Greek genocide

Not to be confused with Greek Operation of the NKVD.

Greek genocide
Part of World War I, the aftermath of World War I and the late Ottoman genocides
Greek civilians mourn their dead relatives, Great Fire of Smyrna, 1922
LocationOttoman Empire
Date1913–1923[1]
TargetGreek population, particularly from Pontus, Cappadocia, Ionia and Eastern Thrace
Attack type
Deportation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, death marches
Deaths300,000–900,000[2][3] (see casualties section below)
PerpetratorsOttoman Empire, Turkish National Movement
TrialsOttoman Special Military Tribunal
MotiveAnti-Greek sentiment, Turkification, Anti-Eastern Orthodox sentiment
Greek genocide
Background
Young Turk Revolution, Ottoman Greeks, Pontic Greeks, Ottoman Empire
The genocide
Labour Battalions, Death march, Pontic Greek genocide, Massacre of Phocaea, Evacuation of Ayvalik, İzmit massacres, 1914 Greek deportations, Samsun deportations, Amasya trials, Burning of Smyrna
Foreign aid and relief
Relief Committee for Greeks of Asia Minor, American Committee for Relief in the Near East
Responsible parties
Young Turks or Committee of Union and Progress
Three Pashas: Talat, Enver, Djemal
Bahaeddin Şakir, Teskilati Mahsusa or Special Organization, Nureddin Pasha, Topal Osman, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
See also
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), Greeks in Turkey, Population Exchange, Greek refugees, Armenian genocide, Sayfo, Diyarbekir genocide, Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, Malta Tribunals
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The Greek genocide[4][5][6][7][A 1] (Greek: Γενοκτονία των Ελλήνων, romanized: Genoktonía ton Ellínon), which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia, which was carried out mainly during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1922) – including the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) – on the basis of their religion and ethnicity.[13] It was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the Government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,[1] against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire. The genocide included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches through the Syrian Desert,[14] expulsions, summary executions, and the destruction of Eastern Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious monuments.[15] Several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period.[16] Most of the refugees and survivors fled to Greece (adding over a quarter to the prior population of Greece).[17] Some, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire.

By late 1922, most of the Greeks of Asia Minor had either fled or had been killed.[18] Those remaining were transferred to Greece under the terms of the later 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, which formalized the exodus and barred the return of the refugees. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Armenians, and some scholars and organizations have recognized these events as part of the same genocidal policy.[19][7][20][6][21]

The Allies of World War I condemned the Ottoman government–sponsored massacres. In 2007, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution recognising the Ottoman campaign against its Christian minorities, including the Greeks, as genocide.[7] Some other organisations have also passed resolutions recognising the Ottoman campaign against these Christian minorities as genocide, as have the national legislatures of Greece,[22][23][5] Cyprus,[24] the United States,[25][26][27][28] Sweden,[29][30] Armenia,[31] the Netherlands,[32][33] Germany,[34][35] Austria[36][37] and the Czech Republic.[38][39][40]

