GREEK PARLIAMENT
1923
– 1998
75
YEARS AFTER THE TREATY OF LAUSANNE
Member
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
115-117
Demosthenous Street, 17672 Kallithea
Tel.
0109517072, 0109560611, Fax 0109598967
E-mail:
cpolitan@otenet.gr
CONTENTS
IN ENGLISH:
The
discussion before the Standing Committee of National Defence and Foreign Affairs
of the Greek Parliament, which took place in the Parliament Senate Room on
Wednesday, June 3, 1998.
CONTENTS:
Salutation
of the Speaker of the Greek Parliament
Apostolos
Kaklamanis Page: 4
From
the records of the discussion before the Committee
Introduction
and Reports, Page: 7
Proposals
and Dialogues, Questions and Answers, Page: 38
Addresses
of Special Speakers, Page: 48
Positions
of MPs, Page: 64
Institutional
framework for the protection of the Greek minority in Turkey (document
pertaining to the address of Dr.Stamatis Georgoulis, Professor of International
Law, Hellenic Army Academy)
The
violations of the Treaty of Lausanne by the Turkish Republic, in chronological
order, from 1923 to 1998
Selection
of photographic material included in the discussion dossier
SALUTATION
OF THE SPEAKER OF THE GREEK
PARLIAMENT
Attending
Members Of Parliament – Members Of The Standing Committee Of National Defence
& Foreign Affairs of the Greek Parliament
ALEVRAS
Athanassios
DAMANAKI
Maria
DANELLIS
Spyridon
ECONOMOU
Pantelis
FLORIDIS
Georgios
HAITIDIS
Eugenios
HARALAMBOPOULOS
Ioannis
HOMATAS
Ioannis
KALANTZIS
Georgios
KALOS
Georgios
KAPSIS
Ioannis
KARAMANLIS
Achilles
KIPOUROS
Christos
KOLOZOV
Orestes
KORAKAS
Efstratios
KOTSAKAS
Antonios
LEVOYIANNIS
Nikolaos
LOUKAKOS
Panagiotis
LYMBERAKIDIS
Leonidas
MAGGINAS
Vassilios
MATIS
Athanassios
MICHELOYIANNIS
Joseph
MOLYVIATIS
Petros
NIOTIS
Gregorios
PAPADOGONAS
Alexandros
PAPADOPOULOS
Elias
PAPATHEMELIS
Stylianos
ROKOPHYLLOS
Christos
ROKOS
Georgios
SKOULARIKIS
Ioannis
SOUFLIAS
Georgios
SOULADAKIS
Ioannis
SPHYRIOU
Cosmas
SPILIOTOPOULOS
Spilios
SPYRIOUNIS
Kyriakos
STEPHANIS
Constantinos
VALYRAKIS
Joseph
VARVITSIOTIS
Ioannis
VERYVAKIS
Eleftherios
VRETOS
Constantinos
VYZOVITIS
Christos
ZIAGAS
Ioannis
FROM
THE RECORDS OF THE DISCUSSION
BEFORE
THE COMMITTEE
ELEFTHERIOS
VERYVAKIS *1:
Today’s session is similar to the one which had taken place three years
ago in regard to
Imvros (Gokce ada) and Tenedos (Bozca ada), and will revolve around the
violations of the Treaty of Lausanne against the Greek population of
Constantinople in the 75 years from the signing thereof. The last days of May
coincide with two sad anniversaries for Greeks: The genocide of the Greek
population of the Black Sea on May 19 and the fall of Constantinople on May 29,
1453, anniversaries which were again this year honored by the Greeks,
anniversaries which together with the disaster of Asia Minor are wounds, still
bleeding and hurting the psyche of each and every Greek.
After the last disaster, the treaties which determined WW1 and the many
acts of the International Community, such as the UNO Charter, the 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights of Minorities, the UNESCO Treaty and the UN Convention on the elimination
of racial discriminations, established rights which, as of the signing of the
Treaty of Lausanne, had made everyone hope that we had passed into another
period.
However, we have witnessed Turkey’s constant violations of the Treaty
of Lausanne. The Constantinopolitan Society has submitted a request to this
Committee for the review of these violations on the basis of facts. The
Presidency of the Committee admitted the request and submitted it to the
Committee, which approved it.
The Committee will initially hear the reporters, appearing as witnesses,
who will then answer the Committee’s brief questions. A political conversation
will follow, according to the standard rules of procedure of the Greek
Parliament, in order for the Committee to reach its findings.
The Constantinopolitans (Greeks from Istanbul) have suggested four
speakers, who will present the framework, texts and facts on the basis of which
violations have been noted during the last 75 years, and the current status of
the Greek population living in Constantinople is the result of the
non-compliance with the international agreements and non-implementation of the
International Rules of Law on the part of the Turkish Republic. Mr.Georgoulis is
invited to speak.
STAMATIS
GEORGOULIS*2:
To me it is the utmost honour that I was assigned by the Athens
Constantinopolitan Society the difficult and at the same time graceless task to
present the legal framework of the protection of the Greek Orthodox minority of
Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos. I will not refer to any witness testimonies,
after all I come from Thrace not Constantinople, I was born and raised in Evros
Prefecture, near Adrianopolis,(Edirne) and I was happy to gaze with the eyes of
the soul from my father’s home, indistinctly in the distance, Constantinople
the reigning capital.
The legal framework of the protection of the Greek National Minority was
determined through a difficult course, which resulted to a catastrophic for
Greece war, which had imbued the grand idea and attempted to carry Greece over
to far horizons. The events are known and this vision was not realized in the
end, collapsing instead under the defeat of the war in Asia Minor. Immediately
after that, at the negotiating table, we come across a Greek delegation headed
by Venizelos, his morale low, and on the other side a Turkish delegation, with
raised morale, which tries to impose uncompromisingly its own terms.
These terms are eloquently imprinted in the texts of the Treaty of
Lausanne, which is a multilateral International Convention, placed under the
protection of Turkey, on the one side, and the protection of England, France,
Japan, Italy, Serbia, Romania and Greece, on the other side. This text refers
explicitly to Turkey and its obligation to respect the human rights of the Greek
minority in Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos.
Article 14 refers to the respect of local administration and the
protection of persons and property in Imvros.
Next, Article 37 sets forth that this text has an increased formal effect
against any other law, regulation or domestic official action which might become
effective in Turkey. Therefore, Turkey was required not to pass any laws and
regulations contrary to the Treaty.
Articles 38 to 44 actually contain all the protective framework of human
rights, the equality among all Turkish nationals, whether they are Muslim or
not, the right to acquire property, the right to the free use of language, the
right to establish religious institutions, schools and establishments for
instruction and education, the right to the protection of religious beliefs etc.
Greece only appears in the last Article (45), because there was no fear
that Greece would violate any human rights. This Article sets forth the
principle of reciprocity, providing in simple words that all the rights
conferred by Turkey on its non-Muslim populations in Constantinople, Greece will
also implement on the Muslim populations on its territory.
This, in general lines, was the protective framework.
One wonders, wasn’t this framework effective enough to adequately
protect the Greek Orthodox minority, which was once thriving, so that we are
forced today to resort to other institutional texts for the protection of human
rights, meaning all the texts and the declarations of the United Nations since
1945, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establishes
equality among all human beings, the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
etc? Furthermore, there are the protective texts, which Turkey itself has
signed, in the framework of CSCE for instance.
There is also the 1975 Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, whose 7th principle is clear and talks about the equality of
all human beings and the protection of all persons, wherever they may be, and
makes no distinction between minorities or non-minorities, which is explicitly
binding on Turkey.
Of course we then have the protective framework of CSCE, today OSCE,
mainly as a moral pressure to all member states signing that Convention, such as
the 1991 Geneva texts, the 1990 Copenhagen texts, where minority rights are
clearly and comprehensively described (education, self administration, religious
protection, protection of cultural identity, equal treatment, participation in
public life, elimination of discriminations, self-determination of minority
identity etc.)
All these are international texts, which the Turkish Republic, even
though having declared it would respect, blatantly violated even before the ink
of its signature had dried.
Furthermore, there is the Council of Europe, which has more powers of imposition in regard to legal matters, forcing a country violating human rights to respect them, through the proceedings of the Court of Human Rights. It is clear that the respect of any minority must be the apple of the eye of any democratic country. However, none of my Turkish colleagues, young scientists, finding him or herself in my position in the respective Turkish Parliament, would find unblushingly even one positive word to say in favor of Turkey, because the list of violations is indeed long and exceedingly aggravated.
This institutional framework is, in my opinion, clearly established and
formulated, and I leave you to consider why indeed we failed to wonder – apart
from Turkey’s obligations – as Greeks and as scientists, whey indeed we
failed to demand in necessary circumstances that these basic principles be
respected.
At the same time, we are all, as Hellenism, given a historic chance to
offer from the floor of our national delegation our apologies because why did
not act as we had the duty and obligation to act in regard to the Greeks
of Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos.
NEOCLES
SARRIS*3:
Mr.Chairman,
Members of Parliament, I consider it a great honour to stand hear before you in
order to give my personal testimony and the testimony of the Greek Orthodox
Community of Constantinople, where I belong, with regard to the violations of
the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne, which refer to the protection of
non-Muslim minorities. I would like, in advance, to stress three points, which I
consider necessary in order for the problem to be comprehended in depth. The
first point is that the Treaty of Lausanne is the first and perhaps the only
revisionist Treaty after the end of WWI. We use the term Revisionist Treaty to
denote that this was a Treaty, which reversed the conventional results of WWI.
WWI had ended with two Treaties, the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of
Sevres. Hitler attempted unsuccessfully to reverse the Versailles Treaty.
Mustafa Kemal and his associates reversed the Treaty of Sevres, and thus
reversed the results of WWI. This led Europe to WWII. I say this, because the
Treaty of Sevres, which mainly referred to the other nationalities of Asia
Minor, was reversed and principally with regard to the 6% of the territorial
grounds of current Turkey which concerned Greece. Meaning that Greece acquired
6% of the territory of Turkey under the Treaty of Sevres. I want emphatically to
stress that despite the reversal of the Treaty of Sevres, the only provisions
which are almost identical to those in the Treaty of Sevres are those regarding
the protection of minorities. This means that the provisions on the protection
of minorities contained in the Treaty of Lausanne are almost identical to those
contained in the Treaty of Sevres. This happened because the persecutions of
non-Muslims by the Young Turks were still fresh and the great European powers
insisted on the particular protection, which should be afforded to non-Muslims.
This was the first point.
Second
point. The revisionist nature of the Treaty of Lausanne is dynamic, not static.
Meaning that it was the dynamics of a constant revision in favour of Turkey and
at the expense, of course, of Greece mainly.
The
third point I would like to make is the following: The Treaty of Lausanne
establishes a very delicate balance, which has been disturbed to the
disadvantage of Greece and the advantage of Turkey.
A
clear element of this violation, the disturbance of the balance between the two
sides, is manifested in the issue of the minorities.
Members
of Parliament, I have with me a book, which was published in 1996 in the United
States and refers to Turkey. It was written by Philip Marshal. In page 437 he
gives some statistics about the population of Constantinople. I refer to Marshal
because 10 years ago, and specifically in 1986, I had given similar statistics
in one of my books.
35%
to 40% of the population of Constantinople in the years from 1477 to 1927 was
Greek – these numbers refer to the administrative boundaries of Constantinople
because the respective numbers for the Municipality of Constantinople were 37%
to 39% - meaning that Constantinople had a proportionately larger Greek
population compared to a large number of Greek cities today, historically and in
the course of time. The other populations were 17% Armenians, and this after a
period of time, 5%-8% Jews, while the remaining populations include, from 1829
to 1830, 16% to 17% of Greek citizens from Greece, who are characterized as
other populations, which means that the percentage of ethnic Greeks is much
larger than that appearing in the statistics. The percentage of Greeks starts
from 34% to 35% in 1477 and reaches 40% to 42%. In 1927 we have 22%, in 1950 we
have 12%, in 1965 we have 3%, in 1980 we have 1%, in 1995 we have 0.0001%! The
Armenians from 17% go down to 0.005%, and the Jews also go down to 0.002%.
Therefore,
there is a devastating evaporation not only of the Greek Orthodox minority, but
also of all non-Muslim minorities. I say this because the balance established by
the Treaty of Lausanne is numerical. If one studies carefully the records of the
Treaty of Lausanne, two things become apparent:
The
first one is that the Turkish delegation has insisted that firstly there are no
ethnic minorities in Turkey, only religious minorities, and that is why we make
reference to Muslims. This is a contractual obligation on the part of Greece.
These provisions have an effect which exceeds that of the Constitution for the
countries signing the Treaty of Lausanne. In the first place because the
minorities are religious and not ethnic. The Turks insisted on that point
firstly because of the religious view of ethnic groups and secondly because if
they had referred to ethnic minorities they would have included the Kurds, and
they did not wish to recognize any rights to the Kurdish ethnic group.
The
second is that Riza Nour insisted on the numeric balance between minorities,
meaning the minority of Constantinople and the minority of Muslims in Thrace,
which were excepted for special reasons.
At
this formal occasion I consider it my obligation to recall the late Ioannis
Zigdis, who in 1977 was the first to place before the Hellenic Parliament the
matter of the disturbance of the numerical balance established by the Treaty of
Lausanne. Indeed, that reminder, which was accompanied by my proposal for a bill
for the naturalization of those Constantinopolitans who had found refuge in
Greece in the municipal rolls of Thrace, had alarmed the Turkish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, which had made statements to the effect that the Treaty of
Lausanne had indeed been disturbed with regard to this point, but that there
were other points of disturbance as well, obviously referring to the fact that
Greece acquired the Dodecanese.
I
would like to point out that the document you are holding is a summary of the
Articles. Articles 37 to 45 are a lot more detailed. If one should read the
Articles one after the other, and what I am to say is incredible, one would
establish that all the Articles, without exception, have been violated by
Turkey!
Commencing
from Article 14, which refers to Imvros and Tenedos, it is a well-known fact
that the basic principle which provides for local administration. Article 39 and
paragraphs 2,3 and 4, impose the employment of Turkish nationals belonging to
non-Muslim minorities in civil service. This has never been implemented in
Turkey. Neither has the use, for example, of the Greek language in public
establishments or in the courts.
The
elective legislation of Greece, for instance, includes a provision of the basis
of which the Muslims of Western Thrace vote with the assistance of an
interpreter. This is something unheard of in Turkey. The only exception was the
case of the reverend Ecumenical Patriarch Athinagoras, who testified before
court in 1961 through an interpreter. At that time this had been an issue, how
the Patriarch had been allowed to use an interpreter. Which provisions should I
mention first? Should I mention the provisions setting forth the protection of
churches, cemeteries, which still remain the target of cruel attacks without any
of the culprits ever being arrested or indicted to stand trial? In 1955, as it
was later revealed, churches, schools, institutions were destroyed on the basis
of an organized plan prepared by the government itself and the armed forces of
Turkey.
Under
Article 42 paragraph 2, schools and charitable foundations are financed by
public funds under the State, Municipal and Local budgets. Not only this never
happened, but the contrary took place, meaning that churches and foundations
were required to pay special taxes, the audit tax and the Vakuf tax. Therefore,
these provisions are subject to shameless violations.
I
would like to close with a personal testimony. A number of those present inside
the room are familiar with each other’s personal history. My expected
biography, judging from my struggles in my school and student days, would be to
be on the floor of the Turkish parliament, representing my community. I am the
only person, perhaps, since 1922, to have had a political history in the Turkish
political parties. My colleagues in the struggles of those days were already
telling me that I would have a bright future in Greece. This means that it was
considered a certainty that the ethnic Greeks of Constantinople, and I amongst
them, would have to leave.
With
this I want to emphasize that the uprooting of the Greeks of Constantinople has
taken place on the basis of a pre-determined plan. If you examine the records of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you will see that the Hellenic Governments were
criminally negligent. This negligence can be interpreted. A lot of times, the
Hellenic Governments obeyed to the recommendations coming from across the
Atlantic for the appeasement of the situation and this resulted to this kind of
negligence.
Members
of Parliament, the whole problem is focused on a dignified foreign policy, which
must be based on law, the protection of human rights and mainly dignity. The
sense of dignity is a sense which has been totally trivialized. I thank you.
