The difference, however, between the _ante-bellum_ persecutions and
those perpetrated subsequently is this, that while in the former cases
the Greeks were expelled from their native country and were deprived
only of their wealth and their property generally, in the latter not
only were they compelled to abandon everything they owned, but they
also perished through untold hardships and starvation. (See details
about the tragical condition of the Greeks in Publication No. 3 of the
American-Hellenic Society cited above.)
Nor did the Turks in carrying out this cruel work care whether Greece
was friendly or unfriendly to Turkey. As a matter of fact, these
persecutions were in full swing during the “régime of Constantine”
(see dates in _Persecutions of the Greeks_, etc.) when that potentate
was in close relationship not only with the Germans, but also with
the Bulgarians and the Turks, and consequently the persecutions of
the Greeks had nothing to do with the alleged projected territorial
compensations to Greece; besides, Turkey was assured by Germany that
Constantine, who then had the upper hand in Greece, would under no
circumstances attack Turkey.
Therefore it is not correct to say, as the German writer asserts, that
one of the reasons for these persecutions was the promise made to
Greece by the Entente Powers in 1915 of territorial concessions in Asia
Minor (see p. 19).
An indication that even such an evidently impartial writer as Dr.
Dieterich cannot divest himself of the German point of view is his
statement that in the struggle for life the Greeks were on the
offensive, while the Turks were on the defensive (see p. 19). This, in
plain words, means that it suffices for a nation to be intelligent,
active, frugal, moral (as he too acknowledges the Greeks to be, p. 50),
in order to acquire the odium of carrying on an offensive struggle
if another nation living side by side with it happens to be stupid,
fatalist, immoral and incapable of holding its ground in the struggle
for life.
The writer’s theory of the existence of a Greek propaganda in
Asia Minor, “forwarded by every possible means,” is a gratuitous
supposition. Dr. Dieterich evidently misunderstands the conditions in
which the Greek populations have been living in Asia Minor and trying
to promote or revive their national ideals. As a matter of fact, all
the existing Greek schools in Asia Minor,—which is also the case with
the Greek educational institutions in every part of Turkey,—have been
established and supported by the Greek communities themselves, and if,
at times, they have received outside financial aid, this was due to
the generosity of persons who were natives of the country, who had
emigrated to foreign lands and acquired wealth abroad. The many names
of these benefactors appearing on the Greek school buildings attest
the accuracy of this statement.[7] Therefore the allegation of the
writer that a Greek propaganda is carried out in Asia Minor is totally
incorrect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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