THE MIRACLE
A True Story		 Go to the initial page.

plundered and burnt down. They always have done, it's what they are doing now and always will do as long as Turkey exists, because the Turks have never had any interest whatsoever in the peaceful arts - the only things they enjoy doing are sacking and conquering.

   "As soon as Mehmet Talat's telegrams were received, the Young Turks embarked on their macabre task. When the First World War broke out a few months later in July 1914, it was an excellent opportunity for Turkey to set up the so-called Forced Labour Battalions. More than 400,000 Greeks were liquidated in these battalions. In November, 1914 Turkey entered the war on the side of the Germans and at the same time set about the brutal extermination of the Greeks in Eastern Thrace. Thousands of families were turned out of their houses and scattered to the four corners of the earth. By March, 1915 - that is, ten months after Mehmet Talat's telegram was received - 180 Greek villages had been abandoned and 320 others destroyed in regions which the Turks considered to be sensitive areas.

   "Then it was the turn of the Armenians. According to official sources, the regime of Sultan Abdul Hamit slaughtered 300,000 Armenians, but in fact the real figure was much higher. The Young Turks who had talked so nobly of freedom, equality and justice had to do something - and they did. On 16th September, 1915 the regional administrator of Halep received a telegram signed by the leader of the Young Turks, the monstrous Mehmet Talat, which read:

   "'We hereby inform you that the government has decided on the total extermination of the Armenian population living in Turkey. Anyone disagreeing with this decision will no longer be thought of as a member of the State Administration. The Armenians must be wiped out without mercy towards women, children and invalids, irrespective of whether this extermination is considered as an atrocity.

"Talat Bey,
Minister of the Interior'"


   "What followed was the greatest cold-blooded genocide in the history of mankind. Within the space of just a few months, one and a half million Armenians were mercilessly wiped out at the hand of the Turks, as Talat had ordered. In all their history of bloodshed and violence, the Young Turks excelled themselves in this instance: 1,500,000 people were massacred by the most inhuman butchers of the modern world who quite rightly earned for themselves the eternal title of the most barbaric race on earth. The French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, faced with the inconceivable proportions of the Armenian genocide, said there was no other example of such an abominable crime in the history of the world."

   Here Mr Kleopas paused again, quite clearly overcome, drank a few more sips of water and then went on:

   "Throughout 1916 and 1917 Turkey continued with its systematic extermination of the non-Muslim populations. The end of the First World War, however, found Turkey on the side of the losers. The country fell apart. On the 4th June, 1918 Turkey recognised Armenian independence through the Treaty of Batum.

   "After the Turkish defeat in the First World War the allied fleet, led by the Greek warship Averof, passed through the Dardanelles. The enthusiastic welcome it was given by the residents of Constantinople that day was indescribable. Everybody in Pera and on the shores of the Bosphorus hoisted Greek flags, while a number of people jumped into small boats and converged on the Averof to kiss the ship's hull. There was much rejoicing


81 and 82


Leonidas Koumakis
THE MIRACLE
A True Story


If you prefer a hard copy of the book, please send an email to
HEC-Books@hec.greece.org



Previous Page | Initial Page | Site Map | Next Page (83th of 204)


© For Internet 2001 HEC and Leonidas Koumakis. Updated on 19 June 2001.