News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
October 26, 2007 Friday
News & Record Edition
Turks still must be held accountable
by JACK STRATAS
In your praise for U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., for his lack of
support for a resolution against Turkey, you showed a disregard for
history.
Troops from Turkey occupy half of the nation of Cyprus. Years ago, it
invaded the island, according to Turks, to stave off a merger of
Cyprus with Greece.
The Turkish government to this day holds in virtual captivity the
head of the oldest Christian church, the Orthodox Church. The
patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church is made to reside in a dusty
complex in Istanbul, a virtual captive of Muslim Turks.
Throughout history, the Turkish government has shown an animosity
against Christians, much as the News & Record.
In his book, "The Blight of Asia," Edward Horton, a retired U.S.
general in that area, lists atrocities committed by Ottoman Turks
against Christians. The butcher’s bill is: Chios Greeks, 50,000,
1822; Missologini Greeks, 8,750, 1828; Mosul Assyrians, 10,000, 1850;
Armenians, 150,000, 1895-96; Macedonians, 14,667, 1903-04; and,
finally, the massacre in Adana, in 1909, of 30,000 Aremians.
Horton features prominently the slaughter of indigenous Greeks in
Smyrna by Mustafa Kemal, the creator of modern Turkey.
No one knows for sure how many Greek Christians were slaughtered, but
we do know from pictures that they were either killed or driven into
the sea, and the city burned to the ground. This is a fact.
Many of the Greeks were on the Turkish mainland by request of the
sultan. Greek presence in Turkey reaches back to antiquity.
The red in the modern Turkish flag celebrates the blood of Greeks
slaughtered in Smyrna. There is a Web site you can visit titled
"Blight of Asia."
No one holds the Turkish nation accountable for the slaughter of
innocents, but they should. I support Democrats in this resolution.
The writer lives in Denton.