held in British hands, some fled directly to Britain. There had been no record of missing British nationals during the fire. There were also eyewitnesses to the fire among the British refugees. According to The Times dated 6 October 1922:

Thirty-six refugees from Smyrna arrived at Plymouth to-day, having been sent home from Malta.

(...)

Mr. L. R. Whittall, barrister-at-law, who has been in Smyrna for some years said there was no evidence as to who set fire to the town, but the consensus of opinion was that it was Greek and Armenian incendiaries.[18].

Turkish sources claiming Turks burnt Smyrna

Falih Rıfkı Atay, a Turkish author of national renown is quoted as having lamented that the Turkish army had burnt Smyrna to the ground in the following terms:

Gavur [infidel] İzmir burned and came to an end with its flames in the darkness and its smoke in daylight. Were those responsible for the fire really the Armenian arsonists as we were told in those days? ... As I have decided to write the truth as far as I know I want to quote a page from the notes I took in those days. ‘The plunderers helped spread the fire ... Why were we burning down İzmir? Were we afraid that if waterfront konaks, hotels and taverns stayed in place, we would never be able to get rid of the minorities? When the Armenians were being deported in the First World War, we had burned down all the habitable districts and neighbourhoods in Anatolian towns and cities with this very same fear. This does not solely derive from an urge for destruction. There is also some feeling of inferiority in it. It was as if anywhere that resembled Europe was destined to remain Christian and foreign and to be denied to us. [19]

Recently, many Turks have begun to question that nationalist narrative that is taught within their own country. Biray Kolluoğlu Kırlı, a Professor of Sociology, published a paper in 2005 in which he pursues an argument based on the claim that the city was burned by the Turks in an attempt to cleanse the predominantly Christian city in order to make way for a new Muslim and Turkish city, and focuses on an examination of the extensions of this viewpoint on the Turkish nationalist narrative since [20].

Another work on the subject is the short essay by the historian Professor Reşat Kasaba of Washington University, which briefly goes through on the multiple aspects of the event, without pinpointing clear accusations. [21]

Other sources

While some sources believed the fire to be the continuation of the scorched earth policy of the Greeks, some believed Armenians had received instructions to burn İzmir as a sacred duty and to bring about an international intervention.[citation needed]

Alexander MacLachlan, the missionary president of International College of İzmir who has also been an eyewitness to the fire states that Turkish soldiers seen to have setting the fire were actually disguised Armenians. An article posted on The Times of September 25, 1922 about MacLachlan is quoted as follows:

The Turks did not massacre Greeks, as Greeks had done to Turks in May 1919. About the worst the Turkish Army did was force captured Greek soldiers to shout "Long live Mustafa Kemal" (in return to their forcing Turks to shout "Zito Venizelos" when they entered Smyrna) as they marched into detention. Turkish soldiers protected International College during the disruption of the occupation; a Turkish cavalryman rescued MacLachlan from irregulars who nearly beat the missionary to death while trying to loot the agricultural buildings of the college. A three-day Smyrna fire (September 13-15), which Turks made every effort to control, destroyed nearly a square mile in Greek and Armenian areas and made two hundred thousand people homeless. Included in this loss was the American Board's Collegiate Institute for Girls. MacLachlan's investigation of the fire's origin led to the conviction that Armenian terrorists, dressed in Turkish uniforms, fired the city. Apparently the terrorists were attempting to bring Western intervention. Informing Washington of a three million Dollars claim by the American Board against the Ankara government, Barton requested through an aide that the U.S. participate in any conference planned by the Allies to rewrite the Treaty of Sevres. As the West talked of negotiating with the Kemalists, part of the American public began to realize that Armenianism and godliness were not identical. Ever since missionaries in the nineteenth century had become the dominant U.S. concern in the Ottoman Empire, opinion in America increasingly favored Christian minorities.[22]

Refugees From the Fire

Despite the fact that there were numerous ships from various Allied powers in the harbor of Smyrna, the vast majority of ships, citing "neutrality," did not pick up Greek and Armenian civilians who were foced to flee the fire and Turkish troops. Military bands played loud music to drown out the screams of those who were drowning in the harbor. [23] There were approximately 400,000 Greek and Armenian refugees from Smyrna and the surrounding area who received Red Cross aid immediately after the destruction of the city.[24] Other scholars give a different account of the events; they argue that the Turks first forbade foreign ships in the harbor to pick up the survivors, but, then, under pressure especially from Britain, France, and the United States, they allowed the rescuing of all the Christians except males 17 to 45 years old, whom they aimed to deport into the interior, which "was regarded as a short life sentence to slavery under brutal masters, ended by mysterious death".[25] A Japanese freighter dumped all of it's cargo and filled itself to the brink with refugees, taking them to the Greek port of Pireaus and safety. [26]

