Genocide Events

Constantinople

Pontos

Smyrna

Imvros and Tenedos

Cyprus

Chronological Index of Massacres and Acts of Genocide carried out against Greeks

1822  In response to Chios extending its support to other Greeks struggling for independence the Turks take retribution on the population. Three quarters of Chios Orthodox population of 120,000 are killed, enslaved or die of disease. Of the survivors, almost all flee as refugees. An estimated 20,000 are direct victims of the massacres. A further 45,000 are taken into slavery – of whom about half are redeemed and half die, neglected and in poverty throughout the Ottoman empire.

1822 In Cyprus the Ottoman governor Kuchuk Mehmed executs 486 Christians who he accuses of supporting the Greek freedom fighters. 20,000 Greek Christians are forced to flee the island in order to save their lives.

In October 1895  the first organized genocide in Constantinople and Trebizond takes place and in November and December 1895 the authorities organize a great massacre throughout the country.

1896 May 12. Murders of Greeks and conflicts between Greeks and Turks in the island of Crete.

1911 October 1. Assassination of Emilianos, Bishop of Grevena by the Turks.

1912 The Turkish army in retreat from East Thrace loots the villages of Didymotichon and Adrianopoli districts. Villages of the Malgara district are burnt. The same happens in Kessani. Assassinations and massacres accompany the destruction and looting in this predominantly Greek region.

1913 February. The Turkish authorities compel the Greek inhabitants of the district of village Crithea to leave their village in East Thrace. A brutal looting follows.

1913 The reoccupation of Eastern Thrace by the Turkish army leads to atrocities and massacres of Greeks. 15,690 are the victims of these massacres. In the regions of Malgara and Charioupoli many villages are also destroyed. Massacres were followed by looting.

1914 May 25. The Greek Orthodox (Ecumenical) Patriarcate protests at the persecution of Christians and commands all churches and schools to be closed.

1914 May 27. The Turkish authorities at Pergamum command all the Christian population to leave the town within two hours. The terrorized inhabitants take refuge in the Greek island of Mytilini.

1914 May - June. The Turkish authorities enforce all kinds of persecutions in the Greek regions of West Asia Minor. The coast of Asia Minor is devastated. In Erythrea and Phocaia the massacres of Greeks are merciless.

1914 July - August. The Turkish government creates «the forced labor battalions». It is a new scheme for extermination of the Greeks - Ottoman citizens - drafted in the Turkish army. By this method of the "forced labor battalions" 400,000 Greeks were exterminated by hunger, hardship, maltreatment and deprivation.

1914 September. The Turks declare persecution against the Greek inhabitants of the Makri region of the South - West Asia Minor. Many are killed. Persecution is followed by plunders, violations and robberies.

1914 November. By order of the Turkish government many villages of Eastern Thrace where there was a great majority of Greek population are forcibly evacuated (Neochorio, Galatas, Callipoli etc..) Plunder of houses and shops follows. Thousands fled from their ancestral homes to Greece.

1914 November - December. By order of the Turkish government, the region of Visii and part of the Saranda Eklisiae is evacuated. 19,000 Greeks are exiled in Anatolia and their properties looted. According to the Ecumenical Patriarchate records, 119,940 Greeks were expelled from East Thrace.

1914 January - December. More than 250,000 Greeks are exiled from East Thrace and Smyrna's region. The properties of the exiled are detained.

1914. During this year Turkish persecutions against the Greeks are hardened. The Ecumenical Patriarchate strongly protests. Talbot bye the Minister of internal affairs visits the pro-vinces to examine the complaints, but the persecutions are intensified because the minister in collaboration with the local authorities renders them more systematic.

1916. Destruction of the region Riseou - Platanou of Pontus. Plunder of the towns Ofis, Sourmena and Gemoura. The looting organized by the Ottoman State officials took place under the leadership of Ahmet bey and that of field marshal Velip pacha.