GEORGE
ISAAKIDIS*4:
Mr.Chairman,
Members of Parliament, I feel the obligation to thank you, because you are the
first committee of MPs after 75 years to deal spherically with the violations of
human rights in Constantinople. Our association, with the other
Constantinopolitan societies, reached this point after strenuous and long
efforts. Unfortunately, you come in third.
Our
voice of protest was first heard by the senate of the United States, then by the
Organization for security and cooperation in Europe, and now our voice of
protest is heard through your Committee. We, as Constantinopolitans, will remain
always at the disposal of any representative of the Hellenic or other
parliaments, to provide information.
The
Greek errors commenced not only with the long-term unwillingness of the
Parliament to deal with the problems of the ethnic Greeks of Asia Minor, but
also with the lack of preparedness of the members and collab Speakers of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs cannot
deal with Turkey, with a staff consisting of only 4 or 5 persons, when that
country is the first and foremost problem of Greece. However, our independence
struggle did not end in 1821.
Greece
had no Turkology institute and it is only three years ago that a Turkology chair
was established at the University of Crete. How is it therefore possible for you
to know proximately the thoughts and tendencies in Turkey? Your certainly know
that have to know thy enemy in order to deal with him. The word ‘enemy’ may
sound harsh for some of you. Unfortunately, however, Turkey views Greece as an
enemy and the word is well-known to us, since all the Constantinopolitans here
have finished Turkish high schools. A number of us have served in the Turkish
armed forces as Turkish nationals, and we are very well aware of how Turks think
about Greece. They are always afraid – even though there are no signs of such
a case – that Greece will take back Constantinople, Smyrna (Izmir), Asia
Minor. Even this fear alone makes them hostile against us, so that they begin an
anti-Greek propaganda from the first grades of Turkish school.
The
extermination of the Greek Orthodox community – and I would like to ask you
not to use the word ‘minority’, because maybe those who left Greece and went
to Germany or the United States were a minority, but we were hundreds of
thousands of natives and now there are only 1,500 of us left – began with the
plan put into effect from 1908 on in Thessaloniki by the Young Turks and led to
the results we all know. Thus, we must know Turkey well in order to be able to
deal with it, without of course advocating wars or conflicts.
Turks
have a wise saying: ‘a friend tells things bitterly’. If there are persons
in the Greek community and on these benches who love Turkey, and want its
cooperation and prosperity, they will have to tell the truth, they will have to
talk ‘bitterly’ to Turkey. When they humor Turkey and say that it is a
democratic state, the results is that things deteriorate, and this is constantly
proven in the last fifty years. From 1940, when I was born, to this day the
infringements of all the international obligations of Turkey are unfortunately
constant.
I
thank you for hearing me and I hope that today is only the beginning. The
Association remains at your disposal.
LEONIDAS
KOUMAKIS*5:
Mr.Chairman,
Members of Parliament, with the capacity of those who were born in the
fatherlands of Asia Minor and experienced painfully the Turkish policy with
regard to Hellenism, we will try to give you as concise as possible an image of
the strategy and actions of the Turkish Republic after the signature of the
Treaty of Lausanne, which brought the Greco-Turkish war to an end and solved the
Eastern question.
Turkey
signed the Treaty of Lausanne without the slightest intention to perform its
commitments. Its sole objective was to turn to its maximum advantage all that
the Treaty offered it, in order to gain time until the suitable conditions
occurred, which would allow it to achieve in fact what it had failed to achieved
in the negotiating table.
On
the contrary, Greece implemented a constant policy of good faith, meeting its
obligations with consistency and honor. This different approach of the two
countries to the meaning of their obligations had devastating effects on the
ethnic Greeks who remained in turkey after the Treaty of Lausanne was signed.
In
the course of the 75 years that lapsed from the signing of the Treaty until
today, the actual facts recorded in history reveal the infringement and manifest
violation of all the obligations of the Turkish Republic to respect the
minorities under the Treaty of Lausanne and at the same time Turkey’s strategy
to impose, following the reason of violence, accomplished facts as irreversible.
Turkey’s
methodical and planned steps in the direction of the infringement of its
obligations under the Treaty of Lausanne commenced on the day after the singing
thereof and are still going on.
At
this point of the report, we will attempt a brief review of Turkey’s most
characteristic actions, which consist a violation of its obligations under the
Treaty of Lausanne and took place during the period from the signing of the
Treaty, in July 1923, until the end of WWII.
Immediately
after the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, Turkey arbitrarily characterized 40,000
Greeks, who had temporarily taken refuge outside Turkey for reasons of safety,
as personae non grate. At the same time, Turkey removed their citizenship and
confiscated their properties with summary procedures. Greece’s appeal to the
International Court of Justice in The Hague and its vindication on February 21,
1925 had no practical effect, since the Turks had already achieved their target,
meaning to get rid of a significant number of Greeks, who had been agreed to
stay in Turkey.
Simultaneously,
Turkey rushed to restrict the civil and political rights of ethnic Greeks, with
the result that Banks, public services of all forms and categories, and big
enterprises immediately let go from their employ all persons of Greek descent.
Law
2525 forced all persons of Greek descent to turn their last names into Turkish,
because all those who tried to register names with Greek roots, were rejected.
A
huge racist campaign was launched, which culminated in the 1950s and 1960s under
the central slogan ‘Vatandas Turkce konus’, meaning ‘Citizens speak
Turkish’, with the result that anyone daring to speak his mother tongue in the
street was abused and fined.
Law
2007 prohibited Greeks to exercise 30 professions in an undisguised attempt to
force them to leave their hearths. The banned professions covered a broad
spectrum, from itinerant seller, barber, musician, and photographer to
carpenter, tailor and waiter. This was followed by the prohibition of more
professions, and thus the ethnic Greek residents of Constantinople were
compelled to make a painful decision: to either remain unemployed, work
illegally or emigrate from their land.
The
Turkish authorities supported with every means the establishment, in September
1923, of the so-called ‘Turkish Orthodox Church’, which was founded by
father Efthym Karahisarides Erenerol, a priest from Keskin, Anatolia, who was
the blind instrument of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, head of the Young Turks. The
Turkish strategy of downgrading and humiliating the Ecumenical Throne of
Orthodoxy became obvious with the series of acts that followed:
With
the undisguised support of father Efthym’s bold attempt to occupy the
Patriarchic Mansion, which led to a serious incident.
With
the issue of a decree, which characterized the Ecumenical Patriarchate of
Constantinople as a simple Turkish institution and determined that the Patriarch
was to be elected by priest having the Turkish citizenship and already serving
in Turkey.
With
the occupation by father Efthym and his Turkish supporters of the historic
church of PanHaghia Kafatiani in Galatas and the church of Sotiras Christos.
With
the unprecedented eagerness of the Turkish courts to fine the Ecumenical
Patriarch because he had caused mental anguish to pseudo-priest Efthym, when the
Patriarchal Holy Synod had unfrocked him and excommunicated him as an apostate
and shameless traitor of the orthodox faith.
With
the barbarous invasion of the Turkish police in the premises of the
Patriarchate, the arrest of Ecumenical Patriarch Constantinos VI and his
expulsion with the invented excuse that he was ‘exchangeable’.
With
the institution of criminal proceedings against the Ecumenical Patriarch and all
the Holy Synod on the grounds that they had held a session in the premises of
the Theological School in Halki (Heybeli ada)
and not in Phanare (Fener), where the administrative seat of the Patriarchate.
With
the passing of Law 2596, whereby all Christian clergymen are prohibited from
donning cassocks outside the church. The only exception in this rule manifests
the Turkish intention to lower the Ecumenical Patriarch to the level of the
neo-Turk’s agent pseudo-priest Efthym Karahisarides Erenerol, given that the
Turkish law set forth that only the Ecumenical Patriarch and pseudo-priest
Efthym, under his capacity as head of the Turkish Orthodox Church, and
self-acclaimed founder and leader thereof, were allowed to don cassocks outside
the church.
The
fact that Turkey could not unilaterally oust the Ecumenical Patriarchate from
Constantinople, which is what it would have done for any foundation governed by
the domestic Turkish law, and was compelled by the parties co-signing the Treaty
of Lausanne to accept that it would remain in Constantinople as a purely
Religious Institution with world-wide radiance, shows the dimensions of all this
Turkish arbitrariness.
In
the islands of Imvros and Tenedos, where, cumulatively, more than 90% of the
population was Greek, Turkey flamboyantly ignored the special local
administration, which the two islands should have enjoyed, as granted by the
British in the framework of the Treaty of Lausanne. They rushed to appoint a
Turkish governor and they placed Turkish officials in the administration of
justice, in the customs, police and port authorities, dismissing all the elected
local officials. Law 1151 passed by the Turkish National Assembly officially
abolished the local government status of the islands of Imvros and Tenedos, shut
down on various pretexts the Greek
School, prohibited the teaching of the Greek language and placed Christians
under persecution until they were fully exterminated.
In
the field of education 104 teachers of Greek descent and 52 Greeks were
dismissed, because they were arbitrarily deemed ‘unfit’ to teach in minority
schools. The Turkish Government, aiming to exclude teachers coming from Greece
from teaching in Turkey required them to pass examinations in the Turkish
language in order to be approved a new teaching license. Initially, most courses
in Greek schools were obligatorily taught in the Turkish language. The Turkish
authorities doubled the salaries of Turkish teachers appointed in minority
schools and forced the population of Greek descent to pay them!
Later
on, all the courses, with the exception of the Greek course, were obligatorily
taught in Turkish. The military education course was added, taught by an officer
of the Turkish army. A Turkish deputy principal was appointed to all minority
schools, who was answerable to the Turkish Ministry of Education, and who
gradually became the sole and dominant power in minority schools.
The
operation of the historic Greek Literary Club was terminated and the books of
its invaluable library were scattered among the various state libraries of
Ankara and Suleymaniye and in the Turkish language and Turkish History
societies.
On
the occasion of the introduction of the civil code in Turkey, a legal framework
was put in place which did not allow minority institutions to acquire any new
real estate, either by property transaction or by donation or inheritance, while
the Ecumenical Patriarchate was not recognized any more as a legal entity,
something which created serious impediments in the management and representation
of the huge Patriarchal estate.
From
the 1930s the Turkish authorities started to intervene openly in the elections
of the administration boards of minority institutions. They started with the
minority hospital of Valoukli (Balikli Rum Hasthanesi) and the community of Pera
(Beyoglu), which had large estates.
Law
2762 on Vakufs, which was passed by the Turkish National Assembly, placed
minority communities under the control and supervision of the General
Directorate of Charitable Foundations (Vakuf) and required them to submit
statements in regard to their incomes and properties. The administration of
minority institutions and schools was assigned to a commissioner, appointed by
the Turkish authorities.
In
the same period, the Turks appointed the infamous Zihni Ozdamar, who was
pseudo-priest Efthym’s right arm, as commissioner to the Valoukli Charitable
Foundation, causing an uproar in the Greek minority.
In
1939 all minority sports clubs were required to merge with Turkish sports clubs,
so that they progressively shrank and lost their Greek identity.
During
WWII, Turkey found a wonderful opportunity, from the safety of its neutrality,
to strike heavy blows on the ethnic Greeks of Turkey. The circumstances were
ideal, given that Greece was paying a heavy price in blood to the struggle for
the ideals of freedom and justice, at the side of the Allied forces. Thus
Turkey, in a treacherous and methodical manner, performed leaps ahead in its
long-term strategy to annihilate the ethnic Greeks living there.
In
May 1941 the Turkish Government mobilized the prefectures in Eastern Thrace,
starting from the prefecture of Constantinople. The enlistment offices were
ordered, by way of a ciphered footnote under the mobilization decision, to
summon selectively the reservists from the Greek, Armenian and Jewish
minorities. This way, the Turks dragged to the Turkish army all Christians aged
20 to 45, whom they scattered in the depths of Asia Minor to construct roads and
military buildings under the most adverse circumstances.
On
September 21, 1941 ‘unknown’ arsonists threw on the wooden roof of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate rags which they had immersed in gasoline and put on
fire. The Patriarchal Building burnt to ashes, taking with it records, paintings
of Patriarchs and valuable relics of the Greek population. For decades the
Turkish Government refused to grant a permit for the repair of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, until a few years ago, when it was reconstructed with the donation
of a well-known Greek benefactor.
On
November 11, 1942, the Turkish Government with its Law 4305, using as criteria
religion and ethnicity, imposed an enormous emergency property tax, which aimed
at the financial extinction of Christians in Turkey. The Law, which came to be
known as “Varlik Vergisi”, required the payment of the tax arbitrarily
imposed by the tax inspector within 15 days, without the right to appeal. Four
weeks after the imposition of the tax, failure to pay resulted to the
confiscation of the taxpayer’s property, his arrest and displacement to forced
labor camps in Askale, the Turkish Siberia. In total, 1,869 illustrious members
of the minority population saw their properties suddenly confiscated and
themselves exiled to the Askale Siberia, where they built roads in order to
settle their debt to the Turkish State. Their daily wages were 2 Turkish pounds,
out of which one was deducted for the rudimentary meals they were given and the
other one deducted with regard to their debt to the Turkish State. Most of them,
in order to settle the debt arbitrarily imposed on them, would have to work from
200 to 300 years!
In
January 1943 the Turkish Government confiscated the properties of the Holy
Monasteries of Athos Megisti Lavra and Koutloumousi in Imvros and started to
relocate settlers from Asia Minor to the island in order to alter the population
composition of the island, a method implemented about thirty years later in the
occupied section of Cyprus.
Towards
the end of WWII, Turkey seeing that the Greece’s stand during the war, at the
side of the Allies – in contradiction to its own ‘cunning neutral’
position – had given rise to a negative conjunction of circumstances against
it, rushed to apply its fixed tactics, which consists in taking two steps ahead
and one step back. The step back, which Turkey was forced given the situation to
take, was certain actions towards meeting its obligations under the Treaty of
Lausanne. The forced labor camps were emptied of those who had managed to
survive. The victims of the notorious ‘Varlik Vergisi’ were set free. The
conditions were noticeably improved for the ethnic Greeks in Turkey for a period
of time. A period of prosperity for the long-suffering Greek minority in Turkey
brought new hopes and dreams for a peaceful coexistence. All this was only
temporary. It only lasted until the suitable conjunction of circumstances
occurred again, permitting Turkey to proceed with its long-range plan to
exterminate those Greeks still daring to remain in their hearths. And these
circumstances soon came and offered Turkey the chance to achieve the uprooting
of the majority of the ethnic Greeks in Turkey.
But
it is the next speaker, Mr.Nikos Atzemoglou, who will cover Turkey’s ways,
practices, planning and actions in the period of the last forty years up to this
date. Thank you.
NIKOS
ATZEMOGLOU*6:
Mr.Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am a former Chairman of the Constantinopolitan Society
and I represent Constantinopolitans in international organizations. I took
refuge in Greece in 1966.
Two
were the main facts which contributed to the flight of the ethnic Greeks from
Constantinople. The first took place in 1955, with the vandalisms you are all
familiar with, when the Turks destroyed houses, churches, factories, cemeteries,
and left nothing standing. The second significant fact was in 1964, when the
Turkish authorities deported approximately 12,000 Greek citizens, born in
Constantinople, who were protected by the Treaty of Lausanne. They took with
them three times their number in relatives and friends. Therefore, in the years
1964 to 1966, about 48,000 Greeks were forced to abandon their ancestral homes,
without any serious reaction on the part of Greece, without the international
community taking notice of it and without this stream being characterized as a
stream of refugees by the United Nations.
This
flight was of course intensified and completed with the intrusion of the Turks
in Cyprus in 1974. Thus, the policy of ethnic catharsis imposed by Turkey
against the ethnic Greeks was at the same time a policy of violations and
infringements of the international conventions, including not only the Treaty of
Lausanne but also those treaties guaranteeing human and minority rights and
fundamental freedoms, such as the principles of the United Nations charter, the
charter of Paris, the other agreements in the framework of CSCE and OSCE, so
that since 1923 there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of Greeks in
Constantinople.
Specifically,
from approximately 110,000 Greeks still living there at the time of the exchange
of populations, today there are less than 2,000. From those 300 are in the Greek
Home for the Old.
I
will now refer to the violations, which took place in the last 40 years and to
the situation today. The Greek community today is subjected to systematic,
humiliating harassments, state terrorism and policy threats. Acts violating the
rules set forth in the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey has of
course signed.
Specifically,
minority members are often visited by police officers or summoned to the
security, are investigated and terrorized. Senior state officials, the Turkish
Press and other authorities threaten to convert to a mosque the museum of Haghia
Sofia, which be many is considered the symbol of the Orthodox faith. That they
will evict the Ecumenical Patriarchate and much more.
The
universal declaration of human rights, Article 19 of the international covenant
on civil and political rights and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human
Rights provide the necessary guarantees as to the freedom of expression and the
right to information, without any restrictions and regardless of frontiers.
Moreover
documents issued from time to time by the organization for safety and
cooperation in Europe offer similar guarantees. However, despite all these
guarantees, the Turkish authorities deny the Greek community these rights. The
two Greek newspapers, which enjoy a small circulation, are censored.
Furthermore, the sale and circulation of Greek newspapers and magazines is
prohibited, while the use of the Greek language is very limited.
Freedom
in education: The international agreements signed by Turkey offer equal rights
to all those living in the country.
Article
14 of the European Convention on Human Rights sets forth that the enjoyment of
the rights and freedoms set forth in that Convention shall be secured without
discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, color, language, religion etc.
CSCE documents offer similar guarantees for equal treatment. Additionally, the
Treaty of Lausanne guarantees equality before the law to the Greek minority, as
well as equal civil and political rights to those enjoyed by the majority.
Article
40 of the Treaty of Lausanne guarantees the minority the right to establish,
manage and control, at its own expense, schools and other establishments for
instruction and education, with the right to use their own language freely.
However, in the field of Education, despite all these national and international
guarantees, clear discriminations are observed against the Greek minority in
matters of teachers, schoolbooks and curricula. Turkey still prevents to this
date the free management and control of Greek schools by the minority itself.
Also,
Turkey does not permit the appointment of teachers and principals of Greek
descent to minority schools, prohibits morning Christian prayers in schools and
forces children, every morning, to recite the Turkish national anthem, Kemal’s
sayings and other nationalistic slogans.
The
result of all these counter measures, the attempt to brainwash, alter the
children’s ethnic Greek consciousness and these psychological pressures, is
the forced flight of ethnic Greeks from Turkey and as a consequence the
noticeable reduction in the number of students attending Greek schools.
From
15,000 students in 1923, they were reduced to 5,000 in 1954 and today there are
only 200.
With
regard to religious freedoms, Turkey has signed the Greco-Turkish Protocol of
1968, the European Convention on Human Rights and all the agreements in the
framework of CSCE, which guarantee such freedoms. However, Turkey constantly
violates them. In 1971 it banned the operation of the Theological School in
Halki, it pulls down churches on the pretext of opening roads, while the Greek
churches and cemeteries are constantly being broken in and destroyed, a unique
phenomenon worldwide. For instance I would like to mention the demolition of the
Holy Water of Haghios Nikolaos, the break-in and fire in Haghios Therapon and
the murder of the verger, the fourth in a row break-in in Haghios Nikolaos of
Phanare (Fener), from where even the last icons have now been stolen.
The
Turks refuse to recognize the Ecumenical nature of the Patriarchate. After
Patriarch Vartholomeos was installed, they started to exercise psychological
violence with bomb attacks against the Patriarchate, such as the attack with a
grenade in December 1997 which resulted to the injury of verger Nektarios.
Article
40 of the Treaty of Lausanne offers the Greek minority the right to establish
and control charitable institutions. Despite all the international guarantees,
the operation of the institutions remains problematic. The Turkish Government
has prohibited since 1935 the donation of legacies to these foundations. In 1964
it banned the operation of a Greek orphanage, which had been operating since
1953, and it is now arbitrarily selling its property. In 1967 it ceased to
recognize the institutions’ real property and imposed a 5% tax on the income
of community organizations. In 1991 it clearly intervened in the intra-community
elections, which were allowed after 22 years.
With
regard to real property, this is classified in 3 categories: a) the personal
property of Greeks having the Greek nationality, b) the personal property of
Greeks having the Turkish nationality, c) the property of charitable
institutions.
Concerning
the first category, up to 1988 the notorious secret decree, which denied Greeks
the right to property, even the right to inherit, was in effect. This resulted
to the seizure of their properties. After the first Greco-Turkish summit meeting
in Davos, this decree was supposedly abolished. However, it is now again in
effect. Greeks in Constantinople are not entitled to acquire real estate by
virtue of their right to succession. Greeks do not have the right to freely sell
real property, and most of those properties have been occupied by the Turkish
State itself. Their owners have been deported and must now get involved in long
and costly court proceedings in order to save their properties. In 1994 the
European Parliament, on the initiative of Member of the European Parliament
Mr.Alecos Alavanos, condemned Turkey’s practice in this matter. Furthermore,
Members of the European Parliament Ms Ekaterini Daskalaki and Mr.Nikitas
Kaklamanis also posed questions on the same matter. The Turks, however, invoking
the principle of reciprocity hold on to their practice. With regard to the
second category, no buying and selling transactions were permitted up to 1988.
Until then, a sale had to be authorized, pursuant to the opinion of a committee
meeting in Ankara. Since 1988 the sale of properties is free, only if the
property belongs to a citizen of Greek descent, its value is reduced to the
minimum. As to the third category, Turkey challenges the ownership of that
property. The properties donated to charitable institutions after 1936 are not
recognized and are deemed to belong to the Turkish State.
Greek
communities are not entitled to manage freely or sell their real properties, as
they are supposed to under the various CSCE agreements, which have been also
signed by Turkey, as well as under Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne.
Finally,
there is the matter of our cultural heritage, with regard to which the Turkish
Government has the clear tendency and policy of altering historic Byzantine and
later post-Byzantine monuments, buildings and churches, which are torn down for
the opening of roads or the construction of communal parks. There have been
various protests, led by the report of Europa Nostra, including those of a large
number of Turkish archaeologists.
The
ethnic Greeks of Constantinople request the actual support of the Hellenic State
and ask for the following:
First,
a complaint against the Turkish Republic in International Organizations, in all
the members of the European and American Parliamentary Assemblies for the
manifest violation of the Treaty of Lausanne and other, more recent Agreements.
Second,
an imperative demand that Turkey respect all of its obligations under its
contractual commitments with regard to the Greeks remaining in Turkey, by way of
the abolishment and lawful quashing of all the laws, decrees and decisions of
the Turkish authorities referring to them and violating their freedoms and human
rights.
Third,
a more effective protection and guarantee of the necessary conditions for the
unimpeded operation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as the venerable head of
Orthodoxy, towards the achievement of its high ecumenical mission.
Fourth,
a demand for damages with regard to the properties of the ethnic Greeks of
Turkey, which they were forced to abandon as a result of the anti-Greek measures
adopted in 1964.
Fifth,
a demand for the safeguarding of the lives and properties of ethnic Greeks still
living in their hearths and the rescue of the huge community property.
Sixth,
the rescue and preservation intact of the invaluable cultural heritage of
Hellenism.
Finally,
the immediate adoption of decisions by the competent instruments to the end of
recognizing September 6 as the day to remember the uprooting of he
Constantinople Hellenism, of recognizing the refugee status to the ethnic Greeks
of Turkey who were forced to leave their hearths in the recent decades and
reviewing the bureaucratic naturalization procedure of the Turkish nationals of
Greek descent who wish to be naturalized, is deemed absolutely necessary.
We
will always assist, at the side of the Hellenic State, in the protection of the
rights of the ethnic Greeks of Constantinople.
Proposals
& Dialogues
Questions
& Answers
IOANNIS
VARVITSIOTIS: Mr.Chairman, I appreciate your initiative for the hearing of
witnesses and the political discussion with regard to the violations of the
Treaty of Lausanne by Turkey during the last 75 years. I would like to thank the
gentlemen, who responsibly and based on documentation posed the problem in all
its dimensions.
Some
years ago, a similar discussion had taken place upon my recommendation, with
regard to the persecutions of ethnic Greeks in Imvros and Tenedos. As the
Parliamentary Committee is neither a research center nor a historic society,
being instead a political body, which cannot exhaust itself in discussions
without a specific objective, I propose that the Parliament, upon our
Committee’s research, undertake the issue of a Black Book in most of the
spoken languages in the world concerning the violations of the Treaty of
Lausanne, which will then be sent to all the members of all the parliamentary
assemblies worldwide and to all the International Organizations. Thus, I
believe, it will become apparent in an official manner that Turkey is a State
which does not respect the international law and order and holds in undisguised
contempt its international obligations.
ELEFTHERIOS
VERYVAKIS: Mr. Colleague, I already have in my hands a note by colleague Mr.
Vrettos, saying that the Committee should issue the proceedings of these
meetings in a special volume and see that they are circulated everywhere.
STYLIANOS
PAPATHEMELIS (Special Speaker representing PASOK): Waiting for our turn and
according to the order of procedure, this question would have been placed by the
Special Speaker representing PASOK. I do not claim to be original, but this is
our issue.
IOANNIS
KAPSIS: These days the French Senate and the French National Assembly approved a
resolution – and correctly – with regard to the persecution of the
Armenians. Thus, to limit ourselves only to the persecution occasioned by the
Varlik Vergisi would be perhaps an error, because in that way we would ignore
the great genocide of the ethnic Greeks of Asia Minor. If we wish to publish a
Black Book, this will have to include all the chapters, with foremost among them
the slaughter of 1.5 ethnic Greeks of Asia Minor.
ORESTES
KOLOZOV (Special Speaker representing KKE): Mr.Chairman, I too in my turn would
like to thank all those who contributed to this update. I would like to address
myself to Mr.Sarris, whom I heard very carefully. In addition to the scientific
account of the issues I saw that his report contains elements of a political
assessment of the events.
I
would like to make an observation and pose a question. The observation regards
the statistics of the American writer you gave us. I do not think that this
method is correct, because it may be disputed. Relative numbers always depend on
the increase of the population, the area examined. Absolute numbers would be
best. These show the actual reduction of the population and the extent of the
persecutions taken place.
My
question is the following. In your address you made an implication with regard
to our allies from across the Atlantic, that they made certain suggestions,
which the Hellenic Governments probably accepted. My question is if such an
implication can be substantiated. Is it simply a conclusion? If there is
specific information, it must be given here. So, we too will learn what exactly
happened during that period.
ALEXANDROS
PAPADOGONAS: Mr.Chairman, I will respect the time allocated for questions. I
will try to limit myself to this sense of posing questions.
It
is usually said, in the media, press etc., that the peoples of Greece and Turkey
are friends, that one loves the other, and that it is Turkey’s military
establishment or military and political establishment that are to blame for
causing every time the problem, which have been correctly reported.
I
have visited Constantinople a long time now and I have observed the downfall you
described. Whatever the government in Turkey, the same measures are adopted.
This makes me think that this might emanate from a feeling of the Turkish
people, which is satisfied by the governments of Turkey. I would like to ask the
following: Is it the fault of the Turkish Governments or is it the fault of a
feeling more common amongst the Turkish people, characterized by animosity
towards the Greek people and Hellenism in general. This is a major issue and it
should be clarified on the Greek side, in order for a correct policy to be
established in actually dealing with this tendency to annihilate Greeks. I have
monitored these issues, as I told you, during a long period of years. I would
like to come to a close with one more question.
Mr.Chairman,
unfortunately today we come across the policy followed in Constantinople and
more widely in Turkey in the Greek Thrace area as well, with another approach,
while the results pursued are in fact the same. These are the dwindling of the
Greek population and increase of the Muslim population, according to the Treaty
of Lausanne, or Turkish population according to the Turkish MPs.
Therefore,
those present here who are familiar with the issue should recommend to us and
recommend to the Hellenic Governments, which are the measures we should adopt in
Thrace in order to stop the actual genocide taking place there by other means,
whether these means are called propaganda or measures adopted by the Turkish
side.
CHRISTOS
KIPOUROS: It is the honourable thing that the President of the Republic
apologized to the Hellenism of Imvros, Tenedos and, by extension, to the
Hellenism of Constantinople. It is an example to be followed. It opens new
routes. Retrospectively, all political officials should offer the same
apologies. If they do, they will have no political standing to repeat Davos,
Brussels, Madrid etc.
Both
we and you seem to leave some voids in the advancement of our positions and the
account of the tragedies. What must be done? There is a processed proposal
submitted by Mr.Sarris, which was the specialized version of a proposal first
made by Mr.Tenekidis. The Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs and Defense
could adopt that proposal. This is the proposal for the recourse of Greece to
the International Court of Justice for the prevention of the commission of fresh
offences by the fascist and racist Turkish State and for the restitution of the
offences perpetrated against the last remaining ethnic Greeks in Asia Minor.
Do
you agree with that proposal? I say that, because you must be summoned to answer
as witnesses, since I had posed a similar question to the delegates of the
ethnic Greeks of Imvros and Tenedos, so that if the conclusions are positive
they may be included in the adoption of this proposal. This would honour our
Committee as well.
CHRISTOS
VYZOVITIS: In Mr.Atzemoglou’s report the phrase ‘reciprocity’ was heard in
connection with Turkey. I would like you to clarify what is the reciprocity
invoked by Turkey with regard to the properties of the ethnic Greeks of
Constantinople.
NEOCLES
SARRIS: I would like to offer a spherical answer, because a significant side of
the problem has not yet been touched upon.
The
problem has its origins in the exception from the compulsory ‘exchange of
populations’. In essence, what took place was the purging of an ethnic
population, not the exchange of populations. The population was ousted and later
on it was decided that this would be called an ‘exchange of populations’, by
way of equalizing the one point five million of persons of Greek descent still
surviving in Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace to the three hundred and sixty
thousand Muslims at that time. I say this because the exception will provide the
stigma of the persecutions.
The
ethnic Greeks of Constantinople were excepted for two reasons. The first was
mainly financial. Because 70% of the Turkish economy was concentrated in
Constantinople. And 70% of the economy was in the hands of the Christian
population. So that if those Greeks, and the Christian populations in general,
had to leave, the Turkish economy would be left in suspense. The new forces of
economy and society in general were the Christian populations. The various
ethnicities had their own rate of social modernization within the framework of
the Ottoman Empire. Social modernization in Turkey took place by way of ethnic
purging. This means that instead of making them partners in the political power
– this being Kemal’s movement – they eliminated them, took possession of
their production means and appropriated them by way of stealing.
In
Constantinople, the English felt alarmed because it was the ethnic Greeks that
held the economy in their hands and because they represented mainly foreign
firms, English and French, and asked that the ethnic Greeks remain there until
the Turks have the chance to study near them and finally learn the capitalist
way. All the persecutions of the ethnic Greeks in Constantinople coincide in
time with the development of Turkish capitalism. Meaning that during the growth
of the Turkish urban class, a persecution accompanies every phase when the
economy took off. In 1930 certain professions were prohibited to Greeks, because
it was the first year Turkish professionals had graduated from the technical
schools established by Kemal.
The
exchange of populations was based on a proportion of populations and numbers.
This is the answer to Mr.Kolozov’s question with regard to the use of
American’s method. If you read the proceedings of the Treaty of Lausanne you
will see that the reasoning behind it is a numerical and statistic proportion.
When the proceedings commenced in Lausanne in October-November, 396,000 Greeks
were in Constantinople. When in July, that is after 6-7 months, the Treaty of
Lausanne was signed, only 150,000 Greeks were left there.
I
will refer to the persecutions and the fact that they were hushed up by the
transatlantic confederation. At a young age, I served as the political adviser
of the reverend Patriarch Athinagoras, who is known to have been connected with
a personal friendship with Truman and Kennedy. We all know that in 1955 in
particular, there was an intervention by John Foster Dalles with the Hellenic
Government and at the same time an intervention with the Turkish Government,
equalizing culprits and victims.
For
the common interests of NATO they had to put aside their differences, and
therefore whatever was done was for the best. The same interventions had taken
place with Patriarch Athinagoras, so that no issue would be made out of the
situation and no voice of protest would be raised by the ethnic Greeks of
Constantinople. But this was not independently promoted from the American side.
I
hold responsible the Hellenic Governments from time to time, which in order to
please obviously in a spirit of alliance have sold out the rights of Hellenism
in general and the rights of the Greeks of the Metropolis of the Greek nation,
which is Constantinople, in particular.
ALEXANDROS
PAPADOGONAS: My question is: Does the responsibility lie with the Turkish
Governments, or were the Turkish Governments following the widely spread and
more general propensity towards animosity of the Turkish people?
NEOCLES
SARRIS: Your question may be supplemented with the well-known refrain, which is
repeated by the Turkish side: Greek people are good, they love the Turks, it is
the politicians’ fault.
We
cannot talk today of a ruling ideology, only of a dominant common ideology. The
problem is theoretical. The various political stands in Turkey are sectarian
with relation to the neo-Turkish ideology. This dominant ideology is diffuse all
over the political spectrum, is supposedly officially expressed in the form of
Kemalism and is clearly contrary to the preservation of any other foreign
element in Turkey, apart from the Turkish element. It is based on the logic of
Turkifying by force the Muslim population, including the Kurds.
Mr.Papadogonas,
your question goes a lot farther. Meaning that the dominant ideology consists in
the elimination of any ethnic, indeed cultural particularity, particularly in
the elimination of Hellenism. There will be some ‘crocodile tears’ and
‘sobbing’, saying the following: We love you – and this was constantly
repeated by the Turkish Governments – you must come back. What they say
proves, Mr.Papadogonas, the correctness of your question, because this is the
murderer who after murdering his victim then ‘washes his hands of the
crime’. The relief following the departure of the ethnic Greeks from
Constantinople is general.
Certain
cycles in Turkey, which are progressive, want us Greeks – if they actually
want us – as folklore, as the ‘last of the Mohicans’, to be placed in a
Museum. We decline this role, because it does not fit our historic mission.
NIKOLAOS
ATZEMOGLOU: Mr.Vyzovitis asked a question with regard to reciprocity, meaning
how and why do the Turks invoke reciprocity and on the basis of that invocation
refuse the ethnic Greeks the right to sell their properties. This means that
certain Turkish nationals here cannot sell their properties. The reciprocity
issue would have been posed from the beginning, when in 1963-1964 the expulsions
of ethnic Greeks began. However, it neither was nor is the policy of Greece to
do something like that.
The
invocation of the principle of reciprocity, with regard to the cases of
minorities, consists a violation of the minority rights, which under the
international law is an action contrary to the principles of the United Nations
Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights. No Muslim in Thrace is
impeded from selling his property. However, this is falsely alleged by the Turks
in order to appropriate the properties of ethnic Greeks.
Addresses
of Special Speakers
STYLIANOS
PAPATHEMELIS (Special Speaker representing PASOK): Mr.Chairman, we thank the
representatives of the Constantinopolitan Society who managed today to perform
an anatomy of the crime and unravel a crime which was committed constantly,
repeatedly and concurrently against the ethnic Greeks who lived inside the
Turkish and Ottoman territory. Turkey proves to be a country, which
irresponsibly and shamelessly violates all the international law to which it is
bound by official signatures. The international community has never imposed
sanctions on Turkey with regard to these violations, infringements, the brutal,
atrocious, blunt and cynical violation-trampling on the human rights, lives and
properties of all the minorities. Turkey still is the West’s ‘darling’ and
thus it is offered the right to repeat this crime, since it commits it with
impunity.
We
were abhorred to read yesterday about Brjejinsky, one of the ‘gurus’ of
foreign affairs in the United States. In an interview he gave to a Greek
newspaper, he recommends that we assist Turkey in its western orientation and
that we furthermore assist it in restoring its national confidence. And he asks
that of us, who as Greeks are the constant target of a genocide, which in this
century may count hundreds of thousands of dead and millions of uprooted
persons. This is Turkey and this is Turkish politics. What is important is how
we respond to this behaviour from Turkey. We must resolve finally to demonstrate
internationally the barbarous indeed face of that country, making use of
indisputable records, which exist, working systematically and not scrappily. It
is a significant fact that we, Greeks, remembered the genocide of the Hellenism
of Pontus 80 years after it happened.
It
is a significant fact that on the initiative of our colleagues from Pontus the
recognition of the genocide of the Pontus Greeks reached the Greek Parliament,
but the fact that we moved scrappily with regard to this matter too is not
significant, and it does not do us honor. In addition to the genocide of the
Pontus Greeks there is the genocide of all the ethnic Greeks of Asia Minor,
there is the genocide of the ethnic Greeks of Eastern Thrace. The evidence of
Turkey’s criminal behavior is infinite. Thus, we all talk about an
international agreement, signed under special circumstances with regard to
Hellenism, following the tragedy of Asia Minor, but where the negotiator was a
man of the stature of Eleftherios Venizelos, who after the second day he
appeared in Lausanne, according to the descriptions of Michael Theotokas who had
accompanied him as an adviser during that period in the Swiss city, and having
been treated as a loser, found the courage, after giving instructions to the
revolutionary government of Athens, to reform out of the wrecks of the Asia
Minor disaster the army of Evros and to declare that he was negotiating not as a
loser but as a party in a state of war.
He
finally succeeded in imposing this role, which resulted in a relatively decent
treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne. He was the one who should have been thinking
about its amendment, unfortunately, however, its amendment is being now
discussed by the others, who never respected it. Today, the last vestiges of
Hellenism remain in Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos. There is a huge issue,
how can this country project these crimes in order to beautify even more the
already beautified image of Turkey, which is constructed before the eyes of the
international community and the foreign governments by a well-planned and
effective propaganda mechanism.
Therefore,
ladies and gentlemen, this is of huge significance, whether a book of suffering
is to be compiled or another action to be made indicating these atrocities on
the part of Turkey. The point is to act and not to stay indifferent. These
crimes must be presented constantly and ceaselessly and indeed in many
languages, starting from English, which is an international language. They must
never be forgotten. There was at a time a Black book prepared with the order of
the then Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis. But it was again with the order
of Constantinos Karamanlis that it was never distributed. I think it was turned
to pulp.
Consequently,
the first issue is the international presentation and constant invocation of the
evidence to the crime.
The
second issue refers to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The
fact that the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been treated by Turkey as an
institution governed by the private domestic Turkish law, has been
systematically humiliated and isolated all these years, in the persons of its
officials, is unacceptable. Decree No 1092/1923 to that effect issued by the
Prefect of Constantinople, prohibiting the right to elect and be elected in
regard to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the absence of the Turkish nationality,
is also unacceptable. The Ecumenical Patriarch, who represents millions of
persons of the Greek Orthodox faith, must have the same authority lent by
President Bush to the reverend Patriarch Dimitrios, when the latter visited the
United States. On the contrary, today the Patriarch is deprived of his most
elementary human right.
The
Ecumenical Patriarchate must be governed by International law, not Turkish law.
Ladies
and Gentlemen, if we fail to make these demands, we should not expect them to be
made by others or be made automatically.
Sadly,
the Hellenic State in these 75 years has ignored all these infringements on
Turkey’s part. It did not turn to advantage the economic and other potential
offered by the Treaty of Lausanne.
Colleague
Mr.Kipouros in his address earlier clarified in what manner Greece can seek
recourse in the International Court of Justice. And while Greece has that right,
it never made use of it.
The
reciprocity term is binding on all governments. Unfortunately Turkey does not
comply with it. And here is where professor Sarris’ correct observation
pertains.
It
is known that there would be no ethnic Greeks if the well-known English Lord had
not intervened, seeing that trade was about to be lost, to the end of having
trade remaining in Greek hands, in order for Western governments to be paid.
You
realize how things stand, but one can also examine Dalles’ relevant acts,
thoughts and admonitions to the Turks, when he said – ‘we can hold the
Communists liable for that’ – and when they told him – ‘this will lead
nowhere’ – he said – ‘we will frame them’.
I
am not surprised by the fact that recently a known American Senator told me,
‘you would have finished from 1955 with the Muslims in Thrace, it is your
fault, you should have moved accordingly’. This is where Thucydides’ saying
applies:
‘If
you do not have the strength to fight back and impose your freedom and impose
your will for your rightful claims, no one will give it back to you for free’.
EUGENIOS
HAITIDIS (Special Speaker representing Nea Dimokratia): I salute the presence of
our fellow Greeks from Asia Minor, because I too am the child of parents coming
from Asia Minor.
A
lot of actions have taken place against Hellenism by its murderous enemy,
Turkish imperialism. I honor the fortitude and persistence of
Constantinopolitans in keeping history and memories alive, in defending
themselves and the ethnic Greeks of Asia Minor, who are still being persecuted,
with the absence of any assistance from the official Hellenic State being a
given fact. I honor all the societies of Greeks from Asia Minor, which with
their action are the living conscience of the Greek nation and remind the
Hellenic Government each time what it must do to protect their rights, which
have been established and never granted, as these are set forth in the
international treaties. I honour the ethnic Greeks of Imvros and Tenedos, those
still remaining in their suffering Land, for their patience, strength and
endurance. Our fatherlands there are unforgettable, not lost.
Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne sets forth that Imvros and Tenedos will remain under Turkish occupation and enjoy a special administrative organization ‘composed of local elements’. The population used to be 97% Greek with 7,500 Greeks and 200 Turks. The Treaty provides that ‘The maintenance of order will be assured therein by a police force recruited from amongst the local population by the local administration above provided for and placed under its orders’.
The protocol signed in Corfu in 1913 with regard to Northern Epirus also provided for a local army, which would only be incorporated in the Albanian army in the event of an outside attack.
Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne mentions that Greeks shall have the right to establish and control any religious and charitable institutions and schools. This has not been respected. Furthermore, the Turkish Government did not meet its obligation to offer any protection to the churches and cemeteries of the minorities indicated in the Treaty, such as the Armenian, Jewish etc.
With
Article 44 Turkey acknowledges that the provisions of the preceding Articles,
affecting non-Muslim nationals of its State, constitute obligations of
international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of
Nations. Furthermore, that these provisions shall not be modified without the
assent of the majority of the Council of the League of Nations then, United
Nations today. However, the Hellenic Government never made use of Article 44 in
order to protect the rights of the ethnic Greeks
from Asia Minor, which have been repeatedly violated.
Article
45 refers to the principle of reciprocity, and sets forth that the rights
conferred on the non-Muslim minorities of Turkey will be similarly conferred on
the Muslim minority in Greek territory. This principle requires, provided we
care for Hellenism in its entirety, to implement it in Thrace as well, as both
we and the other guarantor powers are obliged to under the Treaty.
The
bloody and criminal acts against the Hellenism of Asia Minor from time to time
were reported to us in a lively manner. Some of these acts are still taking
place in Imvros, Tenedos and Constantinople. Since 1964, pursuant to a plan
machinated by Turkey, and in the absence of a similar plan on our part to
protect Hellenism outside Greece and our national security inside Greece,
expropriations have begun, allegedly for the purposes of the establishment of
correctional institutions, reforestation etc. with the result that the
population of 7,500 Greeks
has dwindled and today only 350 old people remain in Imvros and 25-30 people in
Tenedos.
These
properties have been converted to country houses for officers of the Turkish
armed forces and lands offered for cultivation to Kurdish apostates and traitors
of the struggles of the Kurdish people. Currently, there is a systematic, group
relocation of Turkish population from Anatolia to the islands, while even now
the plan for the elimination of the last remaining overage Greeks
is implemented methodically.
In
January 1988, the school in Glyky, Imvros was seized and converted to a club.
This school had been built with money gathered by Greeks
in the period 1963-1964. On the other part, the last icons have been stolen from
Agridia. All this points to the fact that vandalisms are not the result of some
chance happenings, of the acts of some criminals acting on their own. These are
plans implemented by the Turkish State.
The
provocation in 1955 in Salonica, with the arrested Muslim student and the
doorman at the Turkish Consulate, which were the pretext and occasion for the
annihilation of the ethnic Greeks
of Constantinople, had been well established in detail.
Our
responsibility is the following: First of all these notes, as well the notes
prepared by you, the Constantinopolitans, must be published and distributed not
only to all the national assemblies and organizations and mass media in the
world, but if possible to be more widely distributed, in some manner that we can
determine in cooperation, to the European public opinion, so that Europe will
know what to expect if Turkey achieves its accession to the European Union as an
equal member. Europe must realize that if the barbarous and uncivilized Turk is
allowed into the Union this will be its death penalty.
I
recommend, though, that we perform a self-criticism in order to find out, as Greeks,
if we have done our duty. As Parliament, have we established the memory and have
we paid the ethnic Greeks
from Asia Minor the honor they are due for the genocide executed and the
persecutions taken place against them? For a whole year the resolution of the
Standing Committee of Public Administration for the recognition of the genocide
of the Greeks
of Asia Minor awaits its approval by the Plenary Session of the Parliament. I
propose that the genocide of the Hellenism of Asia Minor be included in all the
history books and taught in both primary and secondary education schools, so
that our children will know that we want friendship with the Turks and concerts
and an interest for the Muslim minority, but at the same time we demand that
Turkey afford the same to ethnic Greeks
and the punishment of all those who perpetrated crimes against the Greeks
of Turkey.
The
catastrophe in Asia Minor and the genocide of the Greeks
of Asia Minor should be honored every year as national holidays and in this
sense all Hellenism, which suffered and still suffers because it refuses to lose
its identity and become Turkish, will also be honoured.
ORESTES
KOLOZOV (Special Speaker representing KKE): I believe that what we have heard,
and indeed in such a spirited manner, and what we have read ascertain what all Greeks
know. The drama of Hellenism in Turkey, from the time of the catastrophe in Asia
Minor to these days. I have been struck by the fact, and I do not know whether
the Chairman had anticipated it, that this whole discussion is taking place in
the absence of the government. In such an issue, where we need to hear certain
aspects, possibly not as well known as the specialists believe, the government
could help us by providing specific information.
The
indictment expressed by the previous speakers must be acknowledged, meaning that
there are indeed responsibilities attributable o the former governments, or
rebutted and explanations offered as to the behavior of the Hellenic Governments
all these years.
Furthermore,
I must report that congratulations are due to all those who contributed to the
preparation of the texts distributed to us, which are complete both
scientifically and from the point of view of the evaluation of the facts.
I
would like the government’s view on all those issues. Should I accept,
perhaps, that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is unable to offer us a dossier in
regard to these issues? I do not believe that. A dossier is, of course, binding.
I believe that there are many things this government, along with the previous
governments, does not wish widely known.
This
whole tragedy, which was described here with the most vivid colors, has a
background. This is not about the bad Turks, who came, ravaged and that was all.
This is one aspect, we know that. Whether the military decisions of the Turkish
leadership or events within a specific conjunction of circumstances, these take
place against a background of international events, in the framework of which
each Hellenic Government is called to function as well. If we wish to get to the
root of the problem, we must stress this aspect as well. We must stress the role
played by the imperialist powers, whether the Americans today or the English
previously or other powers as well, from the time of the catastrophe in Asia
Minor until today.
I
feel that this discussion will suffer if we do not emphasize this element. This
element is not emphasized; it is only Turkey’s responsibility that is. All
things considered, our discussion seems lame. It is as if we are hitting on the
wrong spot. A lot of what has happened could have reached smaller dimensions and
a lot could have been avoided too, if they did not have the approval of the
great powers. Still today a lot of things happen with the tolerance and
encouragement of the imperialist powers.
The
tactics of keeping equal distances is not current. It is correct that these
reports should be gathered today and offered to the international community,
that we should act one way or the other. Of course, the reasoning is to inform,
to make them understand. But, don’t they already know? Is it possible that the
European Union – given that we are part of it – does not know what is going
on in Turkey or how Turkey has treated Greeks?
Or is it possible that it lacks evidence?
Here
I will bring another testimony. This is the testimony as to how we discuss in
the international forums, whether these are the Council of Europe, OECD or the
Western European Union. Our Members of Parliament have to fight each time
amongst the delegations to take the floor and bring various charges in regard to
the violation of human rights in Turkey. We are often the recipients of various
remarks on the part of our colleagues that we exaggerate and that we ought to
show some constraint in these issues. What are these expediencies, which force
us every time to react the way we do as a country, as governments?
