Greek genocide: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''Pontic Greek [[Genocide]]'''<ref name=TatzJatz>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN1859845509&id=khCffgX1NPIC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&vq=&sig=VgQBQ4-HVjDy2Kju1RpfDdy3N8E | title= With Intent to Destroy: Reflections on Genocide | first =Colin Tatz | last=Cohn Jatz | publisher=Verso |year=2003 | ISBN=1859845509 | location=Essex}}</ref><ref name="Rummel">{{cite web| url= http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP5.HTM |title= Statistics of Democide | work=Chapter 5, Statistics Of Turkey's Democide Estimates, Calculations, And Sources |author=[[R. J. Rummel]] | accessmonthday= October 4 | accessyear=2006}}</ref><ref name=TottenJacobs>{{cite book| url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN0765801515&id=g26NmNNWK1QC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=pontian+isbn:0765801515&num=100&sig=D8lv0QCu9iCqIji5nfiYvhBRC_Q&hl=en| title= Pioneers of Genocide Studies (Clt)| first=Samuel Totten |last= Steven L. Jacobs | year=2002 | pages= 207, 213 | ISBN= 0765801515 | publisher: Transaction Publishers | location=New Brunswick, New Jersey }}</ref> is a controversial term used to refer to the fate of Pontic Greeks during and in the aftermath of [[World War I]]. Other terms used are '''Pontic tragedy''',<ref name= Tragedy>''[http://www.helleniccomserve.com/genealogy.html Black Book: The Tragedy of Pontus, 1914-1922]''</ref> '''Pontic annihilation''',<ref name=Annihilation>Photiades, Kostas (1987), ''[http://www.greek-genocide.org//docs/the_annihilation_of_the_greeks_in_pontus.pdf The Annihilation of the Greeks in Pontos by the Turks]'', University of Tübingen, Germany.</ref> and the '''Turkish atrocities in Pontos and Asia Minor'''.<ref name=Atrocities>Baltazzi, E.G., (1922), ''[http://www.greek-genocide.org//docs/les_atrocites_turques_en_asie_mineure_et_dans_le_pont.pdf Les atrocités turques en Asie Mineure et dans le Pont]'', Athens</ref>

These terms are used to refer to the [[persecution]]s, [[massacre]]s, [[expulsion]]s, and [[death marches]] of [[Pontic Greeks|Pontian Greek]] populations in the historical region of [[Pontus]], the southeastern [[Black Sea]] provinces of the [[Ottoman Empire]], during the early 20th century by the [[Young Turks|Young Turk]] administration. It has been argued that the massacres of Greeks were continued in Pontus and elsewhere during the Turkish national movement<ref name="Rendel">Foreign Office Memorandum by Mr. G.W. Rendel on Turkish Massacres and Persecutions of Minorities since the Armistice, [[March 20]], [[1922]], ''(a)'' Paragraph 7, ''(b)'' Paragraph 35, ''(c)'' Paragraph 24, ''(d)'' Paragraph 1, ''(e)'' Paragraph 2</ref><ref name= Akcam> Taner Akcam, ''From Empire to Republic, Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide'', [[September 4]], [[2004]], Zed Books, pages ''(a)'' 240, ''(b)'' 145</ref><ref name=Levene>[http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/393 ''Creating a Modern "Zone of Genocide": The Impact of Nation- and State-Formation on Eastern Anatolia, 1878–1923''], by Mark Levene, University of Warwick, © 1998 by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum</ref>, which was organized in retribution for [[Greece]]'s invasion of western [[Anatolia]].<ref name="Toynbee">Arnold J. Toynbee, ''The Western question in Greece and Turkey: a study in the contact of civilisations'', Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922, pp. 312-313.</ref> There were both spontaneous and organized atrocities on either side since the Greek [[occupation of Smyrna]]<ref>Arnold J. Toynbee, Western Question, p. 270</ref> and throughout 1919-22, the period of the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]] .<ref>Taner Akcam, A shameful Act, p. 322</ref> After 1919, both the Greek and Turkish national movements either massacred or expelled the other groups under their control.<ref>Taner Akcam, ''A Shameful Act'', p. 322</ref> [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)#Greek massacres of Turks|Massacres of Turks]] were also carried out by the Greek forces. <ref>Taner Akcam, A shameul Act, p. 322</ref>

The direct or indirect death toll of Greeks in Anatolia ranges from 300,000 to 360,000 men, women and children. According to Greek census of 1926, 182.169 Greeks from the Pontus region had migrated to Greece during the [[population exchange between Greece and Turkey]]. <ref>Greek Census, 1926</ref>The official recognition of the events is limited, and whether these incidents constitute a genocide is under debate between Greece and Turkey. The Turkish government maintains that by calling these acts "genocide", the Greek government "sustains the traditional Greek policy of distorting history".<ref name=TurkishPosition>Office of the Prime Minister, Directorate General of Press and Information: ''[http://www.byegm.gov.tr/YAYINLARIMIZ/CHR/ING98/09/98X09X30.HTM#%2016 Turkey Denounces Greek 'Genocide' Resolution]'' ([[1998-09-30]]). Retrieved on [[2007-02-05]]</ref> Turkey similarly denies the historicity of the contemporaneous [[Armenian Genocide|Armenian]] and [[Assyrian Genocide|Assyrian]] [[genocide]]s.

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== Background ==

According to a [[German Empire|German]] [[military]] attaché, the Ottoman Turkish minister of war [[Ismail Enver]] had declared in October 1915 that he wanted to ''"solve the Greek problem during the war... in the same way he believe[d] he solved the [[Armenian Genocide|Armenian problem]]."''<ref name="Ferguson">[[Niall Ferguson|Ferguson, Niall]]. ''The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West''. New York: Penguin Press, 2006 p. 180 ISBN 1-5942-0100-5</ref>

There were both spontaneous and organized atrocities on either side since the Greek [[occupation of Smyrna]]<ref>Arnold J. Toynbee, Western Question, p. 270</ref> and throughout 1919-22, the period of the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]] .<ref>Taner Akcam, A shameful Act, p. 322</ref> After 1919, both the Greek and Turkish national movements either massacred or expelled the other groups under their control.<ref>Taner Akcam, ''A Shameful Act'', p. 322</ref> [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)#Greek massacres of Turks|Massacres of Turks]] were also carried out by the Greek forces. <ref>Taner Akcam, A shameul Act, p. 322</ref>

For the massacres that occurred during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)|Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922]] British historian [[Arnold J. Toynbee]] wrote that it was the Greek landings that created the Turkish National Movement led by Mustafa Kemal and it is almost certain that if the Greeks had never landed at Smyrna, the consequent atrocities on the Turkish side would not have occurred. <ref name="Toynbee"/> Toynbee added: