by Professor Uğur Üçüncü, Black Sea Technical University of Trabzon
The Ottoman Empire accepted defeat in the Great War and signed the Armistice of Mondros. With the Armistice, the borders of the empire shrank and Anatolia became the last refuge of the Turkish nation. However, the Allied powers considered that the control of Anatolia as too much for the Turks, and consequently occupied much of the region. As a response, a resistance was launched in the center of Anatolia under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, with the slogan of Either Independence or Death! One of the fronts in the struggle against the occupations was opened against the Greeks. The Greek army, acting with the support of the British and its collaborators, were halted with the victory at Sakarya thanks to Mustafa Kemal Pasha’s resilient and decisive leadership.
On the morning of August 26, 1922, with the Great Offensive launched simultaneously along the entire front line, the Turkish army soon broke through the Greek lines, destroying its main forces in the Battle of Dumlupınar; the remnants of the Greek troops who tried to flee were then pursued. By September 18, 1922, there were no Greek soldiers left in Western Anatolia except for prisoners, fugitives or the wounded. However, in the areas from which they were forced to retreat, the Greek army and its collaborators created great suffering and tears among Muslims. One of the most important methods they used in their atrocities was to set fire to cities, villages, towns, houses, huts, barns, stables, and food products such as grain, and to burn and massacre the Muslims that they captured.
Before leaving Afyonkarahisâr and its environs, the Greeks burned most of the Muslim neighborhoods and the surrounding villages, killing some of the population. Although they attempted to incinerate 600 people who had gathered in the Imaret Mosque, they were prevented from doing so after Turkish troops entered the city. They also lit fires in Eskişehir, which they had to evacuate. They first looted and then burned the city, and residents who they caught trying to escape from the fire were shot dead. The Greeks continued their atrocities in the areas that they were forced to retreat to. In Ulucak village near Altıntaş in Kütahya, the people, including women and children, were locked in mosques and houses and burned alive.
Children and young men of the village of Alıncak were killed by being dipped in hot oil and thrown into a fire. When the Greek army evacuated Uşak, they almost completely reduced it to ashes and committed atrocities against the people. They burned 322 Muslims to death in Uşak, and reduced to ashes 8,132 houses and 689 stores, as well as 119 mosques and masjids. The fire in the city was personally planned and carried out by Miralay Samis, the Greek Depot Commander, and Papaderilo, the Central Commander. They destroyed Aydin and Nazilli almost completely, as well as the towns of Söke, Germencik and Sultanhisar, and the villages of Melek, Balad, Gencanlı and Orakçılı.
Manisa, like other places, was burned according to a plan and program. On the evening of September 6, under the orders and direction of Greek Central Commander Yagurci and Chief of Staff Filipos, fire lighters with red markings on their chests and black hearts on their heads burned Manisa. Turks who tried to put out the fire and escape were slain. A total of 3,500 people in Manisa were killed by being thrown into the fire, and 10,700 houses, 13 mosques, 2,728 stores, 19 inns, 16 vineyards, 3 factories, 5 farms, 9,740 village houses were burned. Salihli, Eşme, Alaşehir, Turgutlu and Ahmetli were also completely burned to the ground and many Turks were killed. In Ahmetli, after raping 8 young girls, the Greeks threw them into a barn and burned them. Again, many people were set on fire by pouring gasoline into their stomachs after being knocked unconscious.
During the Great Offensive, the Greeks also set fires in places connected to Izmir: 150 mosques and lodges were completely burned by the Greeks in and around Izmir. Hisarlık, Dirilik farms, Bosnak-ı Cedit and Kozluca villages were razed. Some women and girls were raped and burned to death along with men. In Menemen, 150 people were massacred by different methods. When the Greeks retreated from Bursa, they set fire to many villages northwest of the city. The village of Kurşunlu in Gemlik was burned, along with its mosque. The village of Ahmetbey was burned and some women were raped. Salim, a villager from Masharahasan was wounded with bullets and bayonets, then doused in petrol and set alight.
Undoubtedly the biggest fire during the Great Offensive took place in the city center of Izmir. The fire broke out at noon on September 13, 1922 on Suzan Street in the Frenk neighborhood, and was not extinguished until September 17. The city was turned into a pile of rubble, and many people were killed, injured and left homeless. In order to soften the impact of the defeat of the Great Offensive and to appease the public, Greece tried to influence world opinion in its favor by pressuring Türkiye on the international stage using the Izmir fire.
It was as if they were blaming the victim. However, the fire that broke out in the city immediately after the liberation of Izmir was an extension of the systematic method that the Greeks had been practicing during their retreat since the beginning of the Great Offensive. Although the fire in Izmir was lit after the Greek army evacuated the city, the perpetrators of this action were remnants of the Greek army and their collaborators who had failed to leave the city and had hidden themselves in various locations and had even clashed with the Turkish forces.
The atrocities committed by the Greeks behind the front lines during the Great Offensive caused huge reactions in Anatolia and Istanbul and were protested internationally. The Turkish press drew attention to articles on Greek atrocities. Foreign journalists as well as political and military representatives were encouraged to visit the sites of the atrocities and report what they witnessed to the international media. Publications such as books and pamphlets were produced to record the atrocities and to expose their full extent at home and abroad. The government immediately established atrocity investigation committees to investigate the Greek atrocities. These committees traveled to the newly liberated areas and made investigations and prepared reports. The government collected testimony from the victims of the Greek occupation in Western Anatolia.
Picture: Konak Municipality