Ladies
and Gentlemen, it is the Treaty of Lausanne itself that offers us the potential
to intervene. It is the Treaty itself that provides for an intervention, setting
forth how and where we will intervene in the event of a violation of the Treaty.
If we do not tie the interests of those now protecting Turkey, their interests
in that area, interests of those who need us, to those objectives and if we fail
to stress these issues, we will achieve nothing. ‘It goes in one ear and out
the other’. What is the sensitive spot of our ‘allies’ right now, whether
they are the European Union or NATO? Their sensitive spot is that right now they
are trying to construct their own edifice. We are the good guys, we contribute,
we are the first ones to contribute to the construction of what they want
constructed and I wonder if, instead of being so willing in everything, we set
down all these things in one or two cases and we tied them to one another, I
believe that they would consider it more seriously to keep equal distances in
issues which are evident. The Americans or the Europeans do not need Turkey
infinitely. Right now their interests are being served, however I do not know
what is going to happen in the long run. These things are being planned. What is
of interest to them now is to control this region. And this region can only be
controlled through Greece and through Turkey. This is the reality. If we set
things down in that direction, I believe that they will seek conciliatory
solutions, which will not only take into consideration Turkey’s interests.
This is such a period. The initiatives concerning the relations between Greece
and Turkey are in progress. Whey, indeed, the issue we are discussing today
cannot find a place inside those packages we hear so much about?
I
believe that they could and that they should, if we wish to have negotiating
assets in a discussion where we are forced, despite our declarations, to say
that we are not going to discuss the issues in their entirety. The people who
enjoy power at a universal level speak clearly. We must assess what we hear. A
phrase regarding a solutions package does not escape the lips of the President
of the United States. This is not something that occurred to him just then. Of
course, those who are familiar with these issues attempt to round up things with
regard to parallel procedures and what else. The reality is that today these
issues are at the discussing table not at the negotiating table. This issue
could be part of those discussions. However, no one raises that question.
We
believe that the time has come, if the Hellenic Government does not act, for the
people to act. We cannot keep saying ‘yes men’. We need to say ‘no’ at
some point, in order to protect our interests.
SPYRIDON
DANELLIS (Special Speaker representing Synaspismos): Mr.Chairman, I believe that
there is no one who could convincingly maintain that there has not been a
multitude of violations and that the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne are
not still violated by the Turkish Governments. All this of course referred to
and still refer to the policies of ethnic purging, which are some of the main
policies characterizing the course of Turkish affairs during this century.
Mr.Chairman,
dear colleagues, dear guests, I believe that there is no doubt, based on what we
have experienced and what we are experiencing, as well as on what was heard here
today, that not only the Treaty of Lausanne but other International Treaties and
Conventions as well are constantly violated and infringed by the Turkish
Government. The Turkish effort is continuous, to the end of destroying
everything in Constantinople belonging to any non-Turkish community. This is the
Turkish tactics, which is foreign to Western Communities and foreign to what
applies today with regard to human rights.
This
is a fact. Turkish violations and infringements are a reality. The question is:
Does today’s conversation aim to make a historic review, does it aim to remind
us of past events, does it aim to recall dramatic times, or does it aim to do
something else? Is there an aim and an objective for something more?
If
there is such an aim, in order for something to be restituted, if possible, we
must see and seek and resolve on how to act, in order for that something to be
restituted.
I
believe personally that we should aim at the future. Given that we are talking
about Hellenism, about Constantinople, I believe that this is an opportunity for
us to act accordingly and not to simply add another date in the long martyrdom
records of the Greeks
of Constantinople. There is a need for us to act and take action within the
existing procedures. To initiate the proceedings within the international
framework, to bring charges and to make known internationally all these crimes.
I
am under the impression, ladies and gentlemen, Members of Parliament and guests,
that up to now we have not done what we could have done. And this was not only
because we did not address ourselves to deaf ears and to places were
expediencies take control, so that we could say we were not heard, but we have
not done what we could have done, I repeat, in those places where we should and
could have acted.
We
must finally realize that we are improvising. Constant improvisation should
cease. We should proceed with a clear knowledge of what we want.
We
see the steps taken continuously by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos. We all
realize the way he sees things, the way we should act in order to achieve our
aim.
Dear
colleagues, dear guests, I am charged with personal emotions. I was born in
Heraclion, Crete, by parents who were both refugees. I, therefore, have a
personal understanding of what it is to be a refugee, to be uprooted, to live
without a country.
What
is being said that we are going to find our rights with the birth of a grand
idea or within a grand ideal, which is now in the process of being formed, aims
elsewhere.
So,
lets face the problem, lets make a plan and lets proceed.
Positions
of MPs
SPILIOS SPILIOTOPOULOS: Turkey is a poverty-stricken people, at the beck
and call of the military authority, seeing its rights constantly violated. The
political leadership of Turkey sets long-term national targets, which
historically it has been proven to achieve, and even though it knows itself to
be irrational, still it pursues more in order to achieve less.
The Greek people have adopted a long time ago the ideology of
accommodating themselves and remains passive with regard to the events, while
the political leaderships are liable for taking advantage of them in order to
become better established, for exercising foreign politics for internal
consumption and for not remaining orientated towards the national objective
targets. A recent example was the Imia tragedy. After the incident, our foreign
politics were completely disorganized. I am not acting as the opposition now; I
consider that I too am to blame for these tactics. I do not wish what happened
after the Committee meeting on Imvros and Tenedos repeated, when some
conclusions were reached, some proposals were made and finally nothing was done.
Thus, I propose, in addition to the common front against the Turks
abroad, the establishment of a Committee, pursuant to Article 44 of the Rules of
Procedure of the Greek Parliament, upon a motion made by the government or the
leader of a parliamentary group, to examine the national issues raised here
today, in the presence and after hearing the reports of the representatives of
the Greek minority in Turkey, and to propose solutions in connection with the
problems, which will be finally placed under the government’s consideration in
order to be implemented.
JOSEPH MICHELOYIANNIS: I was born in Crete, but the Greek people is one
people and the rights of the Greeks
of Constantinople and Asia Minor are the rights of all Greeks.
It is impossible to discuss the Treaty of Lausanne, which the Turks are
trying to amend, and not refer to the giant of Greek politics, Eleftherios
Venizelos, who reformed the Greek army, so that Greece could appear on an equal
standing with Turkey at the Treaty of Lausanne, so that the minority rights, the
rights of Hellenism could be protected in the Aegean and everywhere. Eleftherios
Venizelos began as the representative of a fully defeated State and signed the
Treaty of Lausanne as the representative of a State at war. Now the Turks blame
Kemal for that Treaty.
I do not anticipate any improvement in the Greco-Turkish relations in the
near future, given that Turkey faces huge financial and social problems, as well
as human rights problems, for instance with the Kurds.
There are many ways to claim our national rights.
I remember that when I went to the meeting of the Association of the
Black Sea countries with WEU, I said that there are in this region problems
which are not only financial, but also human rights problems. We then discussed
the Kurdish issue. Greek politicians have achieved a lot in international forums
against Turkey, when Turkey appears not to respect International Law and the
International Conventions.
Turkey tried to enter the West European Union, unsuccessfully, given that
it does not meet the prerequisites. Recently, in the Council of Europe, in the
committee for migrants and political refugees, after an enormous effort which
lasted months, and thanks to the majority of the Committee, we passed a
resolution against Turkey with regard to the Kurdish issue, which will be
presented to the Plenary Session of the Council of Europe in June, while Turkey
will do whatever it can to oppose this resolution, which refers to the ousting
of millions of Kurds from their homes, the murders of thousands of Kurds, the
violation of human rights and the criminal behaviour of the Turkish army.
When we discussed the issue raised by the Turks, meaning the Muslim
minority of the Greek Thrace and I dared to mention the crimes perpetrated in
Constantinople, Imvros, Tenedos and Asia Minor, the chairman interrupted me,
saying that this issue was different and that if we wanted to discuss it we
should raise the matter of the ethnic Greeks
of Constantinople before the Council of Europe. I repeated this to the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs as a proposal. The Ministry does not disagree and Deputy
Minister George Papandreou believes that, with the concurrent opinion of the
Societies, Greece should bring that matter there. In addition to the Black Book,
we should examine the current politics and our presence in the international
forums.
I believe that these issues pertaining to Hellenism should be raised
before the Council of Europe, with the Societies’ consent.
KYRIAKOS
SPIRIOUNIS: Our communication with the Societies and the Association was very
useful. Our nation is deeply conscious that Turkey manifested its intentions
already as of the day following the date of the signature of the Treaty of
Lausanne. These intentions were the same, which later became acts and are still
being planned up to this date. The intentions were that no ethnic Greek
or other minority should remain in Turkey, Kemal’s ethnic purging, and that an
incessant ottoman expansionism should be established and the Muslim community of
Thrace should become organized. Turkey tirelessly pursued in every possible way,
until WWII, by way of its demands to both Hitler and Churchill, its expansionist
designs against our country.
The
eternal objective in Turkey’s demands was a sad memory, Cyprus. Whenever in
our history we retreated before Turkey, all we achieved was to kindle its
greediness and to make its aspirations more threatening. The Treaty of Lausanne
left two issues pending. The property issue and the exchangeable populations. We
must assume our responsibilities, because every 6 months we changed the
respective member of the three-member committee – we changed 5-6 times Nikos
Politis.
Venizelos
with his visions and his realism decided in 1930 to end the Turkish
provocativeness and entered the Ankara Agreements.
We
paid approximately 425,000 Pounds to Turkey, while we should have been paid
approximately 2 million British Pounds for the purposes of counterbalancing the
lost properties. Venizelos paid, aware that he was being unfair to the Greek
side, with the hope of giving an end. He furthermore agreed that 150 members of
the clergy, followers of the Sultan, should leave Western Thrace and go to
Egypt. Thus, the Muslim minority remained at the mercy of the Kemalic schemes.
All this happened with the Ankara Agreement.
We
agree to promote the representation to the consular level in Komotini, without
asking for the respective establishment of a Consulate in Imvros. The following
day, Turkey multiplied its complaints against us.
Greece
should determine its policy on the basis of its historic conscience and
undoubtedly the prevailing conjunction of circumstances, with a dynamic
assessment of these conjunctions and the nation’s constant alertness. An
alertness able to avert and rebut. Furthermore, it is indisputable that an
escalation of the tension and an antagonistic attitude will only make us drift
inside Turkey’s game.
In
an immoral world, which hasn’t found yet a trace of ecumenical justice, where
all charters are violated as if they were nothing but paper by those ruling the
world, our fatherland must be particularly careful. It must not be led to
defeatism. This is another big chapter for our people. We must be aware not to
adopt a stand diametrically opposite, not to place our country in dangers which
we are unable or unprepared to handle. I say this as a soldier too, because of
the comparative image of the operational environment, as determined by
geography, by numerical and material superiority and by initiative – the
latter being a particularly interesting strategic point of comparison between
the two sides – we must not let ourselves fall into Turkey’s traps and pay
again with lost fatherlands.
CHRISTOS
KIPOUROS: I am sorry that today’s joint meeting did not take place last week,
because we would then have the chance to stress this great historic fax pas on
the part of Panteion University, with UNESCO being also responsible, given that
it sponsored the three-day symposium on socio-political sciences and
historiography in Turkey, with the participation of more than 20 Kemalist
professors and intellectuals from the neighbour country. With this opportunity I
would like to say that no European university, which respects itself, would
invite during a dictatorship professors of the type of ‘Tsakonas’, on a date
in particular which has been characterized as cursed day, a day on which
everyone is silent.
In
retrospect, we asked and found out that Mr.Rahmi Koc invited, through the
Chamber of Constantinople, the Industrialists of Northern Greece in
Constantinople in September.
If
one puts this information in order and combines it with Riva-Gut and the State
Orchestra of Athens, one comprehends the new Ottoman architecture. The only
newspaper in Athens covering the event had to admit in the end that the
proceedings of the symposium left it with a bitter taste.
When
we had endorsed Haralambides’ proposal to invite Oçalan in Athens,
about 180 MPs, we had addressed ourselves to Panteion and the rector’s office,
due to its specialization in this discipline.
These
initiatives really upset us. In addition, we had to state through our
delegation, as a member of UNESCO, that this organization must promote, not
distort world culture. If UNESCO wanted to take an initiative, there was a great
choice. The two great monuments in Thrace, relatively speaking, are Haghia Sofia
and the Bayiezid Mosque. A joint restoration initiative could have been
undertaken.
All
this should make us stop being dramatic and move on to politics. Politics means,
what is our plan, as the Greeks
of Thrace in general. It is to request that this procedure does not end here.
The Committee of Foreign Affairs and Defense must submit the dossier with the
proceedings to the Speaker of the Parliament, in the first place, asking him to
take it to the Plenary Session. Meaning that the issue should be discussed by
the Plenary Session and the following proposal, which is essentially the key,
should be made: To seek recourse in the International Court of Justice. The
existing scientific opinions, which do not require an agreement to refer the
dispute to arbitrators, are known. When I discussed the matter with the Prime
Minister and Mr.Pangalos, they told me to examine this point. Was an agreement
to refer to arbitration required? No, it is not required. This is today the
opinion of other professors as well. Thus, this is the route to seek the
administration of justice. But his must happen with the responsibility of all
the political institutions. I believe that emotional charging, antagonism and
distinctions between the Pontus Greeks
and the Thrace Greeks
are stupid and frivolous. Whether from Thrace or Pontus, we are united today and
historically and no one can force us apart. Retrospectively, certain unionist
sensitivities, which aim to promote other issues pertaining to other genocides,
should be escalated in a politically clever manner. Otherwise we will only
confirm a great decline. I believe that the key in the case of the Greeks
of Imvros, Tenedos and Constantinople is a political application to the
International Court of Justice in The Hague. It is better to talk of Imvros than
of Imia!
CHRISTOS
VYZOVITIS: Mr.Chairman, I had attended the funeral of Patriarch Dimitrios and
asked a priest something, commenting that that day the Greeks
of Asia Minor were accompanying their spiritual leader to the grave. He had
answered me, ‘what Greeks?
It only those you see in the church, and you came from Greece’. and he had
continued, ‘This is the great question. Did you let any Greeks
remain in Asia Minor?’
This
is the most significant point for all of us. Meaning that if that is a fact, and
sadly it is, we must all tell what is going on, we must all tell the truth, and
fight for it.
Because
finally what are we doing? We had a very nice informational meeting today. We
thank all our guests for their presence. But that is not enough. In a week, I
fear, we will have forgotten this meeting. I do congratulate the Committee
officers for this initiative. But that is not enough. What happens next?
Mr.Chairman,
I agree with Mr.Kipouros’ proposal, always in consultation with the Speaker of
the Parliament, that this discussion should take place in the Plenary Session,
with all networks open and with a delegation of three representatives among our
friends and brothers from Constantinople, in order for all the world to learn
about these facts. Unfortunately, no one will learn anything with today’s
meeting. It will be reported in the back pages of the newspapers, and no one
will talk again about this issue.
Thus,
if we want to help Greece in general, we must give it a voice, with emphasis on
the historic facts.
CHRISTOS
ROKOPHYLLOS: I too would like to thank in my turn the hunted Greeks
of Constantinople and Asia minor, who gave us to day specific facts. Turkey
literally exhausted Hellenism, not only in Constantinople but in Imvros and
Tenedos as well.
In
the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, up until a year and a half
ago, the Turks tried every time to create an issue with regard to the alleged
violation of the rights of the Muslim minority in Western Thrace. And every time
we replied that we are going to refer to the violations they commit in
Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos. This was enough to discourage them, so that
they either did not submit or withdrew their official petition. Lately, however,
they have not been deterred, they proceeded and the Council of Europe examines
their charges about the human rights of the Western Thrace Muslims.
One
has to wonder why the Hellenic State has not taken all these years the same
initiative, to proceed to the main issue, meaning to bring charges with regard
to the outrageous, both legally and actually, violations which have taken place
in Turkey. The secret decree of 1964, which remained in force in Turkey until
1988, remains unparalleled in the world and is still going on in a reduced yet
essential way until today. This is the ‘political death’ of a certain
minority. The reason is that Turkey and we were the countries refusing the sign
the protocol on minority rights, which was processed and voted by the Council of
Europe.
