Fortunes of Christians Confiscated

Greeks Drafted into the Turkish Army

Germany the Author of the Massacres

Herr Lepsius, a German Envoy who had been sent to Constantinople on a special mission in July, 1915, acknowledged that the Greek and Armenian massacres were two phases of a single progra66m of extermination of the Christian elements, intended to make Turkey a purely Moslem state.

That Germany was the author and inspiration of these massacres of Christians became known in 1917. The Greek Minister at Constantinople, M. Kallerghis, had protested the Turkish Grand Vizier, Talaat Bey, against the deportations of the Greeks in the Aival district. Talaat Bey promised to telegraph to the German General Liman von Sanders, telling him to cease the deportations. Von Sanders, who was in fact Commander-in-Chief of all the Turkish forces, replied that if the deportations ceased, he would not guarantee the safety of the Turkish Army, adding that the had referred the matter to the German Grand Headquarters Staff, who entirely approved of his action.

The persecution of the Greek Christians, under their German-Turkish master, was carried out with devilish ingenuity. All their privileges were abolished. After an enrollmment of Christians, there was a levy of “contributions”. Then the forcible conversion of Christians to Islamism was attempted. Deportations and massacres followed. Meanwhile the Turkish language supplanted the Greek language in all the schools; Turkish geography and history, instead of Greek, were taught; the Patriarchy was abolished. All property held by the Greek civil and religious communities were confiscated and became the property of the Turkish State.

On Turkey’s entry into the War, a decree was signed and promulgated which rendered all men up to the age of 48 liable for military service. The Christians ghus drafted into the armies of the Turks were for the most part formed into labour battalions and sent hundreds of miles into the interior, where they employed in road-making, building, tunnel excavating and in field work for the rich pashas. Their daily ration was half a loaf of black bread, eked out with a little dried fish or olives. Driven like slaves and under-nourished, they died by tens of thousands. Whole battalions succumbed to the ravages of typhus and cholera. Many thousands were massacred by their inhuman Turkish guards. Of these Greek battalions it is estimated 150,000 died.

Some hundreds of thousands of Hellenes from Thrace and Asia Minor managed to escape into Greece, where they subsequently fought in the Greek armies. Their desertion was the signal for other Turkish atrocities. The property of all deserters was duly seized and families were deported to the interior. In the district of Kerassunda, from which 300 Greeks had escaped, the Turks in reprisal burned 88 villages to the ground. Thirty thousand inhabitants, mostly women and children, were obliged to march in mid-winter to Angora. On the way, 7,000 died of exposure.

Meanwhile, the fortunes of many rich Christian were confiscated, and stores were completely pillaged. Christians were forced under threats of violence and imprisonment, to contribute large sums for the support of the Turkish Army and Navy, in addition to their usual heavy taxes.

Finally, under a system of compulsory labour, the Christians were obliged to cultivate the lands of the Moslems, but no time was allowed them to cultivate their own fields. If discovered harvesting their own crops a cordon would be placed around the village, the water supply cut off and the people were deprived of food and drink.

After a few days of such torture, a band of Bashi-Bazouks were sent into the villages to pillage and murder. The populations were given the choice of being deported over the mountains, to places hundreds of miles distant, or of suffering a lingering death from hunger and thirst. These deportations, begun in 1915, reached a total of 450,000 during the period of the War.

During these tragic pilgrimages the poor barefooted Greeks, beaten by guards, attacked by brigands, never resting, lacking food and water, wandered on to their distant destinations. Thousands died by the wayside of fatigue and suffering. While in transit, many mothers gave birth to infants, but they were compelled to leave them by the road-side and rejoin the marching columns. En route they were forbidden to enter the villages to purchase food.

Hundreds of young girls were detained by the Turks and forcibly “converted” to Islamism. At Panderma, the German General, Liman von Sanders, built an orphanage for all Christian girls who had been coerced into accepting Islam, and compelled the Christian population to contribute $50,000 toward its support. [ My emphasis ]

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