1916. The Turks compel the inhabitants of different regions of Pontus to immigrate to Sivas. Only 550 survived out of 16,750 inhabitants of the Elevi and Tripoli regions. Of the 49,520 inhabitants of Trebizont only 20,300 saved their lives, 1916 December 27. All prominent of Amissos and 4,000 Greeks, inhabitants of the town are arrested and deported to Anatolia.

1917 Spring. The deportation of 23,000 Greeks, inhabitants of Cydoniae is ordered by the Turks

1917 November. 400 Greek families are expelled from the S.W. Asia Minor by the Turks. Their properties are looted.

1918 January 8. The president of U.S.A. Wilson declares the principle of self - determination for all the peoples oppressed by Turkey.

1918 April. Another 8,000 Greek families are expelled from S.W. Asia Minor.

1919 June 4. After 5 years of exile the inhabitants of Pergamum return home.

1920. Chryssanthos, Bishop of Trebizond is condemned to death in absentio by the Court Martial of Ankara. The Bishop of Zilon is condemned and dies in jail.

1920 August 10. Signature of the treaty of Sevres providing an independent Armenia, self determination for Kurdistan and liberation of East Thrace and Smyrna's territory, according to the president Wilson declaration for self - determination of all peoples of Asia Minor.

1921 June 3. Kemalists arrest 1,320 Greeks, prominent inhabitants of Samsus. The next day they kill 701. The dead are buried in common graves behind the house of Hekir Pacha. The rest are exiled in the interior of Anatolia.

1922 August 24. The Turkish army seizes Pergamum. The Greek citizens flee to save their lives.

1922 September 9. The Turks enter Smyrna. The city is set on fire. Wild massacres of Greeks and Armenians take place. The victims count about 150000 persons.

1922 October. After the evacuation of East Thrace by the Greek army, 300,000 Greeks are compelled to leave their country, where their ancestors have lived for thousands of years.

1914 – 1922 October. It is estimated that during these 8 years, the Greek nation has suffered by the Turks:

Massacres. More than 150,000 Greeks of the Pontus region and more than 1,400,000 Greeks of Asia Minor have perished by massacres, shooting, hanging, hunger and inhuman and criminal maltreatment by Turks.

Refugees. It is estimated that more than 1,700,000 Greeks were saved from the Turkish murderous frenzy as refugees. 1,400,000 of them came to Greece from East Thrace, Asia Minor and Pontus. About 200,000 went to Russia from Pontus and the rest were dispersed all over the world.

All these persons left their fatherland, after more than 3,000 years, during which their ancestors have continuously lived in these regions, chased by the Turks, newcomers in Asia Minor.

1930 August 31. Turkish newspaper Milliet publishes a declaration of Premier Ismet Inonu «Only the Turkish nation has the right to have national claims in this country. No other element has such a right».

1930 September 30. Turkish paper Milliet publishes a statement of the Turkish minister of Justice:

«The Turk is the only master in his country. Those who are not pure Turks have one right in this country: The right to be servants, the right to be slaves».

1938 November 10. Death of Kemal Ataturk, the butcher of Kurds, Greeks and Armenians who saved his country from partition.

1941 May. Mobilization of 20 classes of the Greek and Armenian minorities living in Turkey and having Turkish citizenship, in order to exterminate them in the same manner, as they have already done during World War I, through the forced - labor battalions.

1942 November 11. The law of taxation on property of the non Muslims of Turkey (Varlik Vergisi) is voted. It is a hideous attempt of economic extermination of the Greek and Armenian communities, which were exposed undefended to the excesses and abuse of power by the Turkish economic authorities.

1955 September 6. The Turkish authorities organize a great pogrom against the Greeks of Constantinople. 29 Churches were burnt and 46 looted. The graves of the Ecumenical Patriarchs and Christian cemeteries were vandalized. Thousands of shops were destroyed. Hundreds of women raped. Vandalism's at a smaller scale have takes place in Smyrna.

