Important new book sheds light on the Islamic jihad genocide of the Ottoman Greeks

The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks: Studies on the State-Sponsored Campaign of Extermination of the Christians of Asia Minor (1912-1922) and Its Aftermath: History, Law, Memory, edited by Tessa Hofmann, Matthias Bjornlund, and Vasileios Meichanetsidis.

A forgotten historical episode reexamined. From the publisher's website:

Studies on the State Sponsored Campaign of Extermination of the Christians of Asia Minor (1912-1922) and Its Aftermath: History, Law, Memory
Edited by Tessa Hofmann, Matthias Bjørnlund and Vasileios Meichanetsidis

hardcover; 512 pages, 37 photographs, maps

The period of transition from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the foundation of the Turkish Republic was characterized by a number of processes largely guided by a narrow elite that aimed to construct a modern, national state. One of these processes was the deliberate and planned elimination, indeed extermination, of the Christian (and certain other) minorities. According to demographic studies, the numbers are stark: In 1912 the areas of Asia Minor and Thrace were inhabited by about 4-5 million Christians and 7-8 million Muslims; by 1923 only 250-300,000 Christians remained.

Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who introduced the term genocide into international law, formulated his early ideas on the definition of this war crime by studying the destruction of the Christians of Asia Minor, while the distinguished Turcologist Neoklis Sarris has noted that the annihilation of the Christian minorities represented an integral element in the formation of the Turkish Republic. As the editors of this volume note the recent resolution by the International Association of Genocide Scholars recognizing the Greek and Syriac genocides suggests a wider range of victim groups. This volume therefore represents an effort to provide an outline and a direction of a more extensive study of the deliberate destruction and elimination of a Greek presence that spanned over three millennia, in the space that became the Turkish Republic.

The last two decades have seen a massive amount of research of the genocide of the Armenian population in the Ottoman/Turkish space; our publishing house has produced a number of works, most notable of which was the eyewitness testimony of the Leslie A. Davis, US Consul in Harput (The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917). Much less scholarly work has been done on the genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor and Thrace; there are many reasons for this, including the fact that Turkish governments have been successful in intimidating diplomats in the context of Turkish-Greek relations of the last generation, and of subverting academic integrity (inducing some scholars to make a career as denialists supported by international NGOs, all in the name of countering nationalism).

The volume includes article contributions on the areas subtitled: Historical Overview, Documentation, Interpretation; Representations and Law; Genocide Education; Memorialization; Conceptualization; and a very extensive Bibliography.

Read a review of this vitally important book here.

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29 Comments

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David | May 6, 2012 5:57 AM | Reply

WTF? $72 for this book from Amazon!

ebonystone | May 6, 2012 6:02 AM | Reply

So, in addition to the million-plus Armenians massacred by the Turks, it seems there were several million Greeks slaughtered by them as well. Considering that Ottoman Turkey was an ally of imperial Germany, and that Germany had many interests in Turkey (and thus that there were many Germans with experience in Turkish affairs), it's plausible that these slaughters were an inspiration for the Holocaust.

Also, is there any evidence of Turkish massacres of non-Christian minorities, such as Kurds or Arabs?

Jaladhi | May 6, 2012 6:23 AM | Reply

Muslims have committed genocide of non-Muslims starting from the genocide of 800 Jews of Medina to genocide in India and Europe. They have massacred more than 350 million non-Muslims including around 100 million Hindus, Buddhists and other non-Muslims in India alone.

Quran and Mo/allah have taught genocide of non-Muslims from day one. No wonder Muslims always are ready to kill and behead to please Mo/allah. Brain dead Muslims don't know that allah is only a figment of Mo's imagination and here they go to please this fictitious character invented by Mo. There is nothing in this world they wouldn't do please him or not to incur his wrath. Brain dead for sure these morons!!

Counterjihad2012 | May 6, 2012 6:28 AM | Reply

"...US Consul in Harput (The Slaughterhouse Province: An American Diplomat's Report on the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917)."

http://newstime.co.nz/aghet-the-genocide.html
(video) AGHET – The Genocide (English language)

9:29 “Fight those who do not believe in Allah”

lanastaslem | May 6, 2012 7:13 AM | Reply

The genocides of the Armenians I understand, but does this book take into account the mutual population exchange between Greece and Turkey?

lanastaslem | May 6, 2012 7:18 AM | Reply

I know Bat Yeor and others consider the Armenian (and other massacres of Eastern Christian ethnic groups) as a 'jihad', but I have always seen it as more of a racialist genocide, as western ideas of nationalism had filtered into the Ottoman Empire at the time. The C.U.P. faction of the youngturks deliberately wished to eliminate non Turkish minorities, regardless of religion, it should be noted that in some cases the slaughter of Armenians did not even recede even when they did convert to Islam.