  1. ^ a b Meichanetsidis, Vasileios (2015). "The Genocide of the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, 1913–1923: A Comprehensive Overview". Genocide Studies International. 9 (1): 104–173. doi:10.3138/gsi.9.1.06. ISSN 2291-1847. S2CID 154870709. The genocide was committed by two subsequent and chronologically, ideologically, and organically interrelated and interconnected dictatorial and chauvinist regimes: (1) the regime of the CUP, under the notorious triumvirate of the three pashas (Üç Paşalar), Talât, Enver, and Cemal, and (2) the rebel government at Samsun and Ankara, under the authority of the Grand National Assembly (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi) and Kemal. Although the process had begun before the Balkan Wars, the final and most decisive period started immediately after WWI and ended with the almost total destruction of the Pontic Greeks
  2. ^ Sjöberg 2016, p. 234: "Activists tend to inflate the overall total of Ottoman Greek deaths, from the cautious estimates between 300,000 to 700,000..."
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jones166 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ AINA (2015a); AINA (2015b); Armenpress (2015)
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ETGRSep14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Schaller, Dominik J; Zimmerer, Jürgen (2008). "Late Ottoman genocides: the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and Young Turkish population and extermination policies—Introduction". Journal of Genocide Research. 10 (1): 7–14. doi:10.1080/14623520801950820. S2CID 71515470.
  7. ^ a b c "Resolution" (PDF). IAGS. 16 December 2007. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 April 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2015..
  8. ^ |"Genoktonía í Ethnokátharsi teliká" Γενοκτονία ή Εθνοκάθαρση τελικά [Genocide or ethnic cleansing after all]. On Alert (in Greek). 4 November 2015. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018.
  9. ^ Andrianópoulos, Andréas (5 November 2015). "Genoktonía kai Ethnokátharsi" Γενοκτονία και Εθνοκάθαρση [Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing]. News24/7 (in Greek).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Schwartz, Michael (2013). Ethnische 'Säuberungen' in der Moderne. Globale Wechselwirkungen nationalistischer und rassistischer Gewaltpolitik im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [Ethnic 'cleansing' in the modern age. Global interactions of nationalist and racist violent politics in the 19th and 20th centuries] (in German). Oldenbourg, München: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-486-70425-9.
  12. ^ Barth, Boris (2006). Genozid. Völkermord im 20. Jahrhundert. Geschichte, Theorien, Kontroversen [Genocide: Genocide in the 20th Century: History, theories, controversies] (in German). München: C.H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-40652-865-1.
  13. ^ Jones 2010a, p. 163.
  14. ^ Weisband, Edward (2017). The Macabresque: Human Violation and Hate in Genocide, Mass Atrocity and Enemy-Making. Oxford University Press. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-19-067789-3 – via Google Books.
  15. ^ Law I, Jacobs A, Kaj N, Pagano S, Koirala BS (20 October 2014). Mediterranean racisms: connections and complexities in the racialization of the Mediterranean region. Basingstoke: Springer. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-137-26347-6. OCLC 893607294 – via Google Books.
  16. ^ Jones 2006, pp. 154–55.
  17. ^ Howland, Charles P. (11 October 2011). "Greece and Her Refugees". Foreign Affairs. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  18. ^ Gibney MJ, Hansen R, eds. (2005). Immigration and Asylum: from 1900 to the Present. Vol. 3. ABC-CLIO. p. 377. ISBN 978-1-57607-796-2. OCLC 250711524. The total number of Christians who fled to Greece was probably in the region of 1.2 million with the main wave occurring in 1922 before the signing of the convention. According to the official records of the Mixed Commission set up to monitor the movements, the "Greeks' who were transferred after 1923 numbered 189,916 and the number of Muslims expelled to Turkey was 355,635 [Ladas I932, 438–439; but using the same source Eddy 1931, 201 states that the post-1923 exchange involved 192,356 Greeks from Turkey and 354,647 Muslims from Greece].
  19. ^ Jones 2010, pp. 171–2: 'A resolution was placed before the IAGS membership to recognize the Greek and Assyrian/Chaldean components of the Ottoman genocide against Christians, alongside the Armenian strand of the genocide (which the IAGS has already formally acknowledged). The result, passed emphatically in December 2007 despite not inconsiderable opposition, was a resolution which I co-drafted, reading as follows:...'
  20. ^ "Genocide Resolution approved by Swedish Parliament", News (full text), AM, 24 September 2023, containing both the IAGS and the Swedish resolutions.
  21. ^ Gaunt, David (2006). Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias. doi:10.31826/9781463210816. ISBN 9781593333010.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference ETGRMay19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference GreekReporter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference MOI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ "Text - H.Res.296 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide". 29 October 2019.
  26. ^ "Text - S.Res.150 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that it is the policy of the United States to commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance". 12 December 2019.
  27. ^ "House Passes Resolution Recognizing Armenian Genocide". The New York Times. 29 October 2021. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  28. ^ "US House says Armenian mass killing was genocide". BBC News. 30 October 2019.
  29. ^ Simpson, Peter Vinthagen (11 March 2010). "Sweden to recognize Armenian genocide". The Local. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  30. ^ "Sweden: Parliament Approves Resolution on Armenian Genocide". loc.gov. 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  31. ^ Armenpress 2015.
  32. ^ "Dutch Parliament Recognizes Greek, Assyrian and Armenian Genocide". greekreporter.com. 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  33. ^ AINA 2015a.
  34. ^ "German Bundestag recognizes the Armenian Genocide". armradio.am. 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  35. ^ "Bundestag calls Turkish crimes against Armenians genocide". b92.net. 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  36. ^ AINA 2015b.
  37. ^ "Austrian Parliament Recognizes Armenian Genocide". MassisPost. 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
  38. ^ "Czech Parliament Approves Armenian Genocide Resolution". The Armenian Weekly. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  39. ^ "Czech Republic recognizes the Armenian Genocide". Armenpress. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  40. ^ "Czech Republic Parliament recognizes the Armenian Genocide". ArmRadio. 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.


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