Finally,
the current Hellenic Government fortunately signed this protocol. I believe that
we have now a more decent standing in bringing charges against what is happening
in Turkey. There are only a few ethnic Greeks
still living in Turkey who would be willing to testify as witnesses. However,
the testimonies of our fellow human beings, who were forced to come here, would
suffice to persuade any parliamentary body, such as the Council of Europe or
OSCE, which are the two suitable instruments to examine such issues. This of
course is of no particular concern to the Turks, given their mass violations of
the human rights of the Kurds, the members of the left wing in Turkey etc. They
have after all been found guilty repeatedly – once unanimously – by the
parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe and by the Court of Human Rights
in Strasburg. Regardless of this, Turkey has not been subjected to any practical
sanctions, given the absence of any enforcement mechanisms. In other words,
there are still no process servers in international law.
Turkey
behaves pachydermically and does not stand to lose a lot, even if it is
convicted of all these violations. Of course I agree to seek recourse, not in
the International Court of Justice, because even if it does have jurisdiction it
does not achieve a lot. There are more dynamic institutions, such as the Council
of Europe, OSCE, the Court of Human Rights etc.
Now
that in Greece the rights of any minorities have been settled, we would be more
presentable in bringing charges about what has happened in Turkey.
ELEFTHERIOS
VERYVAKIS: I would like to express some of my thoughts, under my capacity as a
Member of Parliament, not as the Chairman of the Committee, given that these
thoughts need not be binding on the Chairman and the Officers.
My
first thought regards the fact that I welcome the declaration with regard to the
freedom of this forum taking place today, even if it may not meet the approval
of governments and political parties. I think that such acts and steps
contribute exactly to the purpose, which we want to achieve, to the benefit of Greeks
all over the world and to the benefit of our country. After all, we are here in
order to disagree whenever we see fit and to agree when we must, and not to
pursue disputes, which are not true, and to approve pre-agreed situations.
Dear
colleagues, I will not address the many and hideous crimes, which we know to
have been and to be perpetrated against the Hellenism of Turkey. I attach a
great significance to today’s meeting and I propose – I will exercise my
relevant rights as Chairman – the whole proceedings of today’s meeting to be
sent to the Officers of the Parliament, with the request for a continuation
procedure in regard to this and other associated issues.
Truly,
a Black Book. However, we must admit that in the years that have lapsed, and
these are 75, the governments either did not stress the facts they should have
stressed, or did not act as they should have acted, or did not follow what they
should have followed, or followed other directions, motivated by other
expediencies.
This
is the first thing I want to emphasize, and this we must examine.
The
second thing I want to emphasize is that today we have been armed with all these
means, which we must use in all the international forums.
The
third thing I want to emphasize is that we must proceed as necessary in all the
international courts.
I
agree with colleague Mr.Rokophyllos that Turkey has begun to change its attitude
lately. And while the Greek side does make steps and did establish a committee,
Turkey established three similar committees.
These
are points to be noticed both by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the
Ministry of Defense, which even though invited did not attend these proceedings.
I
would like to tell them that we have the means in the arsenal of the Greek side
for the climate, which both Greeks
and Greece need, to be promoted and established. I believe, dear colleagues,
that our Committee opens a chapter, which can and must be useful both to Greece
as well as to the whole of Europe, where Greece will proudly take part
exercising its rights, instead of feeling incomplete without its child!
We
must move to that direction and on that basis, irrespective of whether we agree
or disagree, for some reasons, which are sometimes understandable. These reasons
should not carry us away, should not make us forget the main problem, the
specific objective and our national ideals and interests!
Institutional
framework for the protection of the Greek minority in Turkey (document
pertaining to the address of Dr.Stamatis Georgoulis,
Professor
of International Law, Hellenic Army Academy)
TREATY
OF LAUSANNE JANUARY 30/JULY 24, 1923
PART A – SECTION A – 1) TERRITORIAL CLAUSES
Article
14. The islands of Imvros and Tenedos, remaining under Turkish
sovereignty, shall enjoy a special administrative organization composed of local
elements and furnishing every guarantee to the native non-Muslim population in
so far as concerns local administration and the protection of persons and
property.
PART A – SECTION C – PROTECTION OF MINORITIES
Article
37. Turkey undertakes that the stipulations contained in the Articles
of this Treaty shall be recognized as fundamental laws.
Article
38.
The Turkish Government undertakes to assure full and complete protection of life
and liberty to all inhabitants of Turkey without distinction of birth,
nationality, language, race or religion.
Article
39.
Turkish nationals belonging to non-Muslim minorities will enjoy the same civil
and political rights as Muslims.
Article
40.
Turkish nationals belonging to non-Muslim minorities shall enjoy the same
treatment and security in law and in fact as other Turkish nationals. They shall
have an equal right to establish, manage and control any charitable, religious
and social institutions, any schools and other establishments for instruction
and education, with the right to use their own language and to exercise their
own religion freely therein.
Article
41.
Facilities for the public education and instruction of non-Muslim Turkish
nationals through the medium of their own language, with public funds.
Article
42.
Measures for the protection of the family law or personal status of the
non-Muslim minorities in Turkey and in the case of divergence referral of the
matter to the Council of the League of Nations. Protection to churches,
synagogues, cemeteries, and other religious and charitable institutions and
granting of the necessary facilities and authorization for the formation of new
private institutions of that nature.
Article
43.
Turkish nationals belonging to non-Muslim minorities shall not be compelled to
perform any act which constitutes a violation of their faith or religious
observances, and shall not be placed under any disability by reason of their
refusal to attend Courts of Law or to perform any legal business on their weekly
day of rest.
Article
44.
Turkey agrees that, in so far as the preceding Articles of this Section affect
non-Moslem nationals of Turkey, these provisions constitute obligations of
international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of
Nations. They shall not be modified without the assent of the majority of this
Organization, while the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan agree not to
withhold their assent to any modification in the Treaty articles.
Article
45.
The rights conferred on the non-Muslim minorities of Turkey will be similarly
conferred by Greece on the Muslim minority in its territory.
THE UNITED NATIONS
1) The United Nations Charter, in Article 1 para.3 and Article 55 guarantees universal respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to sex, race, language and religion.
2)
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 establishes the
principle of non-discrimination as a fundamental guarantee for the protection of
minorities.
3)
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966
establishes and obligation for the States not to impede the members of
minorities from using their own language and developing their cultural identity.
4)
The UNESCO Convention (Article 5 para.1) recognizes the right of ethnic
minorities to carry on their own educational activities (establish schools,
obligation of public financing, teaching of mother tongue).
5)
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (Articles 1 and 2) establishes the equal standing of minority and
majority.
6)
The UN Declaration of December 18, 1992 establishes the rights of persons
belonging in national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.
ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
1)
The Final Act of the Helsinki Conference, 1975 (Seventh Principle)
imposes the protection and establishment of the suitable circumstances for the
promotion of the ethnic, political, linguistic and religious identity of
national minorities.
2)
The Copenhagen Conference (June 1990). The fourth chapter affords
substantial protection to the members of national minorities and the
minority’s right to self-determination, free use of their mother tongue
(para.32.1), freedom of education (para.32.2), prohibition of assimilation
(para.32.2), religious freedom (para.32.3 and 32.4), full equality before the
law (para.31.1), the right to establish associations (para.32.6).
3)
The documents of the Geneva meeting of 1991 on national minorities
repeats some points made at the Copenhagen Conference, adding new facts, such
as: international status of the minorities’ rights to protection, their right
to participate in public life, adoption of measures for the elimination of
discriminations, presence of observers in elections, local administrations with
elements of autonomy, autonomy in the determination of the identity of the
minority, cooperation across international frontiers, mechanisms for the
protection of minorities.
4)
The Helsinki document 1992 and the Helsinki Meeting-II (March-July 1992),
which established the institution of the High Commissioner on National
Minorities.
THE
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
1)
The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Article
1) of 1950 and the First Protocol of 1952 guarantee for all persons belonging to
the jurisdiction of the contracting states equal protection in the enjoyment of
the rights and freedoms set forth in the Convention. Article 14 refers to
minorities, guaranteeing the exercise of rights without discrimination on any
grounds, including the association with a national minority.
2)
The draft of the Charter on regional or minority languages in Europe,
adopted within the framework of the Standing Committee of Local and Regional
Authorities of Europe.
3)
The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of
February 1, 1995 of the Council of Europe.
The
violations of the Treaty of Lausanne by the Turkish Republic, in chronological
order, from 1923 to 1998
1923-1924
1) In October 1923 Turks restrict the civil and political rights of Greeks living there.
Banks,
civil services of all kinds and categories as well as big multinational
companies and enterprises are forced to dismiss from their employ all Greeks.
(Violation
of Article 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
2)
In the same period, the political affiliations of the Greek teachers in
Constantinople become the object of the investigation conducted by Salih Zeki,
General Director of the Turkish Ministry of Education. Of course, this was the
occasion of the dismissal of 104 teachers of Greek descent and 52 Greek
teachers, who were characterized as ‘unfit’ to teach in minority schools.
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 41 of the Treaty of Lausanne – The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
3)
In 1923 Turkey, aiming to restrict the Greek presence in Constantinople,
arbitrarily characterized as personae non gratae 40,000 Greeks, who had found
temporary refuge for reasons of safety outside Turkey, prior to the signing of
the Treaty of Lausanne, removed their Turkish citizenship and proceeded to the
mass confiscation of their properties. The occasion, as declared by Ankara, was
that these people, despite being settled in Turkey before 1918, and thus not
exchangeable under the terms of the Treaty on the exchange of populations, were
not registered in the municipal roll of Constantinople – which is something
that was not required by the Treaty for the exchange of populations. The Greek
view was justified two years later, on February 21, 1925, by the International
Court of Justice, but the Turks had already achieved their objective.
(Violation
of Article 2 of the Treaty on the exchange of populations, which was
incorporated in the Treaty of Lausanne).
4)
Turkey, in the framework of its strategic undermining and degradation of
the Ecumenical seat of the Orthodox faith, gave its full support in September
1923 to the establishment of the so-called ‘Turkish Orthodox Church’, which
was founded by father Efthym Karahisarides Erenerol, a priest from Keskin,
Anatolia, who was the blind instrument of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Young
Turks’ leader. In October 1923, father Efthym attempted to occupy the
Patriarchal Palace, causing grave incidents, while the Turkish authorities did
not stir an eyelid.
(Violation
of Articles 38, 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
5) By virtue of Decree No 1092/06.12.1923, Turkey downgraded the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to a simple Turkish institution and determined that the Patriarch would be elected by clergymen who were Turkish nationals and were already serving in Turkey. The fact that Turkey was unable to unilaterally evict the Ecumenical Patriarchate from Constantinople, which is what it would have done for any institution governed by the domestic Turkish law, and was forced by the parties signing the Treaty of Lausanne to accept that the Ecumenical Patriarchate would remain in Constantinople, indicates the extent of the Turkish arbitrariness.
(Violation
of Articles 40, 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
6)
Immediately after the installation of the Turkish authorities in Imvros
and Tenedos, on October 4, 1923, where more than 90% of population was Greek,
the Turks completely ignored the special local administration which the two
islands, which were offered to them as a gift with the initiative of Breat
Britain in the framework of the Treaty of Lausanne, should have enjoyed. The
Turks appointed right away a Turkish commander and Turkish officers to the
courts, customs houses, police and port authorities, dismissing all the elected
local officials. They cut off the Christian leadership characterizing as
personae non gratae 1,500 people from Imvros and 64 from Tenedos, who had found
temporary refuge in safer places. Their real property was seized.
(Violation
of Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne and Protocol VIII on amnesty, violation
of Articles 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
7)
On February 12, 1924 father Efthym burst into the historic church of
PanHaghia Kafatiani in Galatas and the church of Sotiras Christos and took
possession of them, with the undisguised support of the Turkish authorities. On
February 19, 1924 the Patriarchal Holy Synod unfrocked father Efthym, while he
had already been excommunicated as an apostate and shameless traitor of the
orthodox faith. The Turkish courts rushed with unprecedented eagerness to fine
the Ecumenical Patriarch in April 1924 for the mental anguish suffered by father
Efthym as a result of his excommunication, while the Turkish State officially
conceded to him the churches he had occupied with the violent ‘backing’ of
the Turkish mob!
(Violation
of Articles 37, 39, 40, 41 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of
Nations has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in
Article 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
1925-1926
8)
On January 30, 1925, upon the conclusion of the mass for the celebration
of the holiday of the three Hierarchs, the Turkish police invaded the premises
of the Patriarchate, arrested Ecumenical Patriarch Constantinos VI and after
giving him an exchange passport led him to the railway station of Sirketzi and
deported him from Turkey.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38, 40, 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
9)
In the same year, the Turkish Government decided to shut down the
historic Greek Literary Club and the contents of its invaluable library were
scattered among the state libraries in Ankara and Suleymaniye and the various
Turkish language and Turkish history societies.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of
Nations has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in
Article 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
10)
The Turkish Government, in order to prevent Greek teachers from teaching
in Turkey, required them to pass examinations in the Turkish language in order
to be approved a new teaching license. Most courses in the Greek schools had to
be taught in the Turkish language. Ethnic Greeks in Constantinople were forced
to bear the burden of the double salaries paid to the Turkish teachers teaching
in Greek schools, while at the same time they were asked to pay a special
education tax, invented for the purpose of draining them. The Zappeion School
for Girls had to shut down because there were statues inspired from the Greek
mythology in its premises. The Patriarchal Commercial School, the Greek
Commercial School in Halki and the Apostolides private school for languages had
to shut down.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38, 39, 40, 41 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of
Nations has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in
Article 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
11)
On June 14, 1926 the Turkish Government, in the framework of its strategy
of undermining and lowering the status of the Ecumenical Patriatchate, initiated
criminal proceedings against the Ecumenical Patriarch and all the Holy Synod, on
the grounds that they had convened a meeting at the Halki Seminary and not in
Phanare (Fener), the administrative seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
In
the same period, the Turkish Government did not allow the organization of a
Panorthodox Convention by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
(Violation
of Articles 38 and 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne)
12)
The introduction of the Civil Code in Turkey, in October 1926,
established for minority institutions an inability to acquire new real estate,
either by property transaction or by donation or inheritance, while the
Patriarchate’s capacity as a legal entity ceased to be recognized, thus
causing huge impediments to the management and representation of the huge
Patriarchal estate.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38, 39 and 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
1927-1939
13)
Law 1151, passed by the Turkish National Assembly on June 25, 1927,
substantially and officially abolished the self administration status of the
islands Imvros and Tenedos, shut down on various pretexts the Greek School,
prohibited the instruction of the Greek language and placed Christians under
persecution, to their final extinction.
(Violation
of Articles 14, 27, 38 and 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
14)
During the year 1930 the Turkish authorities openly intervened in the
elections of the administration boards of the minority hospital in Valoukli and
the community of Pera (Beyoglou), aiming at the big properties of the minority
members.
(Violation
of Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
15)
Law 2007, passed by the Turkish National Assembly on June 11, 1932,
banned Greeks from the exercise of thirty professions. These professions covered
a wide spectrum, indicative of the intentions to indirectly force Greeks to
emigrate voluntarily: The professions of itinerant salesman, barber, musician,
photographer, carpenter, tailor and waiter were among the first to be prohibited
for Greeks by the Turkish authorities. The banning of other professions as well
followed later, compelling Greeks to make a painful choice: either remain
unemployed, work illegally or emigrate from their land.
(Violation
of Article 2, Convention IV, part (a) and Articles 37 and 40 of the Treaty of
Lausanne).
