August 27, 2023. Hellas.
32 years
have passed since the Phoenix Greek Society of Armenia, renamed to the Patrida
organization, appealed to the authorities of the Soviet Armenia, and
subsequently to the leadership of the Republic of Armenia, with a request to
recognize the genocide of the Greeks in Turkey.
by Eduard Polatov*
We did not make a distinction on the
territorial place of residence of the victims of this crime.
For us, the
dead were native Greeks – from Pontus, Kars, Smyrna, Constantinople and many
other regions of today’s Turkey.
When we remember the genocide of the Greeks
and Armenians, we are obliged to honor the memory of various nations and
nationalities that lived in Turkey. Unlike the Turks, we realize that the
genocide of peoples is one of the dark pages in the history of the Turkish
people and of its statehood.
The French
publicist Henri Barbé, who visited Anatolia in 1916, would write in his travel
notes:
“Anyone
who is passing through the deserted Armenia now cannot help but shudder, these
endless distances of ruins and death speak so unusually much. There is not a
single tree, not a single cliff, not a single piece of moss that has not been
defiled by the streams of spilled blood. There is not a single river or river
that would not carry hundreds of thousands of dead bodies to eternal oblivion.
There is not a single abyss, not a single gorge that would not be open-air
graves, in the depths of which open piles of skeletons would not be seen white,
since almost nowhere did the murderers give themselves neither the time nor the
trouble to bury their victims.”
Eduard Polatov
According to the English
historian, Doctor of Philosophy Herbert Adams Gibbons,
“The
program of eviction of civilians to Mesopotamia was even more monstrous. There
was no exception for either sick or pregnant women. They were not allowed to
take anything with them. And these unfortunate people had to walk for 5-6 weeks
under the scorching sun. Old people, sick people and children fell down on the
road and never got up again. Women who were in prenatal labor were forced to
move forward with whips. And when childbirth took place on the move, a bloody
woman with a stillborn child was left to die in the dust. Who of these people
could, committed suicide. Distraught mothers hit their babies on the ground to
put them out of their misery. Hundreds of thousands of women and children died
on the road from hunger and thirst.”
It was a
tragedy not only for Armenians and Greeks, but also for all those whom the
rulers of the Ottoman Empire decided for political reasons to either destroy or
evict from the empire, which by historical right belonged to the peoples being
destroyed.
Could
all this not have happened? In other words, could genocide have been avoided?
Are the peoples who were subjected to genocide to blame for the destruction?
These
questions always arise where there is still a naive notion that the genocide
was connected with the form of behavior of the Greeks, Armenians, Macedonians,
Assyrians, Kurds and other peoples that the Turkish authorities decided to get
rid of.
Allegedly, if these peoples were more modest, more peaceful, more loyal and if they did not take up arms, there would be no genocides. In other words, the hatred of the peoples subjected to genocide is the fault of these peoples themselves.
But in
reality, the bearer of the genocide of all the indigenous peoples turned into
national minorities of the Ottoman Empire was exclusively the Turkish side.
The
genocide was politically predetermined regardless of the form of behavior of
the victims. The genocide of the peoples of the Ottoman Empire could not be
prevented, because it is an integral part of Turkish political culture.
Regardless of the death of millions of people, a wave of hatred rose everywhere
throughout Turkey, trying to implement monstrous programs known only to the
leadership of the empire, serving only the goals known to them.
That’s how the first killing machine was
created in the twentieth century, which later, in the twenty-first century, in
fact, was reanimated already in the Middle East by many terrorist
organizations.
For the Turkish leadership, countries and
peoples do not matter. For them, when achieving their goals, countries and
peoples are only the source material.
For many
years, Turkey has been arguing over a number of issues, including the status of
islands in the Aegean Sea.
Not so long
ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened Greece with Typhoon
ballistic missiles.
The answer
to Erdoğan did not take long to wait.
The Greeks,
represented by Prime Minister Mitsotakis, replied succinctly:
“Our
response to Turkey is our vigilance, the strengthening of the armed forces, our
international alliances, but above all the unity of our people. So let the
neighbors stop this anecdotal fireworks of threatening statements against
Greece, designed for the domestic consumption of the Turkish public. They do
not frighten us and cannot shake us. In the end, the threats that are being
heard on the other side of the Aegean Sea are answered by a phrase that sums up
the strength of our nation: “Ohi, Mr. Erdoğan!”.
And I will
say this in the language that perhaps he understands best: stop joking with
Greece.
Bravo, Mr.
Mitsotakis! And yet, as they say, murderers have no nationality. You can agree
with this if the crime was committed on a household basis.
But when there is a systematic, state-organized mass murder of civilians on a national basis, it would be blasphemy before the memory of the murdered Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds and other peoples not to mention the nationality of the murderers. In the language of international law, an organized mass murder committed by one nation against another is qualified as genocide.
According to the great Christian wisdom
reflected in the laws of European countries, the murderer is not deprived of
life, but is given the opportunity to save, if not the body, then at least the
soul.
Even the
most terrible crime can be, if not forgotten, then forgiven if the offender
realized the gravity of the act he had committed and repented.
In
Christianity, this gives him a chance to save his soul, I think that this issue
is sufficiently covered in the surahs of the Koran.
For more
than a century, Turkey has had the opportunity to repent, but it not only
denies the monstrous atrocities committed by it, but also continues to
implement a policy that, in essence, differs little from the policy of the
Ottoman Turks.
With this
approach to its own history, Turkey, of course, could not do without major
falsifications. In order to whitewash themselves, in 1931, by order of Kemal
Ataturk, a decree was issued on the creation of the “Turkish Historical
Company”, which included Turkish and engaged foreign historians, including
historians of the USSR, whose successor today is the Russian Federation.
Historians
were given an order to clean the archives, falsify the old and fabricate a new
history of the peoples who lived under the Ottoman yoke.
Of course,
the archives can be cleaned up, but how to explain the disappearance of
millions of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians from the territory of Turkey?
Did these
peoples voluntarily decide to leave their homeland, their homes and temples,
voluntarily subject themselves to assimilation?
After all,
their disappearance is the most convincing proof of the fact of Genocide. The
refusal to recognize the Genocide of the peoples who inhabited Ottoman Turkey
puts the Turkish leadership and the Turkish people outside the global consensus
on crimes against humanity.
It is difficult to imagine what Europe would
be like today if it were not for the crushing defeat of the Turks at Vienna in
1683 – the same one that marked the beginning of the end of the Ottoman Empire.
It seemed
that Austria was doomed, and the Turks would begin a new large-scale expansion
into Europe.
But there
were also those who did not think so. Among them was the King of the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Jan III Sobieski, who had his own accounts with
the Turks.
The Battle
of Vienna took place on September 12, 1683, after a two-month siege of Vienna,
the capital of Austria, by the troops of the Ottoman Empire.
The victory of the Christians in this battle
stopped the Ottoman Empire’s wars of conquest on the European soil, and Austria
became the strongest power in Central Europe for decades.
Today,
Turkey has resorted to a new expansion against Europe, populating European
countries with crowds of radical Muslims.
Will Europe
come to her senses? With us are God and the memory of our ancestors …
*Eduard Polatov is Chairman of the Organization of
Greeks of Armenia and Artsakh “Patrida”
The Realist News Agency publishes a transcript of the
speech by the Chairman of the Organization of Greeks of Armenia and Artsakh
"Patrida", which took place on May 19, 2023 in the Yerevan Church of
St. Sarkis.
--