İzmit massacres: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
not only is this sentence not sourced, it doesn't make sense. It is grammatically incorrect to a point in which it is hardly understandable
Line 17: Line 17:
}}
}}


The '''Izmit massacre''' refers to atrocities committed in the region of [[Izmit]], [[Turkey]], during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]]. An Allied commission that investigated the incidents, submitted a report, on June 1, 1921. In general it accepted the Greek claims that Turkish troops massacred more than 12,000 local civilians, while 2,500 were missing<ref name=Shkenk/><ref name="Reports11">Reports on atrocities in the districts of Yalova and Guemlek and in the Ismid Peninsula, p. 11</ref> and stated that the atrocities committed by the Turks in the Izmit peninsula "have been more considerable and ferocious than those on the part of the Greeks".<ref name=Shkenk>[http://books.google.gr/books?id=Y72rtTlfGgAC&pg=PT206&dq=samsun+1921+greek&hl=el&sa=X&ei=_JN_U8bZI-WW0QXpuoHgAg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=snippet&q=%22not%20withstanding%20a%20certain%20amount%20of%20exaggeration%20in%20the%20figures%22&f=false Shenk, 2012]</ref><ref name="Ionian vision p.215">Ionian vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922, Michael Llewellyn Smith, page 215, 1998</ref> The Greek claim that Turkish troops On the other hand Greek troops killed more than 300 local Turkish inhabitants.{{cn|date=July 2014}}
The '''Izmit massacre''' refers to atrocities committed in the region of [[Izmit]], [[Turkey]], during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]]. An Allied commission that investigated the incidents, submitted a report, on June 1, 1921. In general it accepted the Greek claims that Turkish troops massacred more than 12,000 local civilians, while 2,500 were missing<ref name=Shkenk/><ref name="Reports11">Reports on atrocities in the districts of Yalova and Guemlek and in the Ismid Peninsula, p. 11</ref> and stated that the atrocities committed by the Turks in the Izmit peninsula "have been more considerable and ferocious than those on the part of the Greeks".<ref name=Shkenk>[http://books.google.gr/books?id=Y72rtTlfGgAC&pg=PT206&dq=samsun+1921+greek&hl=el&sa=X&ei=_JN_U8bZI-WW0QXpuoHgAg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=snippet&q=%22not%20withstanding%20a%20certain%20amount%20of%20exaggeration%20in%20the%20figures%22&f=false Shenk, 2012]</ref><ref name="Ionian vision p.215">Ionian vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922, Michael Llewellyn Smith, page 215, 1998</ref>


==Incidents==
==Incidents==

Revision as of 04:09, 17 July 2014

Izmit massacre
Town map with significant locations.
DateJune 1920 - June 1921
LocationIzmit district, Turkey
Participants(mainly) Turkish nationalist Army and irregulars,[1][2] on a minor scale: Greek army, (insubordinate role) Circassian mercenaries[3]
Deaths<300 by the Greek Army[3] 12,000 by the Turkish Army (+ 2,500 missing)[1][2]

The Izmit massacre refers to atrocities committed in the region of Izmit, Turkey, during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). An Allied commission that investigated the incidents, submitted a report, on June 1, 1921. In general it accepted the Greek claims that Turkish troops massacred more than 12,000 local civilians, while 2,500 were missing[1][2] and stated that the atrocities committed by the Turks in the Izmit peninsula "have been more considerable and ferocious than those on the part of the Greeks".[1][4]

Incidents

A number of attacks of Turkish bands against the local Christian population was reported after the Armistice of Mudros (1918). This violence increased against the local Greek population, from March 1920 and especially during June-July 1920, when the advance of the Greek army in the region was imminent.[2] These groups were operating as far as Üsküdar, while some of them were organized by the Turkish National Movement of Mustafa Kemal.[2]

As a result of this activity, several villages of the region were burnt and their population decimated, especially in the regions south, north and northeast of Adapazarı, as well as south and southeast of Iznik.[2]

The presence of the Greek army in the region from July 1920, limited the activity of the Turkish bands, although in Karamürsel, south of the Izmit gulf, some Turkish nationalists groups were still attacking surrounding villages inhabited by Greek populations.[2]

Later, the Greek army in the region, was accused for supporting attacks against some villages east of Beicos. Accusations included the killing of civilians and the burning of small settlements.[5] Accusations also included violence perpetrated by local Greek civilians that previously suffered from Turkish atrocities [5]

From the spring of 1921, the activity of the Turkish bands increased in the region extending geographically to the south of Izmit, which resulted in the destruction of the Christian villages there.[2]

Evacuation of Izmit

In the early summer of 1921, due to the delvelopments of the ongoing Greco-Turkish War, the retreat of the Greek army was imminent. As a result a total of 22,000 inhabitans who had sought refuge in the city during the Greek occupation in addition to the ca. 10,000 Greek and Armenian inhabitants of the city who whished to be evacuated in order to avoid persecutions by the Turkish national movement, left the area.[6]

Aftermath

An Allied commission that investigated the incidence in the region accepted the Greek claims that Turkish troops massacred more than 12,000 local civilians, while 2,500 were missing was accepted by the commission as fundamentally true, "not withstanding a certain amount of exaggeration in the figures".[1][2]

Partial list of affected settlements

The Allied commission concluded that 35 villages in the region were affected due to the activity of Turkish bands.[2][1] A partial list of the villages according to Greek reports:[7]

  • Fulacık (burned and population partially massacred)
  • Büyüksaraçlı
  • Papuççular (burned)
  • Kartepe
  • 4 villages of Fındıklı region (population partially massacred)
  • Osmaneli (Greek: Leuke)
  • Ortaköy
  • Esme
  • Ak-hisar
  • Duzce
  • Bolu
  • Karasu 14 villages (among them Kestanepınarı, Parali, İncirli, Çobanyatak, Kirazli, Kasbaşı)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Shenk, 2012
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Reports on atrocities in the districts of Yalova and Guemlek and in the Ismid Peninsula, p. 11
  3. ^ a b Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1922). The Western question in Greece and Turkey. Constable. pp. 287–297–298–299. ISBN 9781152112612. OL 1108521W.
  4. ^ Ionian vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922, Michael Llewellyn Smith, page 215, 1998
  5. ^ a b Reports on atrocities in the districts of Yalova and Guemlek and in the Ismid Peninsula, p. 10
  6. ^ Solomonidis, 1984: p. 170
  7. ^ Evdoridou, p. 111-144

Sources