TURKISH SLAUGHTERS HIT MY GREEK FAMILY AS WELL AS THE ARMENIANS
Silvia Samaras Beres
Salem-News.Com
ticles/may162010/turkish-slaughters-ss.php
May 17 2010
Unfortunately, many resist recognition of the Armenian holocaust, and
support Israel’s effort to reserve that tragic identity exclusively
for Jews.
(EUGENE, Ore.) – Turkey is under fire around the world today for
genocide it committed a century ago, and which it has tried to deny
for almost as long.
As an American of Greek ancestry, I get satisfaction from the prospect
Turkey finally could be held accountable for its violence against those
of its people who were not Muslims– Greeks, as well as Armenians.
One of the victims was my father. I would not be here today if he
had not pulled himself out of a pile of dead bodies and escaped from
Turkey 90 years ago.
That thought came to me as I read of Turkey’s ambassador being called
home from the United States because a Congressional committee accepted
charges that Turks slaughtered more than a million Armenians just
after World War I.
My parents were Turkish citizens of Greek ethnicity living in Smyrna
near the coast of Anatolia. It was a cosmopolitan city of Turks,
Greeks, Armenians,Jews and Assyrians, and felt the fury of the first
holocaust of the 20th century.
After the city was destroyed by Mustafa Ataturk in 1922, the Turks
made sure to cover up incriminating evidence the rest of the world
might see.
Smyrna was rebuilt under the new Turkish name, Izmir. But documentation
of what happened has begun to emerge, especially in books by linguist,
Niki Karavasilis, who founded the New Hampshire series of workshops,
"In Search of Excellence in Teaching Foreign Language."
She describes how Armenians– viewed by the West as too marginal to
be relevant today– stay infuriated by Turkey’s efforts to cover up
history. They say Turkey’s goal to deny the truth should not invalidate
the truth.
Although I’m not Armenian, I know the truth of the accusation because
more than a million Greeks, my ancestors, suffered the same fate when
they were subjected to Turkish genocide. My father was alive when he
was thrown into a burial pit with other victims of the Turks.
Most were dead. At night, he managed to climb out and make his way
to the Turkish coast of Anatolia, his family home for generations.
He joined others on a raft that took them to a Greek island. I heard
the story from my mother, who as a girl had escaped the slaughter,
reaching the island of Chios. There Greek Prime Minister George
Papandreou gave refugees sanctuary. His grandson of the same name is
Greek prime minister today.
Many Greeks could not manage to flee to the islands. My grandfather
was among dozens of them forced into a church the Turks then burned
to the ground. That atrocity has become part of my personal family
history. So I resent persistent denials of guilt by Turkey.
It’s awkward for the U.S. because Turkey collaborated with our
country in the invasion of Iraq. For me, it’s a relief that some
members of Congress chose to bring the charges to the full Congress
in a resolution that would give validity to Armenian claims.
They are my claims, too.
What passed in silence even in Greek-American communities of my
childhood became part of an international debate during March.
Turkey got indignant when its slaughter of Armenians formally was
recognized by the Parliament of Sweden and the Foreign Relations
Committee of our House of Representatives. It reacted by recalling
its ambassadors from both countries.
Did anyone care? Not many except Americans of Armenian, Greek and
Assyrian heritage, and some Jewish-Americans sensitive from personal
experience to terror directed toward any minority ethnic group.
Unfortunately, many resist recognition of the Armenian holocaust, and
support Israel’s effort to reserve that tragic identity exclusively
for Jews.
The only governments to tolerate Turkey’s denial of guilt have been
the U.S., Israel and Azerbaijan. Turkey felt it could hide from the
truth as it slipped further back into corners of history.
photo: The Untold Holocaust: "Assyrian Genocide Documentary Part 1"
But it is learning the truth cannot forever be hidden, just as it
cannot deny having been a World War I ally of Germany during the
Armenian slaughters.
Horrors inflicted on my family and other Greek citizens of Turkey
were recalled on the CBS-TV program, "60 Minutes." It pointed out
that Orthodox Christian citizens of Turkey in 1900 totaled two million.
After the holocaust that began during World War I, 1/2 million
remained. Another 150,000 fled when they faced more violence in 1955.
Today the number has fallen to 4,000, among them the ecumenical
patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Bartholomew. "60 Minutes" featured
his plight and that of his few remaining parishioners.
But even it, like most news media, ignored the catastrophe suffered
by Armenians and Assyrians, whose ancestors, along with Greeks,
had lived in Anatolia for generations before there ever was a Turkey.
Can any kind of restitution be made to descendants of victims? I’m
one of them, but know it is not likely. What we want and expect is
justice that would come when the entire world indicts Turkey even as
it persists in empty denials.
Silvia Beres is a retired Eugene, Oregon, art teacher, and a
watercolorist who sometimes paints with words. A Tulsa native, she is
a graduate of Tulsa University, with a master’s from the University
of Oregon. Sylvia has been a resident of Eugene, since moving here
from Chicago (Evanston) in 1976. Her two sons are television newsmen
in Nashville, Tennessee, and Madison, Wisconsin.