16)
Law 2596, passed by the Turkish National Assembly on December 3, 1934,
prohibited all Christian clergymen to don cassocks outside the church. The only
exception allowed by the Law manifests the Turkish intention to bring the
Ecumenical Patriarch down to the level of the pseudo-priest Efthym Karahisarides
Erenerol, the Young Turks agent, since it set forth that only the Patriarch and
pseudo-priest Efthym, under his capacity as self-declared head and leader of the
Turkish Orthodox Church, were allowed to wear cassocks outside the church.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38, 40 and 43 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
17)
In the same year, Law 2525, under which all Turkish nationals should take
on a surname, forced Greeks to Turkify their last names, because those last
names with Greek roots were not accepted by the Turkish authorities. At the same
time, a racist campaign was launched under the slogan ‘Citizens speak
Turkish’, with the result that anyone daring to speak his mother tongue in the
streets was abused and fined.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
18)
Law 2762 on Vakuf, passed by the Turkish National Assembly on June 5,
1935, placed minority communities under the control and supervision of the
General Directorate of Charitable Foundations (Vakuf) and required them to
submit statements as to their income and their properties. The management of
minority institutions and schools was assigned to a commissioner, appointed by
the Turkish authorities.
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
19)
On July 26, 1934, a new decree in implementation of Law 2007/1932, banned
the Christian population holding the Greek nationality from the exercise of more
professions, which resulted to the mass exodus of no less than 10,000 Christians
with Greek nationality from Turkey.
(Violation
of Article 2, Convention IV, part (a), and Articles 37 and 40 of the Treaty of
Lausanne).
20)
In the two years 1936-1937, Greek minority schools became the Turkish
Government’s target. All the courses had to be taught in Turkish, with the
exception of the Greek course. The military education course was added, taught
by an officer of the Turkish army. A Turkish deputy-principal was appointed to
each minority school, answerable to the Turkish Ministry of Education, who
gradually became the sole and dominant power in minority schools.
(Violation
of Articles 39, 40 and 41 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
21)
In the same period, pursuant to Law 2762/1925, the Turkish authorities
appointed the infamous Zihni Ozdamar, who was pseudo-priest Efthym’s right
arm, as commissioner to the Valoukli Charitable Foundation, causing an uproar in
the Greek minority.
(Violation
of Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has guaranteed
the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of the Treaty of
Lausanne).
22)
In 1939 all minority sports clubs were required to merge with Turkish
sports clubs, so that they progressively shrank and lost their Greek identity.
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
1940-1949
23)
During WWII Turkey During WWII, Turkey found a wonderful opportunity,
from the safety of its neutrality, to strike heavy blows on the ethnic Greeks of
Turkey, taking advantage of the weakness of Greece, which was struggling for the
ideals of freedom and justice, at the side of the Allied forces. Thus in May
1941 the Turkish Government
mobilized the prefectures in Eastern Thrace, starting from the prefecture of
Constantinople. The enlistment offices were ordered, by way of a ciphered
footnote under the mobilization decision, to summon selectively the reservists
from the Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities. This way, all Christians aged 20
to 45 were dragged to the army and were scattered in the depths of Asia Minor to
construct roads and military buildings under the most adverse circumstances.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
24)
On September 21, 1941 ‘unknown’ arsonists threw on the wooden roof of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate rags which they had immersed in gasoline and put on
fire. The Patriarchal Building burnt to ashes, taking with it records, paintings
of Patriarchs and valuable relics of the Greek population.
(Violation
of Articles 38 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
25)
On November 11, 1942, the Turkish Government with its Law 4305, using as
criteria religion and ethnicity, imposed an enormous emergency property tax,
which aimed at the financial extinction of Christians in Turkey. The Law, which
came to be known as Varlik Vergisi, required the payment of the tax arbitrarily
imposed by the tax inspector within 15 days, and without the right to appeal.
Four weeks after the imposition of the tax, failure to pay resulted to the
confiscation of the taxpayer’s property, his arrest and displacement to forced
labour camps in Askale, the Turkish Siberia. In total, 1,869 illustrious members
of the minority population saw their properties suddenly confiscated and
themselves exiled to the Askale Siberia, where they built roads in order to
settle their debt to the Turkish State. Their daily wages were 2 Turkish pounds,
out of which one was deducted for the rudimentary meals they were given and the
other one deducted with regard to their debt to the Turkish State. Most of them,
in order to settle the debt arbitrarily imposed on them, would have to work from
200 to 300 years!
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
26)
In January 1943 the Turkish Government confiscated the properties of the
Holy Monasteries of Athos Megisti Lavra and Koutloumousi in Imvros and started
to relocate settlers from Asia Minor to the island. The Mayor and three
Community chairmen who dared to protest were banished in Asia Minor. The same
destiny awaited two of the most important members of the Holy Synod: Metropolite
Maximos of Chalcedon, who later became Ecumenical Patriarch, and Metropolite
Dorotheos of Prussa.
(Violation
of Articles 14, 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
1950-1959
27)
On September 6, 1955 the Turkish Government, in a cold-blooded and
preplanned manner, launched an organized pogrom against Christians in
Constantinople. Within the space of six hours seventy-three churches, two
monasteries, eight holy water fountains, thirty-six Greek schools, four thousand
three hundred and forty shops belonging to Greeks, two thousand six hundred and
forty houses belonging to Christians and twenty-one factories belonging to
Greeks were destroyed, looted or set on fire. The tombs of the Patriarchs were
destroyed and the Greek cemetery in Sisli was the target of a frenzied attack by
the organized mob. The Turks were possessed with a cannibal-like mania and they
ruined tombs, opened the more recent ones, unburied corpses, which they knifed
and tore to pieces. During this night of terror for the Greeks of
Constantinople, no less than seventeen deaths, dozens of injuries and two
hundred rapes took place, while icons and religious paintings of priceless
historic and archeological value were destroyed or stolen.
Only
three days after the events, Ismet Inonu, head of the Turkish opposition, stated
with provocative explicitness at the center of the Popular party, which he
headed: ‘It is a good thing that our party was not involved in the events,
however these acts were very well organized and aiming to clear our country from
the Greek element, which is a burden!”
(Violation
of Articles 38, 39, 40 and 43 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
28)
On September 16, 1955 the Turkish authorities interdicted the publication
of the minority newspaper ‘Eleftheri Phoni’ and arrested its publisher
Andreas Lambikis, whom they imprisoned without a warrant or official charges for
a period of three months in the military jail of Harbiyie.
(Violation
of Articles 37 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
29)
In November 1956, the Turkish authorities arrested twelve members of the
Greek Association of Constantinople, which they dissolved by court decision in
April 1958, allegedly for espionage for Greece and for financing the struggle of
the organization EOKA in Cyprus.
(Violation
of Articles 38, 39, 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne – Violation of Convention IV of the Treaty).
30)
From early 1957 to 1959 the Turkish authorities deported 57 personalities
of the Christian minority in Constantinople, including reporter Dimitrios
Kaloumenos, who had captured with his camera the vandalisms of September 6,
1955, offering invaluable material to history about that St.Bartholomew’s
massacre for the Greeks of Constantinople.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
31)
During the same period, the Turkish authorities with a campaign levered
mainly be students-members of Anti-Greek organizations and societies, used
psychological pressure on consumers, forcing them not to buy products from shops
owned by Greeks. To that end, they distributed propagandist leaflets in front of
the Christian shops, with the slogan ‘Bu dukkan gavurlarin malidir. Yiankina
girin, cunku Turk tur’ (This shop belongs to an infidel. Prefer the shop next
door, it belongs to a Turk). This campaign, combined with the other one asking
people to speak only Turkish – the relevant slogan ‘Vatandas Turkce konus’
was everywhere – maintained the unbearable feeling of terror, which surrounded
the Christians of Constantinople.
(Violation
of Articles 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
1960-1969
32)
New restriction measures with regard to the exercise of various
professions by Greeks in Constantinople were announced by the Turkish
authorities in 1960, in implementation of Law 2007/1932.
(Violation
of Article 2, Convention IV, part (a) and Articles 37 and 40 of the Treaty of
Lausanne).
33)
That same year, the Turkish authorities abolished the three central Greek
Orthodox boards of Stavrodromion (Beyoglu), Halkidona(Kadikoy) and Galatas (Karakoy),
which coordinated the ethnic Greek institutions. That way, the real estate
belonging to the institutions was led, through the progressive procedure of the
physical wear of the members of the Greek institutions, to the Turkish State.
(Violation
of Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
34)
Law 222 of 1961 arbitrarily brought minority schools under the
jurisdiction of the Turkish Ministry of Education, for the purpose of
circumventing the obligations undertaken by Turkey under the Treaty of Lausanne.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 39, 40 and 41 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
35)
In 1962 an application for the reconstruction of the Patriarchal Palace,
after the damages it had suffered from the fire of 1941, was rejected. Similar
applications for the maintenance of other buildings belonging to the minority,
such as the Principos Orphanage (Buyuk Ada), the Metropolis at Derkon and the
Tatavla (Kurtulus) School were also rejected. In the same year the plot of the
church of Haghios Georgios in Therapia (Tarabya) was arbitrarily occupied for
the purposes of developing a big tourist complex, without any attention paid to
the protests of the Christians.
(Violation
of Articles 38, 39, 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
36)
In 1963 the church of Sotiras Christos, which in 1924 had been forcefully
occupied by pseudo-priest Efthym, was torn down by the Turkish authorities. This
church, 12 years after it had been occupied by coup by the pseudo-priest, had
been returned to the Christians after a long struggle in the courts. In 1955 it
had been completely destroyed by the organized demonstrators – contrary to the
church of Panaghia Kafatiani, which had remained under the control of the
pseudo-priest and which was left untouched during the night of the events. After
it was torn down, the Turkish authorities awarded damages to pseudo-priest
Efthym!
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
37)
In 1964 the Turkish authorities implemented a coordinated wave of
persecutions, aiming at the complete extinction of the Christian minority of
Constantinople:
The
year began with the authorities setting the proper climate, with the stoning of
the Patriarchate. This was followed, on January 10, 1964, by the stoning of the
Sinaitic Monastery of Haghios Ioannis in Phanare (Fener). Then the wave of
persecutions assumed torrential dimensions. Three principals of Greek High
Schools and eleven Greek teachers were dismissed. Orthodox clergymen were
forbidden entry in Greek schools by virtue of Circular No 410/16/26.03.1964. On
April 1, 1964 Emilianos, Metropolite of Seleukia and Iakovos, Metropolite of
Philadelphia, were deported from Turkey and were deprived of the Turkish
nationality. Nine days later, on April 10, 1964, the Patriarchal printing
office, which had been in operation since 1927, was shut down and the
publication of the ecclesiastical publications ‘Apostolos Andreas’ and
‘Orthodoxy’ was forbidden. The handling of Greek books, whatever their form,
in minority schools, the teaching of the religious education course and the
celebration of the religious holidays of Easter, Christmas and New Year’s Day
were forbidden by virtue of Circular No 3385, issued on September 15, 1964. On
September 20, 1964, the community cemetery of Kouskoutzouki (Kuskuncuk) was
desecrated and on the following day, on September 21, 1964, the church of
PanHaghia in Exi Marmara was stoned. Between October 4 and 9 the Patriarchate
was blockaded by a mass of organized ‘demonstrators’. Morning prayers were
forbidden for Greek students in minority schools by virtue of Circular No 8459,
issued on December 18, 1964. Students were also forbidden to use the Greek
language, even during the breaks. At the same time, the historic Greek Orphanage
in Principos (Buyuk Ada) was shut down, when the building was forcefully
occupied by the Turkish authorities.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Lausanne – The
League of Nations has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set
forth in Article 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
38)
In March 1964 the Turkish Government began the mass expulsion of Greeks
from Constantinople in the most provocative, flagrant and blatant violation of
the Treaty of Lausanne, given that there was absolutely no question that Greek
nationals settled in Constantinople prior to 1918 were not exchangeable. The
mass persecution of the Greeks, which took place in the form of inhuman and
summary proceedings, was the last blow to the wounded and bled Hellenism of
Constantinople. The expulsion was suddenly announced in the press, accompanied
by the simultaneous seizure of the moveable property and confiscation of the
real property of the deportees, forcing them to leave the country with only what
they could fit inside the suitcase they carried. The Turkish authorities were so
eager to uproot the ethnic Greeks
of Constantinople, that in the lists they published with the names of the Greeks
to be deported, allegedly on the grounds of being dangerous to the safety of
Turkey, they included the names of people with mental or physical disabilities,
hundreds of elderly persons who could only move around with difficulty as well
as at least six …… dead people!
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
39)
On November 2, 1964, the Turkish Government by virtue of its secret
decree which acquired the reference number 6/3801, proceeded to the methodical
looting of the huge Christian properties, make illegal the transfer of property
titles to persons of Greek nationality and blocking the collection of all
amounts due, all proceeds, incomes and bank accounts. This unprecedented
plundering was kept secret and implemented faithfully for decades, until it was
uncovered twenty-four years later.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
40)
In 1964 the notorious eritme programi was implemented in the islands of
Imvros and Tenedos. This was the plan for breaking down the islands and giving
them a Turkish identity. The operation licenses were removed from the Greek
schools, which were shut down and their properties were confiscated. The arable
lands of the islands were expropriated for next to nothing. Fishing, which was
an important means of livelihood for the residents, was prohibited. The
Metropolite and elders of Imvros were exiled to Asia Minor. Gendarmerie camps
were established and settlers were transferred from Pontus and Bulgaria. The
area was declared ‘supervised zone’ and all Greek and foreign visitors had
to secure a special permit from the Dardanelles’(Canakkale) Prefect. Some time
later, open prisons for long-term convicts were relocated to the island, in
order to terrify the residents, whose only way out was that, which the Turkish
authorities systematically methodized: to leave their ancestral hearths.
(Violations
of Articles 14, 37, 38, 39 and 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of
Nations has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in
Article 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
41)
In September 1965, pseudo-priest Efthym occupied by force, with the
undisguised support of the Turkish authorities, the holy churches of Haghios
Ioannis in Hion and Haghios Nikolaos in Galatas(Karakoy). The Turkish
authorities rushed to offer to him the Greek institutions in the area, including
2 schools and 52 properties. Since then, all the legal efforts for the return of
the churches and institutions have been met with legalistic problems, which have
resulted to the continuous side die adjournment of the relevant proceedings!
(Violation
of Articles 38, 40, 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
42)
In 1965 Andreas Lambikis, publisher of ‘Eleftheri Phoni’, the
minority newspaper, was arrested and imprisoned. The newspaper, printing presses
and the premises owned by him were seized, and the publisher was ousted from
Turkey with the charge of ‘insult to Turkism’.
(Violation
of Articles 38, 39 and 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
43)
The persecutions in minority schools went on, despite the rapid decline
in the number of students. In 1967 another 39 teachers were dismissed and 6
Greek elementary schools were shut down. Children whose identity bore the
indication ‘Christian’ instead of ‘Rum’ (Greek Orthodox) were not
allowed entry in minority schools, and were forced to attend Turkish elementary
schools.
(Violation
of Articles 38, 39, 40 and 41 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
44)
Law 903/1967 imposed a 5% tax on the annual gross Vakuf income. The
acquisition of any real property in excess of that stated in 1936 was
prohibited. The establishment of new minority institutions was prohibited.
(Violation
of Articles 37, 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
1970-1979
45)
On July 9, 1971 the Turkish Government, in an effort to strangle the
nursery of Orthodox clergymen, discontinued the operation of the Seminary of
Halki. In the 127 years from its foundation, 930 clergymen had graduated from
the Seminary, including 12 Ecumenical Patriarchs, 2 Patriarchs of Antiochy, 4
Archbishops of Athens and 1 Archbishop of Tirana. At the same time, all Greek
minority schools were required to open courses with the Turkish oath beginning
with the words ‘I am a Turk’ and ending with the phrase ‘ne mutlu Turkum
diyene’, which means ‘How happy I am to have been born a Turk!”
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
46)
In September 1974 the Turkish authorities turned to mosques the Byzantine
monastery of Akatalyptos Maria Diakonissa, which was built in 582, the monastery
of Myreleo and the church of Haghia Theodora.
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
47)
In the islands of Imvros and Tenedos, the heroic Christian residents who
had lived through persecutions and terrorism, now had to suffer more
tribulations. The year after Stelios Kavalieros was murdered by ‘unknown’
parties in Panaghia, Imvros in 1973, the Mayor of Imvros, together with 20
eminent islanders, were put in prison in the Dardanelles. On the night of the
Turkish invasion in Cyprus, in July 1974, the old Metropolitan Church of Imvros
was looted and the cemetery of the village Castro on the island was desecrated.
