THE GREEK LANDING AT SMYRNA
(May, 1919)
I returned to Smyrna in 1919, shortly after the Greek army had landed
in the city. As the Turkish plan of extermination was well under way
before the arrival of the Greek troops, the Christian peasants had been
driven out of the entire region with the exception of the city itself,
and many had perished, their farms and villages being destroyed. They
had scattered over the Greek islands and the continent, and at Saloniki,
where the Greek government had constructed barracks to house them, there
was a considerable settlement of them.
Much has been said of atrocities and massacres committed by the Greek
troops at the time of their landing at Smyrna on May 15, 1919. In fact,
the events that occurred on that and the few succeeding days have been
magnified until they have taken on larger proportions in the public mind
than the deliberate extermination of whole nations by the Turks, and no
consideration seems to have been given to the prompt suppression of the
disorders by the Greek authorities and the summary punishment of the
principal offenders, several of them by death.
The facts of the case, as learned from American missionaries, business
men and others of undoubted veracity, are as follows: The evening before
the disembarkment there was a reunion of the Allied naval commanders and,
according to one of those present, there was a discussion as to the plan
under which this action ought to be carried out. My informant stated that
the American commander was in favor of cooperating with the Greeks by
policing the different sections of the city with Allied Marines, but that
the Englishman advocated letting the Greeks “run the whole show” alone.
This information is given second hand and its accuracy can not be vouched
for, but it seems probable.
At any rate, the advice attributed to the American was practical, but
could not be followed for evident reasons. We could not disembark because
we were, as usual, “observing”; and there was such strong jealousy
among the Allies regarding Asia Minor, that they could not go ashore
either together or separately. This was the first indication of the lack
of united support that ultimately caused the Greek disaster and the
destruction of Smyrna.
The whole responsibility was therefore thrown upon the Greeks, who landed
among a population, so far as the Turks were concerned, more insulted by
their advent than the white citizens of Mobile would be if it were given
over to a mandate of negro troops. To the Turk, the Hellene is not only a
“dog of an unbeliever,” but he is a former slave.
As the Greeks proceeded in the direction of the _Konak_, or Government
House, situated in the Turkish quarter, they were sniped at. I was
informed by numerous eye-witnesses, not natives of Smyrna, that the
sniping grew into a fusillade.
The sanitary expert of the American hospital, situated in the region of
the _Konak_, related to me the following incident: Hearing the sniping,
he ran out into the yard of the hospital, fearing that if shots were
discharged from there they might draw the Greek fire. He saw a Turk
with a rifle up in a tree of the hospital yard. He pointed a revolver
at him and told him to come down. The Turk obeyed. This informant was a
native-born American citizen, not of Greek or Armenian extraction.
The Greeks took a number of prisoners whom they marched down the quay
in the sight of the Allied and American battle-ships, making them
hold up their hands. They are said to have stabbed several of their
prisoners with bayonets in sight of the people in the houses and on
the ships. There was no massacre, in the sense of a general killing of
prisoners, but some few they did thus kill; this act appears murderous,
contemptible and idiotic, and the Greeks may be left to explain it as
best they may.
There was an uprising in the town, something in the nature of a riot,
and some more Turks were killed. Various estimates have been given by
Americans who were present as to the number killed, ranging from fifty to
three hundred. The latter is a high estimate. There was also considerable
looting, both in Smyrna and the outlying regions.
Speaking of this affair in a pamphlet entitled _The Great Powers and the
Eastern Christians_,[3] William Pember Reeves says:
“So far as the persons killed in Smyrna were Turks, they
numbered, I am told, seventy-six, killed partly by Greek
soldiers and partly by the town mob. About one hundred of
other nationalities were killed also. The ring leaders in
the business were executed by the Greek authorities and
compensation paid to the families of the victims.”
Where Mr. Reeves obtained his information is unknown to me, but it
coincides with that which was given me by Americans who were present and
whom I saw a short time after the landing of the Greek troops. I was
present in Smyrna when the ringleaders in the disturbances of May second
were condemned and shot.
It was here that the Greek governor-general displayed that resolution
and marked ability which characterized his entire régime at Smyrna. He
suppressed the disturbances completely in a very short space of time and
severely punished the evil-doers. Three of the ringleaders, Greeks, were
taken out to a square beside the railroad connecting Boudja and Smyrna
and publicly shot and buried where their graves could be seen by all the
people passing between that popular summer resort and the main city. This
trio had been previously tried by court-martial and sentence had been
executed immediately.