1960 A military Coup takes place showing that the Armed Forces have always been and will always will be in charge of Turkey where there is no real Democracy.

1971 12 March. Another military Coup occurs which leaves the fascist military in power until 1973.

1974 July 20. The Turkish army invades the independent and armless island of Cyprus, member of U.N.O. and seizes the 40% of it, on pretext that this is necessary for the Turkish -Cypriot minority which equals 18% of the whole population.

1974 July - August. Despite the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council No 353, 357, 358, 359, 360 etc. which urged: «The withdrawal without delay from the Republic of Cyprus of foreign military personnel». The invading Turkish forces have turned into a permanent occupation army, which for 25 years does not conform with the above resolutions, despises U.N.O., challenges every conscientious man of the World and undermines world peace.

1975 The Turkish occupation regime in north Cyprus declares it to be a "Federated Turkish State" in the face of UN condemnation. Out of the 200,000 original Greek Cypriot inhabitants who made up 82% of the population only 20,000 remain in enclaves, soon to dwindle in number to less than 600 through the deprivation of basic human rights including Freedom of Movement, Education and Medical Treatment.

1976 The 1st Report of the European Commission of Human Rights Turkey's invasion in Cyprus and aftermath (20 July 1974 - 18 May 1976) finds that Turkey is guilty of mass violations of the European Convention of Human Rights.

1980 September 12. Coup led by General Kenan Evren overthrows the governing MHP replacing one brand of fascism with yet another lasting until 1983.

1983. The 2nd Report of the European Commission of Human Rights Turkey's invasion in Cyprus and aftermath (19 May 1976 to 10 February 1983) finds that Turkey is guilty of further mass violations of the European Convention of Human Rights.

1983 November 15. The illegal Turkish puppet regime declares independence for the so-called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" ("TRNC") in the occupied part of what is still the territory of the the Republic of Cyprus which has now been systematically ethnically cleansed of over 200,000 indigenous Greek Cypriots. The "illegal" declaration is immediately "Deplored" by the UN Security Council which declares the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" "Legally Invalid" in Resolutions 541(1983) and 550 (1984) which also "Condemns" this and all other secessionist actions.

1996 January 27. Turkish naval forces briefly invade and occupy the island of Imia which was deemed as Greek Territory by the Paris 1947 convention. Only US intervention prevents a war. This is part of an endless list of challenges to Greek sovereignty, which include illegal Turkish claims to almost every Greek island in the Aegean, even the island of Crete, and the daily violation of Greek Air Space and Territorial Waters

1996 August 11 and August 14. Turkish occupation forces together with MHP Grey Wolves terrorists sent by the Turkish Government to occupied Cyprus brutally beat and murder Cypriot refugees peacefully protesting against Turkeys illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus, in the UN buffer zone in front of United Nations onlookers and the worlds media who capture the scenes on video. Tassos Isaak is clubbed to death on August 11 by Turkish thugs and his cousin Solomos Solomou is shot dead on August 14 by a so-called "minister" of the puppet occupation regime.

1996 October 13. A 58-year-old Greek Cypriot civillian, Petros Kakoullis, was shot and killed while out collecting Snails, by the Turkish occupation troops, receiving three bullets, two on the chest and one on the neck.

2001 May 10. In its judgment in the case of Cyprus v. Turkey (application no. 25781/94 the European Court of Human Rights holds that there have been 13 violations of the European Convention of Human Rights by Turkey affecting the rights of the Greek Cypriot refugees and enclaved persons from the occupied areas of Cyprus and a further violation of the rights of the Turkish Cypriots.

2004 April 24. The Anann plan to dissolve the Republic of Cyprus and replace it with an apartheid state, which was to become a protectorate of Turkey, thereby facilitating its unimpeded EU course, is endorsed by the Turkish Cypriots and 150,000 illegal Turkish colonists, whereas it is rejected overwhelmingly by the Greek Cypriots whose presence on the island it would have annihilated.