From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Subject: Re: Minority Abuses in Greece.
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world
Lines: 201

In article <C60B63.G2M@panix.com> mpoly@panix.com (Michael S. Polymenakos) writes:

> Well, ZUMABOT claims just the opposite: That Greeks are not allowing
>Turks to exit the country. Now, explain this: The number of Turks in
>Thrace has steadily risen from 50,000 in 23 to 80,000, while the Greeks of

Dr. Goebels thought that a lie repeated enough times could finally 
be believed. I have been observing that 'Poly' has been practicing 
Goebels' rule quite loyally. 'Poly's audience is mostly made of Greeks 
who are not allowed to listen to Turkish news. However, in today's 
informed world Greek propagandists can only fool themselves. For 
instance, those who lived in 1974 will remember the TV news they 
watched and the newspapers they read and the younger generation can 
read the American newspapers of July and August 1974 to find out what 
really happened. 

There are in Turkiye the Greek Hospital, The Greek Girls' Lycee 
Alumni Association, the Principo Islands Greek Benevolent Society, 
the Greek Medical Foundation, the Principo Greek Orphanage Foundation, 
the Yovakimion Greek Girls' Lycee Foundation, and the Fener Greek 
Men's Lycee Foundation.  

As for Greece, the longstanding use of the adjective 'Turkish' 
in titles and on signboards is prohibited. The Greek courts 
have ordered the closure of the Turkish Teachers' Association, 
the Komotini Turkish Youth Association and the Ksanti 
Turkish Association on grounds that there are no Turks
in Western Thrace. Such community associations had been 
active until 1984. But they were first told to remove
the word 'Turkish' on their buildings and on their official
papers and then eventually close down. This is also the 
final verdict (November 4, 1987) of the Greek High Court.

In the city of Komotini, a former Greek Parliamentarian of Turkish
parentage, was sentenced recently to 18 months of imprisonment
with no right to appeal, just for saying outloud that he was
of Turkish descent. This duly-elected ethnic Turkish official
was also deprived of his political rights for a period of three 
years. Each one of these barbaric acts seems to be none other than 
a vehicle, used by the Greek governments, to cover-up their inferiority 
complex they display, vis-a-vis, the people of Turkiye. 

The Agreement on the Exchange of Minorities uses the term 'Turks,' 
which demonstrates what is actually meant by the previous reference 
to 'Muslims.' The fact that the Greek governments also mention the 
existence of a few thousand non-Turkish Muslims does not change the 
essential reality that there lives in Western Thrace a much bigger 
Turkish minority. The 'Pomaks' are also a Muslim people, whom all the 
three nations (Bulgarians, Turks, and Greeks) consider as part of 
themselves. Do you know how the Muslim Turkish minority was organized 
according to the agreements? Poor 'Poly.'

It also proves that the Turkish people are trapped in Greece 
and the Greek people are free to settle anywhere in the world.
The Greek authorities deny even the existence of a Turkish
minority. They pursue the same denial in connection with 
the Macedonians of Greece. Talk about oppression. In addition,
in 1980 the 'democratic' Greek Parliament passed Law No. 1091,
virtually taking over the administration of the vakiflar and
other charitable trusts. They have ceased to be self-supporting
religious and cultural entities. Talk about fascism. The Greek 
governments are attempting to appoint the muftus, irrespective
of the will of the Turkish minority, as state official. Although
the Orthodox Church has full authority in similar matters in
Greece, the Muslim Turkish minority will have no say in electing
its religious leaders. Talk about democracy.

The government of Greece has recently destroyed an Islamic 
convention in Komotini. Such destruction, which reflects an 
attitude against the Muslim Turkish cultural heritage, is a 
violation of the Lausanne Convention as well as the 'so-called' 
Greek Constitution, which is supposed to guarantee the protection 
of historical monuments. 

The government of Greece, on the other hand, is building new 
churches in remote villages as a complementary step toward 
Hellenizing the region.

And you pondered. Sidiropoulos, the president of the Macedonian Human 
Rights Committee, became the latest victim of a tactic long used by 
the Greeks to silence critics of policies of forced assimilation 
of the Macedonian minority. A forestry official by occupation, 
Sidiropoulos has been sent to 'internal exile' on the island of 
Kefalonia, hundreds of kilometers away from his native Florina. 
His employer, the Florina City Council, asked him to depart in 
24 hours. The Greek authorities are trying to punish him for his 
involvement in Copenhagen. He returned to Florina by his own choice 
and remains without a job. 

