COMMENTARIES: CANCELLED GENOCIDE EVENT AT THE U.N.
Greek News, Greece
April 30 2007
The April 13 editorial on the canceled Genocide exhibit at the United
Nations rightfully criticizes the United Nations for succumbing to
Turkish pressure. We would like to point out however, that in addition
to the Armenians, there was likewise a conspiracy of Genocide directed
toward the Greek and Assyrian populations by the authorities of the
crumbling Ottoman Empire. As early as 1914, Greeks living on the
coasts of Asia Minor were summarily deported into the interior, and
eventually Greeks along with Assyrians fell victim to forced death
marches, massacres, and starvation.
The horrific atrocities of the Ottoman Empire were acknowledged as
can be seen by the initial efforts to free the Christian populations
from Turkish rule. Plans were conceived for the establishment of an
independent Armenian Republic, while Greece was officially invited by
the Great Powers to take possession of Smyrna and Eastern Thrace. In
addition, Constantinople was occupied by the Great Powers, thus putting
an end to Turkish rule. The later tragedies which led to the burning
of the free Greek City of Smyrna and the massacre of its Greek and
Armenian populations by Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal,
and the subsequent slaughter of Greeks and Armenians throughout
Anatolia bear witness to the illegal status of the Turkish Kemalists,
and the program for Genocide intended to eliminate once and for all
the native Christian populations whose democratic demands emanating
from the simple desire to merely exist conflicted with Turkish demands
to maintain territory inhabited by non-Muslim populations.
The subsequent abomination referred to as "Exchange of populations" by
the representatives of the Great Powers led to the forcible uprooting
and destruction of 1,000,000 Greeks from lands that their ancestors
had resided in for 3,000 years. Indeed, Genocide is the proper label
for the policies that were adopted toward Greeks and Assyrians, as
well as Armenians. The cowardly capitulation to the Turkish Kemalists
by the Great Powers stands as an example of appeasement and cruelty
by the West that condemned entire peoples to unspeakable terror
and suffering. The legacy of this appalling example of indifference
to the suffering of innocents remain with America and Europe to the
present day. Turkish ultranationalists maintain a firm hold on Turkey,
and neighboring states unable to defend themselves such as Syria and
Cyprus have fallen prey to the expansionist legacy that Mustafa Kemal
left behind in Turkey, and that now appears to threaten the democratic
ambitions of the Kurds in Nothern Iraq who are being targeted by the
Turkish paramilitary State.
Theodore G. Karakostas [email protected] Member of HEC Executive
Council