Infidel Task Force | May 6, 2012 7:25 AM | Reply

Sorry...a but off topic...does anyone know what happened to Loonwatch Exposed?

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003546219302 | May 6, 2012 7:26 AM | Reply

France voted in elections on Sunday which could make Nicolas Sarkozy the 11th European leader to be swept from office by the economic crisis and crown Francois Hollande as the nation’s first Socialist president in nearly two decades.

Youssef

Buraq replied to comment from lanastaslem | May 6, 2012 7:40 AM | Reply

Your post casts doubt on the connection between Islam and its violent ideology of jihad and the convenient mask of 'nationlism' worn by the CUP to achieve its Islamic mandate as outlined in Al Qur'an.

Perhaps you should read this article from American Thinker to clear up your misconception. I offer the following snippet:

Despite their 'revolutionary' advent, and accompanying comparisons to the ideals of the French Revolution, the CUP's 'Young Turk' regime eventually adopted a discriminatory, anti—reform attitude toward non—Muslims within the Ottoman Empire. During an August 6, 1910 speech in Saloniki, Mehmed Talat, pre—eminent leader of the Young Turks disdainfully rejected the notion of equality with 'gavours' , arguing that it '...is an unrecognizable ideal since it is inimical with Sheriat [Shari'a] and the sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Muslims...'. [23] Roderick Davison notes that in fact '..no genuine equality was ever attained..', re—enacting the failure of the prior Tanzimat reform period.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/04/the_jihad_genocide_of_the_arme.html

The Hammer | May 6, 2012 8:22 AM | Reply

We don't need any more books to "enlighten" us about the "religion of peace". We know what their end game is. The Muslim bloodbath is also the history of the Buddhist, the Hindu and God knows who else. Is Christian Nacht in our future? Keep up the immigration and pc tactics - and good luck!

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003546219302 | May 6, 2012 8:52 AM | Reply

The chief of Libya’s election commission said on Sunday that 330,000 people have so far registered as voters to elect the nation’s first constituent assembly in June.

Youssef

Wellington | May 6, 2012 9:15 AM | Reply

As an undergraduate history major many decades ago, this genocide was not mentioned in the European and Middle Eastern history texts I read. I did, however, when a young man know an old Greek, one who immigrated from Greece when he was young. We often spoke about many things, one of them being Greece of course, of which he knew a great deal, including ancient Greece (his brother actually wrote scholarly articles on Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece).

I'll never forget that the times Turks were mentioned, he would often tear up and he couldn't really say anything except that they were barbarians or words to this effect. Reading this article and review vividly reminded me of the many talks I had with this gentle soul whom I knew knew far more about Turkish/Greek relations than he ever wanted to go on about at any length. It seems a certainty now that he knew about this genocide. He still had many relatives back in Greece and communicated with them regularly and so how could he not have? I knew he buried a lot of things inside him. This much I did know. He must have buried this.

LemonLime replied to comment from Buraq | May 6, 2012 9:17 AM | Reply

That American Thinker analysis quoted by Buraq begins to make more sense of the situation. We must begin with the premise that Ottoman Islam was a formidably Islamic geopolitical and cultural Rasputin -- and thus see its slow, incresaing demise and disease over the 18th and 19th centuries as a spectacular catastrophe (for Muslims) in and of itself; then see the kinetic acceleration of Western global superiority throughout the 19th century as another major ingredient in the process; with the tumultuously protean outburst of WW1 thus wracking the Body Geopolitic of the world (since by then the West had the entire world by its balls, mostly in a good sense, pace all the handwringing PC MCs (not a few of whom seem to be in the anti-Islam movement) who feel "ashamed" of their Western Colonialist heritage) -- impinging, among other regions, on the dying Ottoman Empire.

In the context of this devolving maelstrom and welter, the death of the Ottoman Empire transferrred its necessarily and intrinsically Islamic electricity Frankensteinianly from a corpse to a St. Vitus Revolution -- the "Young Turks" led by Ataturk -- animated not by greatness or freedom but by Turkish fascism and racism. Their feat nevertheless had to be nothing short of herculean, for no galvanizing ideology is as strong as the monster of Islam (that had, at any rate, centuries before already gobbled up Turkish pride and self-identity through "reversion"); and we thus realize, obviously, that its supposedly "secular" purgation of Islam was always partial (reflecting the Islamic limits of its astounding feat), not total -- for Islam in such an inveterately Islamic region can never be purged from the hearts and minds and psyches and culture of a people once possessed by its demon. Which is why, also, "modern secular" Turkey, ever since in the early 1920s it was carved out of the dead meat (mostly dark meat) of the Ottoman Empire, has been in constant tension against its own inner Islam, and has barely held the upper hand only by dint of a military dictatorship, not any kind of "democracy" the West would ever recognize as such -- free and institutionally and culturally respectful of equality under the law -- if only because, when you have a majority population ever diseased by the social disease of Islam, you simply cannot permit such freedoms (as Ataturk knew), for such freedoms would lead, with such a demon-possessed demos with its natural appetite for Islam, to more Islam, not less; which means, perforce, less freedom and respect for others in society.

And now, just the other day ("Turkish American CNN columnist: Kemalist secularism is dead"), we see signs that the Rasputin of Islam -- never quite dead in Turkey -- is coming back to life to resume its throttle on humanity there; aided and abetted in no small measure, naturally, by the Muslims who are the agents of their own eternal sadomasochism.

eaglecap | May 6, 2012 10:26 AM | Reply

My grandfather or Papoo's parents were killed in Thrace by the Ottoman Turks and I would love to buy this book but at $72.06 I cannot afford it. I will check and see if the library can get it for me. With the help of Legacy of Jihad and the Genocide of the Ottoman Turks I can generate some great essays for the blog I write for.

Kepha replied to comment from ebonystone | May 6, 2012 10:56 AM | Reply

Re Hitler and the Turkish genocide of 1915:

Before calling for the Final Solution, Hitler's words to his subordinates were, "Who remembers the Armenians?"

The fact that Turkey was not truly called to account for the Anatolian horrors encouraged Hitler to believe that he and his regime would not be held accountable for the genocide of the Jews, Roma, and others.

BTW, to all:

We're coming up on two big anniversaries: 2015 marks both the centennial of the Anatolian horrors and the bicentennial of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812 and initiated two centuries of peace within the Anglosphere. The one was animated by Islam; the other by peoples formed by and receptive to Evangelical Christianity. By their fruits ye shall know them.

lanastaslem replied to comment from Buraq | May 6, 2012 10:59 AM | Reply

Oh, I have no doubt good old islamic bigotry influenced the C.U.P., as they were themselves the products of an islamic society, but I must note that some C.U.P. members such as Talaat Pasha, were butchers of Arabs as well as Armenians. Furthermore, many C.U.P. members themselves were disdainful of Islam and religion in general, but still chose to leverage it as a tool, by declaring a jihad (largely unheeded due to the Arab alliance with the British) against the allies. The C.U.P. propagandists went so far as to present the German Kaiser and his family as 'hajis' as well as 'sayyids' or descendants of Muhammad (I am citing the Jewish account known as "With the Turks in Palestine"). Furthermore, Greece itself invaded Turkey at the behest of the British, who promised them a chunk of Turkey. The British eventually abandoned the Greeks after the tide turned against them, and this culminated in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

Buraq replied to comment from lanastaslem | May 6, 2012 11:45 AM | Reply

Thanks for the reply!

You mentioned Talaat Pasha, someone posters might not know. So, I'm delighted to say that he was murdered in Berlin on 15th March 1921 in an act of revenge by an Armenian assassin.

Let all wannabe jihadist genociders take note!

minoria | May 6, 2012 12:00 PM | Reply

The Turks killed about 500,000 Greeks and around 500,000 Assyrian Christians,plus 1.5 million Armenians.

What a record.That is why we have to know Muslim history,to know the truth.Read:

"Almanzor(938-1002),Ruler of Muslim Iberia,under who the Muslims attained their Greatest Power"

http://www.antisharia.com/2012/05/06/almanzor938-1002ruler-of-muslim-iberiaunder-who-the-muslims-attained-their-greatest-power/

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"Voici autre chanson a Ecouter,dans la Langue de Cervantes"

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"Une Chanson en Espagnol pour se sentir Bien"

http://www.avraidire.com/2012/04/une-chanson-en-espagnol-pour-se-sentir-bien/

profitsbeard | May 6, 2012 12:59 PM | Reply

But they were only cleansing an Islamic region of unbelievers according to the Koranic dictates of Allah.

What's the big deal?

Kinana of Khaybar replied to comment from Infidel Task Force | May 6, 2012 1:57 PM | Reply

Infidel Task Force,

Last time I saw the site was maybe a few weeks ago, i.e., before it recently became unavailable, and nothing had changed since it was set up with a few comments/posts. (I think it was set up in late January or early February of this year). The author was apparently someone who had tried to post critical comments on the Loonwatch site in response to articles and other comments on that site, but the moderators there would often prevent her comments from appearing. She therefore began posting some of those blocked/censored comments on her blogger site, which she called Loonwatch Exposed. Her site had at the top of its page a picture of the assassinated Theo van Gogh with a knife stuck in his chest, with a title called Silence of the Loons.

The site, in any case, unfortunately was not an ongoing and comprehensive critique of Loonwatch.

Sam Arisan | May 6, 2012 2:21 PM | Reply

I was born and raised in Turkey and I came to the US in 1978. What I can tell you is that in Modern Turkey there has never been an objective study of history, religion and culture or anything else. To this day the whole history of the Ottoman empire and the modern Turkey which they teach at schools is nothing but almost total fiction with no mention of the brutality, cruelty, and the religous manipulation of masses for the benefit of the ruling class. The only thing the Turkish goverment (regarless of political leaning, religous or otherwise) does is DENY, DENY and DENY any objective truth about history, like Armenian, Kurdish, and Greek atricities so nobody talks about them. Same thing goes about Jewish hatred of the Turkish population with almost no knowledge of Jewish people, their history and their traditions.

Well now I am here in the USA and OBAMA and his lefties are lying about our history, economy (bad mouthing Capitalism is insane), religion(s, benefits of the state for protection of the people in "need"), how America benefited from multi-culturalism, and on and on. When goverment has too much control they can get away with a lot for their own benefit.

That is why we can not give all the powers to one government. That is why OBAMA needs to go. NOW

LemonLime replied to comment from Sam Arisan | May 6, 2012 3:54 PM | Reply

Sam Arisan says of his experience growing up in Turkey and going to school:

"To this day the whole history of the Ottoman empire and the modern Turkey which they teach at schools is nothing but almost total fiction with no mention of the brutality, cruelty, and the religous manipulation of masses for the benefit of the ruling class."

This description of the whitewashing of the Ottomans doesn't differ terribly much from what goes on in high schools, colleges and universities throughout the West -- meanwhile, the curriculums of Western schools are saturated with handwringing self-condemnation of the West's own historical evils, with the usual litany ("the Crusades, the Inquisition, Witchcraft, Slavery, Dickensian Capitalism (saved by the Unions and the Labor movement), 'genocide' of the American Indians, Victorian puritanical attitudes, Colonialism raping and oppressing the Third World, Japanese-American internment camps, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Vietnam, Anti-Communist paranoia, etc." -- all paving the way for our present "bigotry" against the #1 Ethnic Minority today: Muslims).

A supremely acute irony and paradox: Our enemy has no qualms or problems in promoting propagandistic pride about their own history and cultures yet officially oppose displays of historical and cultural self-criticism; meanwhile, we do the very opposite!

Which is precisely why we're in the quandary we're in now.

Isabella | May 6, 2012 4:46 PM | Reply

My dad was a history professor and one day I remember he told me that not only the Jewish people suffered from an holocaust but also the Armenians and not too many people were talking about that 35 years ago, but my dad was. If he was alive today, he would be all over Jihad Watch commenting. I guess I continue what he was: educating people around about the enemy and the ones who oppress others.

Sam Arisan replied to comment from LemonLime | May 6, 2012 5:51 PM | Reply

AGREED 100%

Tom Davis | May 6, 2012 10:53 PM | Reply

Interesting map of Greece:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greekhistory.GIF

Note the bright yellow territory that Greece ceded back to Turkey in 1922. This land must have had a large Greek population, otherwise Greece would not have been awarded it in 1920. Also note:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_Smyrna

leonidas | May 7, 2012 7:59 AM | Reply

The Young Turks in 1910 planned and executed a plan of exterminating ALL infidels in the Ottoman Muslim empire between 1912 to 1924.They killed millions of greeks,and Armenians burned their villages ,enslaved the greek women and kicked out the remaining 2 million Greeks in exchange for ~500000 muslims living in Greece in 1924.

This did inspire Hitler to exterminate the Jews as in 1933 he declared'Who talks now of what happened to the Armenians'?

Its vital that we abandon Political Correctness and talk freely about the violence and cruelty in islam for 1400 years.Only when we know Islam well ,we can defeat it and save Civilization and our Human Rights and freedoms!

leonidas | May 7, 2012 8:02 AM | Reply

This did inspire Hitler to exterminate the Jews as in 1933 he declared'Who talks now of what happened to the Armenians'?

Kevinaldrich | May 7, 2012 8:55 AM | Reply

The destruction of Christian culture in Turkey is a lesson to us that we can't take our freedoms for granted even in the U.S.A.

Shawmut | May 7, 2012 10:11 AM | Reply

I remember well, the leather bound copy of "the Forty Days of Musa Da[h] (sic), that we had at home. And, bridging that gap (The Armenian Atrocity) and the 'Tribute Children' taken from the Balkans (eventually to become janissaries), there is a whole scope of this hhistory that has been obscured. Shamefully, we hold no academics to account for this. Yet, again, today's academics got their sheepskins from the same sources that pulled it over thier eyes.

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