Helsinki Watch, a well-known Human Rights group, had been investigating 
the plight of the Turkish Minority in Greece. In August 1990, their 
findings were published in a report titled 

 'Destroying Ethnic Identity: Turks of Greece.'

The report confirmed gross violations of the Human Rights of the 
Turkish minority by the Greek authorities. It says for instance, 
the Greek government recently destroyed an Islamic convent in 
Komotini. Such destruction, which reflects an attitude against 
the Muslim Turkish cultural heritage, is a violation of the 
Lausanne Convention. 

The Turkish cemeteries in the village of Vafeika and in Pinarlik
were attacked, and tombstones were broken. The cemetery in
Karotas was razed by bulldozers.

Shall I go on? Why not? The people of Turkiye are not going 
to take human rights lessons from the Greek Government. The 
discussion of human rights violations in Greece does not 
stop at the Greek frontier. In several following articles 
I shall dwell on and expose the Greek treatment of Turks
in Western Thrace and the Aegean Macedonians.

It has been reported that the Greek Cypriot administration 
has an intense desire for arms and that Greece has made 
plans to supply it with the tanks and armored vehicles it 
has to destroy in accordance with the agreement reached on 
conventional arms reductions in Europe. Meanwhile, Greek 
and Greek Cypriot officials are reported to have planned 
to take ostentatious measures aimed at camouflaging the 
transfer of these tanks and armored vehicles to southern 
Cyprus, a process that will conflict with the spirit of 
the agreement on conventional arms reduction in Europe.

An acceptable method may certainly be found when there
is a will. But we know of various kinds of violent
behaviors ranging from physical attacks to the burning
of buildings. The rugs at the Amfia village mosque were 
dragged out to the front of the building and burnt there. 
Shots were fired on the mosque in the village of Aryana.

Now wait, there is more.

  'Greek Atrocities in the Vilayet of Smyrna (May to July 1919), Inedited
  Documents and Evidence of English and French Officers,' Published by
  The Permanent Bureau of the Turkish Congress at Lausanne, Lausanne,
  Imprimerie Petter, Giesser & Held, Caroline, 5 (1919).

  pages 82-83:

<< 1. The train going from Denizli to Smyrna was stopped at Ephesus
   and the 90 Turkish travellers, men and women who were in it ordered
   to descend. And there in the open street, under the eyes of their
   husbands, fathers and brothers, the women without distinction of age
   were violated, and then all the travellers were massacred. Amongst
   the latter the Lieutenant Salih Effendi, a native of Tripoli, and a
   captain whose name is not known, and to whom the Hellenic authorities
   had given safe conduct, were killed with specially atrocious tortures.

   2. Before the battle, the wife of the lawyer Enver Bey coming from
   her garden was maltreated by Greek soldiers, she was even stript
   of her garments and her servant Assie was violated.

   3. The two tax gatherers Mustapha and Ali Effendi were killed in the
   following manner: Their arms were bound behind their backs with wire
   and their heads were battered and burst open with blows from the butt
   end of a gun.

   4. During the firing of the town, eleven children, six little girls
   and five boys, fleeing from the flames, were stopped by Greek soldiers
   in the Ramazan Pacha quarter, and thrown into a burning Jewish house
   near bridge, where they were burnt alive. This fact is confirmed on oath
   by the retired commandant Hussein Hussni Effendi who saw it.

   5. The clock-maker Ahmed Effendi and his son Sadi were arrested and
   dragged out of their shop. The son had his eyes put out and was then
   killed in the court of the Greek Church, but Ahmed Effendi has been
   no more heard of.

   6. At the market, during the fire, two unknown people were wounded
   by bayonets, then bound together, thrown into the fire and burnt alive.

   The Greeks killed also many Jews. These are the names of some:

  Moussa Malki, shoemaker          killed
  Bohor Levy, tailor               killed
  Bohor Israel, cobbler            killed
  Isaac Calvo, shoemaker           killed
  David Aroguete                   killed
  Moussa Lerosse                   killed
  Gioia Katan                      killed
  Meryem Malki                     killed
  Soultan Gharib                   killed
  Isaac Sabah                      wounded
  Moche Fahmi                      wounded
  David Sabah                      wounded
  Moise Bensignor                  killed
  Sarah Bendi                      killed
  Jacob Jaffe                      wounded
  Aslan Halegna                    wounded....>>

Serdar Argic

                           'We closed the roads and mountain passes that 
                            might serve as ways of escape for the Turks 
                            and then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                  (Ohanus Appressian - 1919)
                           'In Soviet Armenia today there no longer exists 
                            a single Turkish soul.' (Sahak Melkonian - 1920)