In the following summer Styliani Zouni, mother of two, was raped and murdered by
a Turkish soldier in the village of Ayii Theodori, Imvros. Finally, in the
two-year period 1975-1976 more lands, from what little had remained in the hands
of the Christian residents, were expropriated for next to nothing, as usual.
(Violation
of Articles 14, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of
Nations has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in
Article 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
48)
The Turkish authorities, with Law 502/1978 managed to shrink the
community property of the Valoukli Hospital to what it was in 1936, annulling
all transfers of moveable and real properties which had taken place by virtue of
donations, bequests etc.
(Violation
of Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
1980-1989
49)
The 1980s were the coup de grace for the Christians of Imvros and Tenedos,
in the form of new ‘unsolved’ murders. In July 1980 George Viglis was
massacred in Schinoudi, supposedly by ‘unknown’ parties. In 1984 Efstratios
Stylianidis was murdered in Schinoudi and Nikos Ladas in PanHaghia. A few years
later Zaphiris Deliconstantis was murdered in the village of Glyky. In 1984 the
Turkish Government, bringing to a conclusion the infamous ‘eritme programi’,
meaning the plan for the complete Turkification of the Greek islands of Imvros
and Tenedos, proceeded to seize the last remaining 956 thousand square meters,
prohibiting cattle breeding and characterizing all remaining pastures as
forestland or lands to be reforested and national parks.
(Violation
of Articles 14, 37, 38 and 39 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
50)
On May 29, 1985, on a symbolic date, the Turkish authorities proceeded to
an also symbolic act: They tore down the whole front of the holy church of
Haghios Georgios in Makrochori (Bakirkoy).
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
1990-1998
51)
The current decade is characterized by the increased intensity of the
Turkish provocations, not only against the remnants of the Greek properties in
the unforgettable fatherlands of Asia Minor, which are the fixed target of the
Young Turks, but also against the inanimate witnesses of the great Greek
presence and the huge Christian estates. After a period of 20 years from the
last permitted elections in the Greek communities of Constantinople, it was only
in March 1991 that the elections were repeated. However, the procedure permitted
was only a parody, since the members of the appointed returning committee were
also the only candidates! A Greek woman, who dared to protest, was found abused
in her home, after having received the ‘visit’ of unknown parties who had
tried to ‘bring her to her senses’.
(Violation
of Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
52)
In the same year, the Turkish authorities took arbitrary occupation of
the building of the Greek community of Tzivali (Cibali) and the Community
building of Haghios Phocas in Mesochori (Ortakoy), Bosphorus. In both cases, the
Turkish State paid the expenses for the restoration of the occupied buildings.
(Violation
of Articles 40 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
53)
In August 25, 1991, perfectly organized demonstrators, with not only the
tolerance but also the open support of the Turkish authorities, besieged, under
the sounds of epic songs of the janissaries, the premises of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate, which they blocked off for four days and nights in a row. When
they had the pleasure to leave, they kept trumpeting forth their intention to
return and install a Turkish patriarch in the premises of the Patriarchate!
(Violations
of Articles 38, 40, 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations
has guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44
of the Treaty of Lausanne).
54)
In April 1992, four churches and one holy water spring were the targets
of attacks: The church of Evangelistria, at the foot of Tatavla (Kurtulus), the
church of Haghios Georgios in Edirne-Capi, the church of Haghios Ignatios in
Halkidona (Kadikoy) and the holy water spring of Prophitis Ilias in Mega Revma (Arnavutkoy).
In all these cases, the culprits removed undisturbed icons and religious vessels
of great historic and archaeological value, without of course getting arrested.
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
55)
In August 1993, ‘unknown’ parties entered the Christian cemetery of
Neochori (Yenikoy), Constantinople, and opened and looted 30 tombs. At that
time, the church in the cemetery of Prophitis Ilias was broken into and robbed,
while at the holy water spring of Parthenos Maria in Gioksuyu, bold culprits
opened a great hole on the wall of the building, destroyed the premises and the
holy water’s taps.
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
56)
On June 12, 1993, ‘unknown’ parties as usual, catapulted an
improvised Molotov bomb onto the building of the newly built, with great trouble
and expenses, Patriarchal House in Phanare (Fener). The fire was extinguished by
the clergymen, because the Fire Department was unable to intervene!
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
57)
In early August 1993, one more incident shocked the Christian minority of
Constantinople. A twelve-year old girl, Petroula Syrigou, was dragged by force
inside a black Mercedes by three ‘unknown’ parties, in front of the eyes of
a large number of witnesses. The poor girl was found a little while later naked
and molested in a state of aphasia, which lasted three whole days. On the third
day, Petroula Syrigou died and was buried in the Christian cemetery of Neochori
(Yenikoy), Bosphorus. A few days later, on August 24, 1993, vandals broke into
the same cemetery and after breaking the tomb marbles, scattered the bones of
the dead and unburied a corpse from its shroud in order to tear it apart!
(Violation
of Articles 38 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
58)
On September 28, 1993 eight ‘unknown’ persons entered the premises of
the Ioakimion School for Girls in Fener, used a tank of gas and started a fire
and then disappeared. The fire was extinguished by the local residents, because
the Fire Department did not deem it necessary to make an appearance. The
following month, in October 1993, a big rock was thrown inside the premises of
the Patriarchate from the neighbouring hill, a regular army bomb was placed in
the church of Panagia ton Ouranon, in an old quarter of Constantinople, which
fortunately did not explode, while the fire started by ‘unknown’ parties at
the Monastery of Haghios George in Principos (Buyuk Ada) ruined a significant
part of the building. In November 1993 ‘unknown’ parties threw two bombs
inside the precinct of the church of Panagia in Egri-Kapi and disappeared.
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
59)
On March 30, 1994, three improvised incendiary Molotov bombs were
catapulted from the northern wall of the Patriarchal House in Fener and twelve
days later, on April 12, 1994 Molotov bombs were thrown inside the yard of the
Greek Grand National School in Fener.
On
the night of April 30, 1994 ‘unknown’ parties broke into the church of
Metamorphosis in the Sisli cemetery, stole 7 icons of great value, four gold
candle-stands and ruined various religious vessels. Immediately after that, they
broke into the neighbouring chapel of the Apostles Petros and Pavlos, and
desecrated the grounds.
On
the night of August 1, 1994 ‘unknown’ parties entered into the chapel of
Haghios Ioannis Prodromos in the cemetery of Makrochori (Bakirkoy), stealing
innumerable icons and desecrating the grounds. In September 1994 the Turkish
authorities, in a characteristic insult to the religious sentiment of
Christians, make available the old Byzantine church of Haghia Irini for the
conduct of an international …… beauty contest!
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
60)
In April 1995 the house of BBC correspondent Alkis Kourkoulas was broken
into and valuable documents were stolen. In June of the same year ‘unknown’
parties broke into the church of Haghios Ignatios in Halkidona (Kadikoy),
stealing icons and five silver candle-holders and into the Holy Water Spring of
Parthenos Maria in Gioksuyu, ruining furniture. On October 4, 1994 ‘unknown’
parties murdered and robbed the elderly Christina Frangopoulou in Principos (Buyukada).
(Violation
of Articles 38 and 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne - The League of Nations has
guaranteed the implementation of said Articles, as set forth in Article 44 of
the Treaty of Lausanne).
61)
On March 3, 1966 the church of Panagia ton Ouranon became again the
target of the known ‘unknown’ perpetrators. A powerful remote-controlled
explosive device was discovered by the church attendant and disposed of at the
last minute by the Turkish police. On September 16, 1996 two bombs went off
almost simultaneously, one in the Byzantine church of Panagia in Mouchli (Fener)
and the other in the now shut down building of the Ioakeimion School for Girls
in Fener. Thirteen days later, on September 29, 1996 a grenade was catapulted
onto the roof of the Patriarchal Church of Haghios Georgios, causing damages to
the building.
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
62)
The bomb attacks in Fener went on under the impassive indifference of the
Turkish Government. Thus, on December 2, 1997 a fresh bomb attack at the seat of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate resulted to the serious injury of deacon Nectarios
from Rethymnon, Crete and to extensive damages in the Holy Church of Haghios
Georgios. On January 13, 1998 the same always ‘unknown’ parties entered at
two o’clock in the afternoon into the holy water spring of Haghios Therapon
near Haghia Sofia, murdered the 73-year old keeper Haviaropoulos, threw his
corpse into a well, grabbed valuable icons and set the place on fire in order to
cover their tracks!
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
63)
On the night of March 30-31, 1998 vandals entered the cemetery in Tatavla,
near the center of Constantinople, ruined 51 tombs and pillaged undisturbed the
grounds.
(Violation
of Article 42 of the Treaty of Lausanne).
64) In early November 1998, the Turkish Government arbitrarily removed the supervisory committee returning of the Seminary in Halki, on the grounds of their alleged ‘mismanagement’ and ‘propaganda against the Turkish State’, condemning in fact the whole Institution to shut down.
After a brief listing of only some of the incidents against the Greeks of Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos, the population shrinkage of the ethnic Greeks in Turkey is easily understood.
The comparison between the Turkish policy with regard to Christians and the Greek policy with regard to Muslims in the 75 years from the signature of the Treaty of Lausanne, using the language of numbers, is catalytic:
The Mixed Commission in charge of the Exchange of Populations issued, in performance of the 1923 Agreement issued 111,200 certificates of exception from the exchange to ethnic Greeks in Turkey and 86,000 to Muslims remaining in Western Thrace. Today, 75 years later, the number of Muslim residents in Western Thrace is at least 120,000 persons while the number of Greeks in Turkey has shrunk to no more than 2,000 as a result of a planned and systematic violation of the obligations undertaken by Turkey upon signing the Treaty of Lausanne.
In the light of the above, the following proposals are made:
1. Denunciation of the Turkish Republic before the International Organizations (UNO, OSCE, European Parliament, Council of Europe), all the members of the European and US Parliamentary Bodies with regard to the flagrant violations of the Treaty of Lausanne and other more recent Agreements.
2. A commanding demand that Turkey respect all of its obligations under its conventional commitments to the Greeks remaining in Turkey, with the abolishment and legal quashing of all the legal decrees and decisions of the Turkish authorities involving them and violating their freedoms and human rights.
3. More effective protection and guarantee of the required conditions for the unhindered operation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is the revered crown of Orthodoxy, towards the performance of its high ecumenical mission.
4. A demand for damages in regard to the properties of the Greeks of Turkey, who were forced to flee as a result of the anti-Greek measures adopted in 1964.
5. A demand for the protection of the lives and properties of the Greeks still remaining in their hearths and the salvage of the huge community property.
6. The salvage and preservation intact of the invaluable cultural heritage of Hellenism.
Furthermore,
the immediate adoption of decisions by the competent State instruments with
regard to the following, is deemed absolutely necessary:
1. Recognition of September the 6th as a day of remembrance of the uprooting of the Greeks of Constantinople.
2. Recognition of the refugee status of the Greeks of Turkey who were forced to leave their hearths in the last decades.
3. Naturalization of the Greeks of Turkish nationality who wish to acquire the Greek nationality.
Bibliography:
1. Leschi ton Neon Ellinon, ‘The Treaty of Lausanne’, Papazissis Editions, Athens, 1994.
2. Alexis Alexandris, Thanos Varemis, Panos Kazakos, Vangelis Koufoudakis, Christos Rozakis, George Tsitsopoulos, ‘The Greek-Turkish Relations, 1923-1987’, Gnossi Editions, Athens, 1988.
3.
Association of Imvrians, Constantinopolitans, Tenedians, Eastern
Thracians, “The Struggle for Vindication’, ÉÊÔÁÈ
Editions, Komotini, 1997.
4.
The Constantinopolitan Studies Society, ‘Memorandum on the Position of
the Greek
Orthodox Minority in Turkey’, Athens 1947.
5.
Issues of the Constantinopolitan newspaper ‘Anatoli’, issued in
Athens.
6.
Issues of the Constantinopolitan newspaper ‘O Politis’, issued in
Athens.
7.
Report of the ‘Helsinki Watch’ Organization, presented in April 1992.
8.
Dimitrios Kaloumenos, ‘The Crucifixion of Hellenism’, Third
Self-Financed Edition, Athens 1991.
9.
Leonidas Koumakis, ‘Glances at the Roots of Hellenism’, Self-Edition,
Athens, 1997.
Photographic
Appendix
With
Regard to the Violations of the Treaty of Lausanne
By
the Turkish Republic
(1923-1998)
·
In
1941, after the ‘Friendship and Cooperation’ covenant was signed with Nazi
Germany, Turkey from the safety of the supposedly ‘neutral’ position it
adopted during WWII, selectively mobilized twenty ages of Christians from 25 to
45 years old, and send them to forced labour camps. The photograph presents the
grounds where the conscripts stayed in Gonen (Archives of Ioannis Rodokanakis).
·
In
1942, when Greece was bleeding at the side of the West, serving the ideals of
Freedom and Democracy, Turkey grasped the opportunity to impose an extra
property ‘tax’ (Varlik Vergisi –
Law 4305/12.11.1942), on the basis of criteria which were purely racist, on
Greeks, Armenians and Jews, plundering their huge properties. Those unable to
pay within the suffocating fifteen-day time limit, were led to forced labour
camps (Photograph).
·
In
1955 the Turkish Government unleashed an incredible and perfectly organized
pogrom against the Christian population of Constantinople. As a result, no less
than 20 people died, hundreds were wounded, 200 rapes took place, 73 churches,
4,360 shops belonging to Greeks, 2,600 Christian houses, 26 minority schools and
the premises of all the Greek newspapers issued there were destroyed or looted.
In the photograph the Turkish mob in frenzy, on the night of September 6-7,
1955.
·
In
March 1964 Turkey proceeded to the arbitrary expulsion of the Greeks living in
Constantinople. With summary proceedings, approximately 48,000 Greeks were
forced – directly or indirectly – to abandon their homes in an unbearable
climate of terror. The Turkish Government issued on November 6, 1964 its Secret
Decree No 6/3801 for the purposes of plundering their properties, which
prohibited the transfer of ownership of the real properties belonging to Greeks,
while a few years later the prohibition was extended to cover the Greeks’
rights to succession. The photograph shows blind and invalid Greek
Constantinopolitan G.Syggros at the
time of his expulsion on the grounds that he was deemed to be, along with the
other deported Greeks, ‘dangerous to
the safety of Turkey’.
·
Under
Articles 20 and 21 of the Treaty of Lausanne Turkey declared its waiver from any
and all rights to Cyprus. However, 51 years later on July 21, 1974 it invaded
the island setting new unrivalled records of barbarity: 5,000 dead, 1,639
missing and 200,000 Cypriots refugees on their own island! The photographs are a
small sample of the propagandist material used by Turkey at the time of its
invasion in Cyprus – revealing its expansionistic intentions in contrast to
the official position adopted by Ankara in its relations with the West, which
still is that ‘the Turkish invasion in Cyprus brought peace to the island!”
·
At
the time of the signature of the Treaty of Lausanne the population of the
islands of Imvros and Tenedos was 93% Greek, and for that reason Turkey, upon
receiving the islands, was forced under Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne to
implement extended self administration. Today only 1% of the islanders are
Greek, as a result of the orgy of violations of the Treaty of Lausanne by
Turkey. In the 1980s the ‘mysterious’ and ‘unsolved’ murders of
Christians led the few remaining Christians to abandon the islands, while the
destruction of symbols of the Christian religion in the two islands was
incessant (photograph from the destruction of the Church of Haghia Anna in
Agridia).
*1
Member of Parliament for PASOK, Chairman of the Standing Committee for
National Defence and Foreign Affairs of the Greek Parliament.
*2 Professor of International Law at the Hellenic Cadets School.
*3 Professor of Sociology at the Panteion University of Athens. Born in Constantinople.
*4
Chairman of the Constantinopolitan Society, established in Athens in 1928,
after the Asia Minor catastrophe. Born in Constantinople.
*5
Writer, born in Constantinople, came to Greece in 1964 with the expulsions.
*6
Chemist, born in Constantinople.