Turkish workers cleaning the rubble of the fire in the dire early years of the Republic
Turkish workers cleaning the rubble of the fire in the dire early years of the Republic

The Aftermath

İzmir Kültürpark covers a large part of the former fire area
İzmir Kültürpark covers a large part of the former fire area

It took years before İzmir, one of the biggest ports of Turkey, could recover and flourish once again to its former glory. The entire city suffered substantial damages in its infrastructure. The core of the city literally had to be rebuilt from the ashes. Today, 40 hectares of the former fire area is a vast park (Kültürpark) serving as Turkey's greatest open air exhibition center (for İzmir International Fair, among others).

See also

References

  1. ^ İzmir 1922: A port city unravels by Prof. Reşat Kasaba, Washington University
  2. ^ The Blight of Asia, An Account of the Systematic Extermination of Christian Populations by Mohammedans and of the Culpability of Certain Great Powers; with the True Story of the Burning of Smyrna; George Horton, 1926. [1]
  3. ^ [2] In an article published in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies ("George Horton: The literary diplomat)", Brian Coleman describes his subject matter as follows: "George Horton was a man of letters and United States Consul in Greece and Turkey at a time of social and political change. He writes of the re-taking of Smyrna by the Turkish army in September 1922. His account, however, goes beyond the blame and events to a demonization of Muslims, in general, and of Turks, in particular. In several of his novels, written more than two decades before the events of September 1922, he had already identified the Turk as the stock-in-trade villain of Western civilization. In his account of Smyrna, he writes not as historian, but as publicist."
  4. ^ New York Times reporting during the World War I and the Greco-Turkish War.
  5. ^ Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, 1972. Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City, ISBN 0-9667451-0-8.
  6. ^ In his critical study on ideas employed by authors to create variations of "Greece" to suit changing eras, "In Byron's Shadow: modern Greece in the English & American imagination", (limited preview), David Ernest Roessel points out that the Smyrna fire is the only event in modern Greek history since the Greek War of Independence to have a secure place in English literature, and this thanks to Hemingway's account. Roessel draws attention to the "laconic irony" in Hemingway's descriptions by giving a few examples, involving Greek mentality and behavior in particular.
  7. ^ "Predicts Greatest Massacre in History" New York Times, June 4, 1922
  8. ^ James, Edwin L. "Kemal won't insure against massacres" New York Times, September 11, 1922"
  9. ^ Bilal Şimşir, 1981. Atatürk ile Yazışmalar (The Correspondence with Atatürk), Kültür Bakanlığı
  10. ^ Haralabopoulos, Akis, Hellenic Council of New South Wales 1996
  11. ^ Haralabopoulos, Akis, Hellenic Council of New South Wales 1996
  12. ^ Lord Kinross, 1964. Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation, Phoenix Press. ISBN 1-84212-599-0.
  13. ^ Marjorie Housepian (Hovsepian) Dobkin, 1972. Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City, ISBN 0-9667451-0-8.
  14. ^ Rudolph J. Rummel, Irving Louis Horowitz (1994). "Turkey's Genocidal Purges", Death by Government. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-560-00927-6. , p. 233
  15. ^ "Woman Pictures Smyrna Horrors" New York Times, October 9, 1922
  16. ^ Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, 1972. Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City, ISBN 0-9667451-0-8.
  17. ^ Colonel Rachid Galib, 18 May 1923. Current History, V., "Smyrna During the Greek Occupation" p.319.
  18. ^ The Times, 6 October 1922. Firing of the Town, Plymouth
  19. ^ Falih Rifki Atay, Cankaya: Atatürk’un Dogumundan Olumune Kadar, Istanbul, 1969, 324–25
  20. ^ Kirli, Biray Kolluoglu Kirli. "Forgetting the Smyrna Fire," Oxford University Press 2005
  21. ^ İzmir 1922: A port city unravels by Prof. Reşat Kasaba
  22. ^ The Times, 25 September 1922. A Missionary Eyewitness Lays the Blame on Armenians, London
  23. ^ Housepian-Dobkin
  24. ^ U.S. Red Cross Feeding 400,000 Refugees, Japan Times and Mail, November 10, 1922
  25. ^ Rummel-Horowitz, p. 233
  26. ^ "Japanese at Smyrna", Boston Globe December 3, 1922.

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