Prior to the first world war, the Greeks of Edremit, including my parents and their brothers and sisters, fled the pogrom.
They made it to the ocean, but not before my father endured a critical experience in his life and received the last rites as they waited for the boats to arrive.
These events and the one in 1923 in Smyrna, that included the butchering, the raping and the torturing of Greeks, have made me deeply aware of the Turkish government's efforts to reinterpret and distort history.
A recent article by Taner Akçam, a professor of history at Clark University and the author of The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire, is particularly compelling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_genocide
Between the years of 1915 and 1923, more than half of the Pontic Greek population ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontic_Greeks ), or about 353,000 human beings, fell victim to what the world now knows to be genocide. These Greeks had been living in the region for close to 3 millennia and were systematically killed by the Turks, a people who originated in Central Asia. According to reliable sources the actual total number of Anatolian Greeks killed from all over regions of modern Turkey ranges from over 750,000 may have been close to a million people. The Greeks were targeted both prior to and alongside the Armenians and Assyrians of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Turkey's denial of the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian Genocides sets a dangerous precedent that makes future genocides more likely, The Turkish people must admit genocidal wrongdoings committed so long ago in order for there to be peace in the region and amongst neighboring peoples.
In late 1896 a rebellion broke out on Crete, and on January 21, 1897 a Greek army landed in Crete to help the rebels. The European powers, however, intervened landing troops on the island and proclaiming Crete an international protectorate while putting down the rebellion.
The Greek army was forced to retreat to the mainland, abandoning their fellow Greeks in Crete, to their fate. Public outcry forced the Theodoros Deligiannis government in Greece to declare war on Turkey on April 5, 1897. The Greek army attempted to advance northwards into Thessaly and Epirus. In Thessaly the Turks had concentrated six divisions of about 60,000 men under Ethem Pasha, with a seventh division joining a little later. The Greeks numbered just under 46,000, led by Crown Prince Constantine. The Greeks controlled the sea, outnumbering and outgunning the Turkish navy.
In early April Greek troops crossed the border, trying to start an uprising in Macedonia. The armies met at Mati. The Greeks were outnumbered, and retreated past Larisa, which was evacuated. Near Pharsala the Greeks re-established order, and a counter-attack was planned. However, Greek morale failed, and they were only saved because the Ottoman Sultan ordered a cease-fire on May 20.
Seeking to take advantage of the war between Russia and the Ottomans (this war would soon grow to become the Crimean War), Greeks living in Ottoman-contolled Epirus rebelled with the aid of Greek Army officers (who left the Greek military to aid the rebels). Despite some early successes against the Turks, the Greek rebels were defeated. Britain and France provided aid to the Turks, due to their alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Russia.
Your arguments are trying to cover or deny this fact. So the logical think one can do in this situation is admit the fact. Then you can start putting in within the context of your gibberish.
Ms Dukakis was just stating a fact she did not go into the why. Can your room temperature IQ get this?
I find it rather peculiar that you Greeks are using it's Turkish name 'Edremit' in your posts. It's probably becouse of the fact that deep down in your hearts you sense the very fact that the place has been predominantly Ottoman-Turkish for many many centuries and you really no hope of taking it back!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megali_Idea
Reinterpreting and distorting of history is no unique Turkish specialty.
We're you were hiding?
The ancient Greeks did not have a central state; the colonies of the various city-states did certainly not control Asia Minor in its entirety. Besides, that was over 2000 years ago. Maybe there's some Hittites who want their land back, too.
Nationalist imperialism, that's all.
By remembering the depredations we committed in the past we may be willing to avoid repeating them.
War and aggression is never pretty, or neat and tidy. There is always plenty of blame to be shared by all participants.
'Your'? Who? Where?
Please give reasonable explanations about Ms Dukakis motives?
The truth is that Greece waged an war of aggression against the remains of the Ottoman Empire at the urging of the British and lost. Accept it and move on. Screaming that you are a victim of the Turks will not change the fact that Greece's leaders made fatal errors of judgment and hundreds of thousands of Turks and Greeks paid the price.
Know this, however, you are no longer free to rewrite history to serve your purpose without objection from those who know the facts.
there isn't a nation in the world that doesn't have it's own national mythos - and as far as re-writes - i think in that regard turkey still takes the prize! that remains their burden to outgrow, as is just beginning to happen...
Even if that was true, the genocide of armenians, asia minor greeks, syriacs, and other non-muslims by the turkish population during several decades (1910-1930s) is much severe, than the thousands killed by greeks.
Why can't the turkish people and population acknowledge what happened was a horrible crime committed by the turks at that time and apologize? These people (Greeks, Syriacs, Armenians) were persecuted against in such a horrible fashion. The ironic thing about these people being killed or deported or transfered to a different land is that they had more historical rights to that land than the turks.
That's what the Ottomans did and those invading, the Greeks and the Russians with the aid of the Armenians, lost. Millions of people died on all sides while mindless militants fought a war, killing those with whom they had lived, shared food and their lives, on behalf of leaders who wanted a piece of Anatolia to ensure that they had control over the oil fields that were then under Ottoman control.
That's it, end of story.
The collective failure of the Greek military campaign against the Turkish independance, coupled with the expulsion of the French military from the region of Cilicia, forced the Allies to abandon the Treaty of Sèvres. Instead, they negotiated a new treaty at Lausanne. This new treaty recognised the independence of the Republic of Turkey and its sovereignty over East Thrace and Anatolia.
If you are you questioning God's judgment, you probably need to take that up in another forum, not in HuffPo.
were not kind to them and they did inspire fear on everybody else around them.
As a consolation, Turks were not unique in the treatment of others during that era.Hopefully now might be more civilized. Who knows?
On the other hand turkish harems did include unfortunately little castrated boys for the the pashas this is well documented.
Check your facts
as far as the parthenon is concerned, the turks believed that fairies (periler) built it...the local athenians were probably not much better informed...