Sonne-2012
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Weitere Quelle zu den Verbrechen der damaligen Türkei
Zeitung: Daily Telegraph vom 14.10.1922 in dem Buch: The Great Betrayal
von
Edward Hale Bierstadt (Executive Secretary, Near East Refugees)
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89095849634;view=1up;seq=272
The burning and massacre of Smyrna is described by Bierstadt as follows:
In reviewing the history of the catastrophe of Smyrna, there are several points that stand out clearly.
The Powers were warned of what was going to be done while the Turks were denying that they were going to do it.
What actually happened we know, and it has passed into history. But, knowing what they knew, the Powers made no
attempt to restrain the Turks. If the Allied warships at Smyrna had been ordered by their home governments
to act, there would have been no massacre and Smyrna would not have been burned. The four destroyers of the
United States Navy alone could have saved the situation if they had been allowed to do so. The official answer
to this is that such intervention might have meant war with Turkey. To say that wars have been fought for far
less righteous causes is to beg the question, so we may strike to the root of the matter at once by pointing out
that the Turkish Nationalist Government was in far greater need of friends than foes among the Powers, and that,
if the demand had been made upon her that she conduct war in a civilised manner, she had much more to gain than
to lose by complying. There were no belligerents in Smyrna on the 9th of September. What was done was wanton and
deliberate. Kemal had decided that thenceforth Smyrna should be indisputably a Turkish city, and the shortest way to achieve this was to destroy the Greek, Armenian and European quarters. Also, Kemal had no way of rewarding his
troops except by loot, and it is as traditional with the Turk as with the Mongol that looting is an essential
adjunct of war. Finally, to conceal the traces of widespread loot and massacre, the city was deliberately fired.
The point of view of the Turkish Nationalist Government toward the Allied Powers was one of cynical contempt.
They knew well what the Allies wanted, and they knew that as long as this bait was dangled before their eyes
they were safe from interference. That they were entirely justified in their prognosis is evident from the fact
that within three months after Smyrna had been burned they were able to sit across from the Powers at the conference
table and bargain for economic concessions. While the evidence may be both presumptive and circumstantial it can
scarcely be denied.
Then after standing meekly by while Smyrna razed and the Christian Minorities were massacred or deported, the Powers,
France, Italy, the United States, and to some extent Great Britain, did what they could to whitewash the Turks so far
as they were able to do so. Not one of the Allied governments possessed of the real facts gave them to the public.
The first attempt was to belittle the whole matter; it was denied in the French Chamber of Deputies that there had
been a massacre, and the responsibility for the fire was placed upon the Greeks and Armenians.
Zeitung: Daily Telegraph vom 14.10.1922 in dem Buch: The Great Betrayal
von
Edward Hale Bierstadt (Executive Secretary, Near East Refugees)
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89095849634;view=1up;seq=272
The burning and massacre of Smyrna is described by Bierstadt as follows:
In reviewing the history of the catastrophe of Smyrna, there are several points that stand out clearly.
The Powers were warned of what was going to be done while the Turks were denying that they were going to do it.
What actually happened we know, and it has passed into history. But, knowing what they knew, the Powers made no
attempt to restrain the Turks. If the Allied warships at Smyrna had been ordered by their home governments
to act, there would have been no massacre and Smyrna would not have been burned. The four destroyers of the
United States Navy alone could have saved the situation if they had been allowed to do so. The official answer
to this is that such intervention might have meant war with Turkey. To say that wars have been fought for far
less righteous causes is to beg the question, so we may strike to the root of the matter at once by pointing out
that the Turkish Nationalist Government was in far greater need of friends than foes among the Powers, and that,
if the demand had been made upon her that she conduct war in a civilised manner, she had much more to gain than
to lose by complying. There were no belligerents in Smyrna on the 9th of September. What was done was wanton and
deliberate. Kemal had decided that thenceforth Smyrna should be indisputably a Turkish city, and the shortest way to achieve this was to destroy the Greek, Armenian and European quarters. Also, Kemal had no way of rewarding his
troops except by loot, and it is as traditional with the Turk as with the Mongol that looting is an essential
adjunct of war. Finally, to conceal the traces of widespread loot and massacre, the city was deliberately fired.
The point of view of the Turkish Nationalist Government toward the Allied Powers was one of cynical contempt.
They knew well what the Allies wanted, and they knew that as long as this bait was dangled before their eyes
they were safe from interference. That they were entirely justified in their prognosis is evident from the fact
that within three months after Smyrna had been burned they were able to sit across from the Powers at the conference
table and bargain for economic concessions. While the evidence may be both presumptive and circumstantial it can
scarcely be denied.
Then after standing meekly by while Smyrna razed and the Christian Minorities were massacred or deported, the Powers,
France, Italy, the United States, and to some extent Great Britain, did what they could to whitewash the Turks so far
as they were able to do so. Not one of the Allied governments possessed of the real facts gave them to the public.
The first attempt was to belittle the whole matter; it was denied in the French Chamber of Deputies that there had
been a massacre, and the responsibility for the fire was placed upon the Greeks and Armenians.
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