2619) Letter To Mr Dean Kalimniu Ref: 1922 Holocaust Of Smyrna

Mr. Dean Kalimniu,

Re: 1922 THE HOLOCAUST OF SMYRNA, by Australian Macedonian Advisory Council, Oct 15, 2008

Dear Sir,

First, let me compliment you for writing your name and E-mail openly for the article that has been posted. Your subject essay was referred to my information as well, in so far that I am a self-educated person on several subjects of history. I had and still have many friends of all ethnicities or nationalities in amicable relations with all of them . .
Since I have done considerable reading on various religions, I respect all faiths and the personal preferences of individuals to believe or exercise whatever it makes them happy, but the moment such religious or nationality values are used as weight on the scale of “humane standards and relations”, I reserve the right to express my opinion, not to counter react, but try to find where truth stands! I do not know your profession and depth of information on the subject you have penned a dramatic presentation of certain historical events, and distorted to unbelievable limits of “megalo idea” or anti-Turkish prejudices. I respectfully, ask your good selves or Professor Rudolph J. Rummel which you value as the full authority, or Professor Kolloglu Kirli, a professor of Sociology at Bogazici University, or any authority that you know or hear, to refute the documentary evidence, I enclose herewith, with my remarks. If you will kindly enter my name in the Google or “Armenian Genocide Resource Center” blogsite you can get access to my book “The Genocide of Truth” or my over 135 articles posted in there. Regrettably, your article is “another act of genocide of truth” and I will try to express my counter evidences, as short as possible, without adding “juices of prejudices” to cover up some facts or sound dramatic, pitiful, victimized etc. which has been actively propagated for nearly two centuries by ethnicities under the Ottoman rule, which resulted in their independencies, “where they were majority” of the living people. Just for the sake of clarity and correction of some of your biased evaluations, let me clarify that:

a. You evaluate the whole region or harbor cities of the Aegean-Mediterranean, as “Greek for 3000 years”, forgetting that there was no “nations” at that time, and you are speaking mostly of local “city-states”, where particularly in the harbors, “Greek was the universal commercial language”, as much as “English is used today”.

If the language is enough for identity, then we can claim that all USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand are all English because they speak English. The first edict given by Sultan Mehmet to the Genovese of Constantinople when he conquered the city in 1453, was written in Greek and can be seen in the British museum. Does this mean that Mehmet or the Genovese leaders were Greek? Izmir-or Smyrna was always a cosmopolite city being a port and close to heavily Greek populated islands or the mainland, which was Ottoman at that time. Yet, the minorities who lived mixed in the city, (Greeks, Jews, Levantines, Armenians, Assyrians) never constituted even half of the population when put altogether.

b. You mention that Greeks occupied Izmir, “after they were authorized by the Treaty of Sevres of 1919”. Sir, Greek army (supported by British-French and American) landed in İzmir in early May 1919 to intercept the occupation of the area which was promised to Italians after the Mudros Ceasefire of 30.10.1918. The dead born Treaty of Sevres was signed on Aug. 10, 1920, about 15 months later and was not ratified by any government, not even the Ottoman’s!

c. You mention “liberation of Izmir by Greek troops” on May 2, 1915 (?). May be you meant 1919! In May 1915, Allied forces had landed at the Dardanelles only and were stuck there! There was no other occupation of Izmir until the Allied Forces (which had dissolved their large armies after the surrender of Germans and Turks) decided to use the “willing Greek armies” to avoid the occupation “promised to Italy”. You are so much prejudiced that you underscore “Turks who rallied around Mustafa Kemal (not Ataturk yet) to attack the Greek troops who were attacking the Turkish mainland!

d. And finally on the ABSOLUTE NONSENSE THAT TURKS BURNED THE CITY THEY JUST CONQUERED:

Please refer to the posting and comments of the undersigned, versus the book by Giles Milton with the excerpts from my book on this subject, which are self explanatory and belong to the persons who were the eyewitness of the events. Please also refer to another discovery in San Antonio Express, which you can read in full here.

In your evaluation Chrysostomos was an “ethnomartyr”, which means that he was a rebel against his own state who had acknowledged his authority on religious ceremonies only…not to invoke all Christians to fight and kill Moslems!

My given references (also annexed above for your convenience) tells who burned Izmir! Let me add one detail which has not been mentioned in the given references and which is second hand. The fire was started in the Turkish quarter and based on the usual direction of “imbat wind” in the region, it should have spread in the direction of Turkish quarters. But something unusual happened and the direction of the wind was changed into the opposite, and it was therefore that the Armenian-Greek (heavily populated) areas burned which first. More details you can find in the report of Paul Grescovitch the Fire Fighter Chief and the Greek firemen, most of whom had left their posts, having cut the water hoses. It is all there in the official U.S. reports Sir… If persons like Rummel, Milton, Kolloglu and others authorize themselves to write books based on assumptions, without digging the records (as much as I did as a person not trusting the shallowness of many scholars), this only proves their own ignorance or prejudice… I welcome reciprocally, any evidence to invalidate the ones I had searched and found to satisfy my own curiosity and share with decent humans, regardless of their ethnicity or faiths or other personal preferences.

Note: I will not be surprised if you have similar prejudices on the so called “Armenian Genocide” fanfare! I attach my essay which is a challenge or invitation to all others that can present original documentary proof to belie the ones I have used to prove my common sense! If most others do not take the pain to print such serious arguments and read it from paper (instead of surfing screens), they are free to believe in what is more pleasant and easy for them…but not truthful!

Yours Cordially,
Sukru S. Aya Istanbul, 20.10.2008 ***@superonline.com