COURTS OF INDEPENDENCE: AMASEIA 1921
By Anastasia Rentou, [email protected]
American Chronicle
ndex.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9 8&Itemid=40
October 23, 2008
CA
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
THE EXTERMINATION OF THE RELIGIOUS, INTELLECTUAL AND POLITICAL
LEADERSHIP OF THE GREEKS OF PONTUS
SALONIKA 2008
THE HISTORICAL LEADUP
The first part of the 20th century has been stigmatised by three major
genocides: the Jewish, the Armenian and that of the Greeks of Pontus,
Asia Minor and Thrace. However the genocide of the Greeks of Pontus has
the following particularities. As opposed to the genocide of the Jews,
the genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor and in particular the genocide
of Pontus, a vast array of extermination methods were employed.(1)
Also, the genocide in Pontus became a holocaust. In other words,
this minority knowing full well the cruelty and satanism of the
Turk, didn’t transpire into an ´easy’ genocide. The Pontus Greeks
resisted vigourously, and therefore the genocide eventuated into a
holocaust. (2)
The undisputable crime of the Genocide of the Greeks of Pontus took
place between the years 1914 and 1923. The extermination of the
Christians of Asia Minor was made official with the confidential
documents of the Minister of Internal Affairs Talaat towards Vali’s
(prefectures) of Anatolia, the first victims being the Armenians:
"There is to be a complete forfeit of the right in work and in general
life of all Armenians living within the Turkish territory. The
government has the complete and exclusive responsibility for this
issue. Not even the children are to be excluded.".
Even more explicit was another written document which was saved in it’s
entirety to evidence this. . It was an order which was dispatched on
the 14th of May 1914, undersigned by the Minister of Internal Affairs
Talaat Pasha and the Director of of the same ministry Hilmi Bey. The
objective now, wasn’t the Armenians but the Greeks. In the meantime
the Neo Turks had the following to say "The Greeks in many regions
constitute the majority, which may turn out to be dangerous. They must
be forced to abandon their homes and be transported to the prefecture
of Erzerum, Erntitzan and elsewhere. . This is imposed for military
but also political reasons. If they refuse to vacate their regions,
give directives and use all means unbecoming".
In other parts of the document which gave ´directives’ on how the
genocide would be accomplished, it was boldly stressed that: "Before
they abandon their regions, force the Greeks to sign certificates in
which they declare that they are abandoning their residences willingly,
and at their own initiative. This is necessary, so that they don’t
have any political rights at a later date". (3)
Having taken into account therefore the likely repercussions from
the International community, the Turks decided that by this means,
they could cover up the crimes they were soon to commit..
THE CRIMES DURING THE GENOCIDE PERIOD
>From 1914 onwards, there was a declaration for the mobilisation of
Christians, which resulted in the "placement of Christians in separate
unarmed military units, the "work battalions". The primary aim of
these battalions was to do hard labour primarily in the building of
roads and other such work, however the work continued only as far
as the body and the mind allowed it to" (4). At the same, the death
marches to the interior were initiated. The pretext used was that they
were for superior military reasons. As a result they were termed the
"white deaths". As the Metropolite Germanos Karavaggelis recounts
"… after the extermination of the Armenians… the time now came
for the Greeks. Since however the news of the deportations soon
reached the European and American press… the Turks did not in the
beginning dare to proceed with the massive slaughters, but continued
with the deportations/white deaths (le massacre blanc). In 1916 the
displacements of the Greeks began with its primary aim being death
from hunger and hardship". The first phase of the genocide thus ceases
with the end of the First World War, however the Kemalist period that
began in 1919 and which signalled the arrival of Kemal Ataturk at
the port of Samsunda (Samsun) on the 19th of May of the same year,(5)
still proves to be harder and more inhumane. The slaughters henceforth
become part of everyday routine, and the exiles continued.
In the period 1920-1921, Pontus is ravaged by death and despair to
such a degree, the deportations and massacres having intensified to
such a degree and with such intensity, that "the entire scheme
of ethnic cleansing had openly taken the form of a complete
genocide. It’s important to note the fact that the crimes committed
by the Turks between 1920-21, were admitted by seniors in the Ottoman
Administration,who had direct knowledge of exactly what was happening
in Pontus."(6)
The following reports paint a harrowing picture as to the dire
seriousness during this time period:
"Throughout the entire Spring of 1920 the slaughters had become a
daily occurrence".(7)
"On the 30th of April the Kemalists attacked the village Kioseli,
in the province of Tokat. The leader of the large gang was
Karamistich. This evil man was a convict in the prisons of Tokat,
serving a life sentence. Along with 10 other criminals, he had been
released 5 months earlier, by the direct command of Kemal Ataturk
himself. The Kemalist powers have turned all their criminal towards
the defenceless Greek villagers of the region".(8)
"Those unfortunate Greeks who in certain regions had survived the
previous orders to leave their towns and villages, now found death
in their own homes, where they were now being set upon by raging
Kemalists."(9)
"On the15th of June 1921 the main executioner of the Pontian Greeks,
Topal Osman invaded the villages of Erpaa, slaughtering the entire
unarmed Greek population."(10)
"On that fateful summer, 5 groups of unarmed civilians departed on
course to their eventual death, from Trapezounta and Kerasounta. Each
group being marched out in long columns made up of 500 civilians
each. Their destination was far away Malateia which was located in
the interior of Anatolia, a place which they arrived at in December
of 1921. Very few survived these death marches. In the same period,
over 7000 Pontian Greeks had died of hunger and exposure in Harpout. A
document which was sent to the Greek administration in Smyrna on
the 30th of December of the same year (1921), made mention that the
Labor Batallions had ended; of the 3000 Pontian Greek who were in
Harpout, only 30 survived. And in Sebasteia, of the 8000 lives there,
approximately 300 survived. A similar situation existed in the whole
of Anatolia.".(11)
And while the population of Pontus was being massacred in numerous
ways, the anti-Greek sentiment amongst the Turks who were perpetrating
this crime was being supported by the religious, the intellectual
and also the political leadership. George Kandilaptis-Kanis, a
schoolteacher and journalist who lived through the tragic moments of
the Genocide, recalls the following: "When the cowardly English and
French troups abandoned Anatolia and the Greeks raised the blue and
white flag at the bastions of Eski-Sehir and Ousakiou, the barbaric
and dishonest Turkish Government began employing its centuries
old program. That of the extermination of Anatolian Hellenism. It
commenced the Independence Courts in Amaseia with the pretext of
destroying the initiators of the Pontus question, but primarily its
aim was to destroy the flourishing Greek communities of Pontus, in
other words the tradesmen, the lawyers, the doctors, the pharmacists,
school teachers, priests and journalists".(12)
to be continued….
References
(1) Tsirkinidis, Genocide p. 125
(2)Tsirkinidis, Genocide p68
(3) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.17
(4) Tsirkinidis, Genocide p.88
(5) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.25
(6) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.26
(7) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.27
(8) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.27
(9) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.28
(10) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.30
(11) Karkaletsis, The Pontian Freedom Fight p.32
(12) Kandilaptis, Miscellanies p.38-39
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