Many others were tried and received lesser sentences. The populace was
informed that Greeks disturbing the peace would be more severely punished
than Turks, a policy which was carried out during the entire Hellenic
administration and contributed no little to the unpopularity of the
governor-general among the native Christian population.[4]
Mr. Sterghiades, the Greek governor-general, ordered all those who had
loot in their possession to give it back immediately, under pain of
heavy punishment, and specified a certain warehouse on the Rue Franque
where it was to be delivered, and practically all the plunder was given
up. All Turks who claimed to have been robbed were invited to present
their claims to the government and these were accorded with so little
question that numerous Turks profited immensely by presenting false or
exaggerated demands. In addition, many Greek landed proprietors and
prominent inhabitants of the smaller towns went out into the country and
by haranguing the peasants and protecting the Turks, contributed greatly
to the restoration of order in the rural regions.
Prominent among these was a certain Mr. Adamopolos, owner of a very large
estate at Develikeuy, a village about thirty-five miles out of Smyrna,
who proceeded there and compelled his peasants to restore sheep and other
belongings, and threatened with dire punishment any Greek who should harm
a Turk.
There was also a lawyer by the name of Athinogenis who calmed an uprising
of Greek villagers at Boudja by explaining to them the real meaning of
the Greek landing. Mr. Athinogenis came to America in behalf of the
autonomy of Asia Minor and created a good impression here.
To this list must be added a certain Mrs. Baltadzis, wife of a
naturalized American citizen, who visited a farm owned by her near Smyrna
and kept the peasants in order. Tranquillity was soon restored, as much
by the influence of the better-class Greeks as by the severe measures
taken by the Hellenic civil administration. That it could be so restored,
was nothing less than a miracle when one considers the persecutions which
the Greeks had so recently suffered. Many of the Greek peasants had been
robbed and abused by the very Turks whom they would now gladly get even
with.
One incident will be sufficient to illustrate the sort of thing that
was smarting in the memory of the Christian peasantry: A small farmer
with a large family had planted a field of beans for food for his wife
and children—beans being one of the principal articles of food for
these people. A Turkish officer staked out his horse in this field,
whereupon the farmer asked him if he might not put the animal in a grass
plot, where was excellent pasturage. The reply was a horse-whipping,
accompanied by abusive and contemptuous epithets in the presence of
his family and the village, by the officer. This is a mild incident
illustrative of the general conduct of the Turks toward the Christians.
It is given because it came within my personal observation, and I knew
the farmer, who was a very worthy and self-respecting man.
Great numbers of the Greeks had almost unforgettable insults and injuries
smoldering in their hearts. Standing on the balcony of the Consulate, I
have seen a Turkish cabman pass a Greek confrère and lash him with his
whip, a cowardly act, because resistance on the part of the latter would
have meant death and there was no one to whom he could have recourse for
justice. In many cases the Greeks who took the Turks’ sheep were only
trying to get their own back, previously taken.
One sinister event occurred in a village not far from Smyrna, which
will be understood in this country especially in the Southern States. A
certain powerful Turk had made free with several Christian girls, and
soon after the landing the fathers and brothers seized and hanged him.
The virtue of their women is an extremely sensitive point with Greeks.
Mr. Sterghiades, the Hellenic high-commissioner, or governor-general,
was a remarkable man in many ways. A Cretan, like Mr. Venizelos, he had
been selected by the latter for the post, and a more difficult it would
not be easy to imagine. Possessed of a strict sense of justice and a high
ideal of duty, he lived as a hermit, accepting no invitations and never
appearing in society. He wished, he informed me, to accept no favors
and to form no ties, so that he might administer equal justice to all,
high and low alike. It soon became known that when he issued an order he
expected it to be obeyed.
On one occasion I was present at an important service in the Orthodox
Cathedral, to which the representatives of the various powers, as well as
the principal Greek authorities had been invited. The high-commissioner
had given the order that the service should be strictly religious and
non-political. Unfortunately, Archbishop Chrysostom (he who was later
murdered by the Turks) began to introduce some politics into his sermon,
a thing which he was extremely prone to do. Sterghiades, who was standing
near him, interrupted, saying: “But I told you I didn’t want any of this.”
The archbishop flushed, choked, and breaking off his discourse abruptly,
ended with, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Amen,” and
stepped off the rostrum.
The high-commissioner was once on his way to a country village to
officiate at the dedication of a school when one of his companions said:
“Some ugly stories are told about the priest out there. He refused to say
the prayers over the dead body of a poor woman’s child, because she did
not have the full amount of his fee, and it was buried without the rites
of the church.”
The high-commissioner made no reply to this and expressed no opinion. On
his arrival at the village a delegation came down to meet him, including
the mayor, the priest, etc. Upon being presented to the father, the
high-commissioner slapped the latter soundly in the face, saying:
“Wretch! I don’t want to know you. You are a disgrace to the Church and
to the Greek nation.”
“But this isn’t the same priest, Excellency,” explained the bystanders.
“This is a good man. We sent the other away.”
“Give him a hundred drachmas for his poor,” said His Excellency to his
secretary, and thus the incident was closed. At any rate, he had forcibly
expressed his opinion of the sort of man the guilty priest was.