Manos Hatzigiannis

06/04/2024 06:44

On April 6, 1914 one of the darkest and largely unknown pages of modern Greek history was written. That was the day marked “Black Easter of the Thracians”.

At the beginning of the 20th^u century, Hellenism in Thraceas well as Hellenism in Pontus and Asia Minor, suffered the same plan of genocide.

The three phases of genocide

“THAT first fase of the Thrace genocide began in 1908 when the Young Turks (Enver, Talaat and Cemal Pasha) seized power in the Ottoman state with military and political guidance from their close German allies. THAT second phase of mass crime started at the same time as the start of World War I and the global conflict provided cover for the crimes against Hellenism to continue. The third and last, but also a harsher period of the genocide (1919-1923) was organized, planned and carried out by Mustafa Kemal. In total, the genocide against Hellenism claimed the lives of a million Greek men and women, the victims in Thrace being 250,000 to 300,000, while in Asia Minor 300,000 to 350,000 and in Pontus 350,000», leads in News bomb.as, o Theofanis Malkidis, professor at Panteion University.

As Mr. Malkidis, author of the book, reports on Newsbomb.gr “Thracian Hellenism, Historical Identity and Genocide”, in 1908 the persecutions of the Thracians were an organized plan of genocide, while then the First World War gave the Young Turks the opportunity to carry out their plan more easily. He also notes that the compulsory conscription of Thracians, intensified during this period, led them as Ottoman soldiers to their deaths in the murderous battles of Gallipoli.

“The main responsibility for the persecution of the Greeks in Thrace lies with the Young Turks and their continuation the Kemalites, who also prepared they carried out a plan of mass persecution and murder of the Greeks in Thrace and of all Hellenism that lived in the Ottoman state”, notes.

The Plan and Means of Prosecution

As Theofanis Malkidis mentions at the beginning of the extermination took place by banishing the men to the labor battalions, it continued with the extermination of the leaders, the expulsion of women and children. That means of persecuting the Greeks they were mass murders, displacements, attacks, terrorism, threats, deportations, rapes, Islamizations.

“Thus Thrace was deserted by the Greek element, and such cities as Adrianople, Byzya, Tyrol, Arkadioupolis, the Forty Churches, Kessani, Malgara, Harioupoli, Makra Gephyra, Raidestos, Heraklia, Gallipoli were abandoned. and others, while on On April 6, 1914, the “Black Easter,” as it was called, culminated the genocide against Hellenism in Thrace. emphasizes.

The post-war development and Hemingway’s description

THAT Doctor from Panteion University notes in Newsbomb.gr that the developments after the war, the discussions held at the Paris Peace Conference on the Thracian question, and the signing in 1920 of the Treaty of Sevres, Greece ceded eastern Thrace to Tsataltza, at a distance of 20 kilometers from Constantinople and the Gallipoli Peninsula. Greece also took Imbro and Tenedos, as well as Smyrna with all its territory.

“The Greek troops, instead of the once rich Thrace, encountered a region exhausted by the continuous bleeding of the last decade. The fertile land, for want of hands, became barren, the Greek population had been partially exterminated and displaced. Trade and markets had been destroyed and a sense of insecurity was widespread due to the violent past and the activity of paramilitary groups. Such was the picture of destruction that many Thracians who had returned could not even indicate the boundaries of their property”. underlines and adds:

“The rapid development on the Asia Minor front in 1922, the change of direction and policy of the Great Powers towards Kemal resulted in the Armistice Treaty of Moudania is signedwhereby the Greek army was ordered not only to evacuate Asia Minor, where the tragic conclusion of a centuries-long presence was written there, but in in 15 days and eastern Thrace, where there were large military forces and a strong Greek element. He describes the flight of Thracian Hellenism in an excellent way Ernest Hemingwayan American newspaper correspondent at the time.”

Interests covered the truth

According to Mr. malchidis, interests covered the truth “and the crime against the Greeks went unpunished and was repeated after a few years by Mustafa Kemal’s disciple, Hitler, as a holocaust in hundreds of martyred villages and towns.”

Thracian genocide: The obligation of the international community and Turkey

“Today, after decades of silence about persecutions and denial of the crime, the recognition of the genocide in Thrace as well as in Asia Minor and Pontus is an obligation for the international community and Turkey. The first must recognize the crime and take the actions provided for in international law and the UN Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Genocide“, emphasizes Mr. Malkidis.

He notices that too Turkey should take responsibility for its crime and “following the example of states that have committed similar atrocities to undertake reparation, rehabilitation and compensation”.

“The recognition of the violence suffered by Hellenism is the first and decisive step to prevent other mass crimes from being committed, it is the necessary and necessary condition for honest relations with Turkey, while the descendants of the victims, Greece, the parties, institutions , the collective bodies, should fight for the condemnation of Turkey, for justice, history, truth, for recognition of the genocide”, he concludes speaking to Newsbomb.gr.

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