1922 The Destruction of Smyrna

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• published: 19 Sep 2014
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This is a short extract from the documentary "The Asia Minor Campaign" by SKAI TV. It features several shocking eyewitness accounts of the event such as the chronicle by George Horton who was then USA Consul at Smyrna and a live interview with Ioannes Krassopoulos who survived the holocaust. In September 1922, Mustafa Kemal led his troops into Smyrna, a predominantly Christian city, as a flotilla of 27 Allied warships looked on. The Turks soon proceeded to indulge in an orgy of pillage, rape and slaughter that the Great Powers condoned by their silence and refusal to intervene. Turkish forces then set fire to the legendary city and totally destroyed it. Smyrna had been the most ancient Greek city in Asia Minor, founded by Greek colonists in the beginning of the first millennium BC. A total of more than 3.5 million Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians were killed under the successive regimes of the Young Turks and Mustafa Kemal from roughly 1914 to 1923. Of this, as many as 1.5 million Greeks may have died. The following is an abridged summary of notable events in the destruction of Smyrna: • After the collapse of the Greek Front in Anatolia and the reoccupation of Smyrna by the Turks, Metropolitan Chrysostom was abducted by a mob incited by Nureddin Pasha, was tied to a barber chair, cruelly tortured and put to death. • Turkish soldiers cordoned off the Armenian quarter during the massacre. Armed Turks massacred Armenians and looted the Armenian quarter. • After their systemic massacre, Turkish soldiers in smart uniforms set fire to Armenian buildings using tins of petroleum and flaming rags soaked in flammable liquids. • To supplement the devastation, small bombs were planted by the soldiers under paving slabs around the Christian parts of the city to take down walls. One of the bombs was planted near the American Consulate and another at the American Girl's School. • The fire started on September 13. The last Greek soldiers had evacuated Smyrna on 8 September. The Turkish Army was in full control of Smyrna since September 9. All Christians remaining in the city who evaded massacre stayed within their homes, fearing for their lives. The fire forced them into the streets. • The fire was initiated at one edge of the Armenian quarter when a strong wind was blowing toward the Christian part of town and away from the Muslim part of town. Citizens of the Muslim quarter were not involved in the catastrophe. • Turkish soldiers guided the fire through the Greek and European section of Smyrna by pouring flammable liquids into the streets. The soldiers that were observed doing this had started from the quay and proceeded towards the fire, thus ensuring the rapid and controlled spread of the fire. Turkish forces then instigated a massive anti-Greek pogrom. • The victims of the massacre are estimated at 150,000. What was left of Smyrna was only its Turkish suburb.