ic Wales, United Kingdom
May 3 2008

Paradise Lost Smyrna 1922, by Giles Milton

May 3 2008 by Emily Lambert, Western Mail

HIS previous subjects include the spice wars and the white slave trade
` now journalist-cum-historian Giles Milton has turned his attention
to the massacre of Smyrna, the modern-day Turkish city of Izmir.

Celebrated as Islam’s city of tolerance, Smyrna was until last century
home to thousands of Europeans, Americans and Armenians; a thriving
port whose cosmopolitan population enjoyed peace and prosperity.

This harmony came to an abrupt end on September 9, 1922, when it
witnessed the terrible backlash of Turkey’s brutal three-year war with
Greece. Milton describes how two million innocent civilians were
caught up in the conflict as victorious Turkish troops entered
Smyrna. Women were raped, men tortured and hundreds of thousands
deported or killed.

Hopes that Greece’s allies would intervene were met by silence from
the 21 battleships moored in Smyrna Bay.

The book charts harrowing scenes as desperate residents and refugees
flee the city’s burning buildings only to be swamped by the crowds at
the harbour wall.

Eyewitness testimonies, diary entries, and letters ` some of them
published for the first time ` are all part of this meticulously
researched, informed account. Milton actually met survivors of the
massacre, who he says are haunted by the destruction of their city
`every day of their lives.’

The quality of the sources Milton employs makes up for the fact that
their constant quotation sometimes slows down what is a very absorbing
narrative.

With Paradise Lost Milton has built on his reputation for digging up a
little-told piece of history and bringing it to life in this, his
fifth non-fiction book.

At times a tale of personal suffering, it is also provides an
examination of political and religious relations at the time.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress