The blight of Asia : $b An account of the systematic extermination of Christian populations by Mohammedans and of the culpability of certain great powers; with the true story of the burning of SmyrnaHorton, George
History
The blight of Asia : $b An account of the systematic extermination of Christian populations by Mohammedans and of the culpability of certain great powers; with the true story of the burning of Smyrna
Horton, George
Christians -- Turkey; Fires -- Turkey -- İzmir; Greeks -- Turkey; Turkey; İzmir (Turkey) -- History
The violent and inflammatory articles in the Turkish newspapers, above
referred to, appeared unexpectedly and without any cause. They were so
evidently “inspired” by the authorities, that it seems a wonder that even
ignorant Turks did not understand this. Cheap lithographs were also got
up, executed in the clumsiest and most primitive manner—evidently local
productions. They represented Greeks cutting up Turkish babies or ripping
open pregnant Moslem women, and various purely imaginary scenes, founded
on no actual events or even accusations elsewhere made. These were hung
in the mosques and schools. This campaign bore immediate fruit and set
the Turk to killing, a not very difficult thing to do.
A series of sporadic murders began at Smyrna as at Saloniki, the list in
each morning’s paper numbering from twelve to twenty. Peasants going
into their vineyards to work were shot down from behind trees and rocks
by the Turks. One peculiarly atrocious case comes to mind: Two young men,
who had recently finished their studies in a high-grade school, went out
to a vineyard to pass the night in the _coula_ (house in the country).
During the night they were called to the door and chopped down with axes.
Finally the Rayas, to the number of several hundred thousand, were all
driven off from their farms or out of their villages. Some were deported
into the interior, but many managed to escape by means of _caiques_ to
the neighboring islands, whence they spread over Greece. A few thousand
Turks destroyed the region which the Greeks were developing and rendering
fertile, from Pergamus clear down the coast to Lidja. I went over the
whole region and took photographs of the ruined farm-houses and villages.
Goats had been turned into flourishing, carefully tended vineyards and
acres of roots had been dug up for fuel.
Most of the Christian houses in Asia Minor are built of a wooden
framework which serves as an earthquake proof skeleton for the walls
of stone and mortar. The Turks pulled the houses down by laying a
timber across the inside of the window—or door-frame—to which a team of
buffaloes or oxen was hitched. A Turk would reside in one of the houses
with his wife, or with his goats and cattle, and thus tear down a circle
of houses about him. When the radius became too great for convenience,
he moved into the center of another cluster of houses. The object of
destroying the houses was to get the wooden timbers for firewood.
[Illustration: The Long Line That Leads to Death.
Deportation of Christians from their homes to the arid wastes to die.]
Both at this time and during the progress of the Great War, the Rayas
were drafted into the army where they were treated as slaves. They were
not given guns but were employed to dig trenches and do similar work, and
as they were furnished neither food, clothing nor shelter, large numbers
of them perished of hunger and exposure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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