From: KELLY@SUVM.BITNET
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: A Silver Medallist of the Academy of Athens Exposes Greek
           Barbarism-2
Date: 19 Aug 92 08:01:34 GMT


  A Silver Medallist of the Academy of Athens Exposes Greek Barbarism


>
>"THE RELIGIOUS MINORITIES OF CHIOS: JEWS AND ROMAN CATHOLICS" by Philip
>P.Argenti and forwarded by Sir Steven Runciman  (Cambridge, at the Uni-
>versity Press; 1970)
>
>Contents here: --> Introduction
>               --> Under turkish Rule,1566-1912
>               --> Decline of Chian Catholicism
>                                                              A.Romanos
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>

  After checking this pro-Greek history book recommended by Mr. Romanos,
  we find the following  information about the author:


                       Philip P. Argenti

  'CORRESPONDING MEMBER AND SILVER MEDALLIST OF THE ACADEMY OF ATHENS,

      FORMER CULTURAL COUNSELLOR TO ROYAL GREEK EMBASSY IN LONDON'

              --------------------------------------




  Philip P. Argenti (Corresponding Member and Silver Medallist of the
  Academy of Athens, Former Cultural Counsellor to Royal Greek Embassy
  in London), The Religious Minorities of Chios: Jews and Roman Catholics,
  Cambridge University Press, London, (1970).

  page 175:

  <<The large sea-port town of Smyrna (Izmir), situated on the mainland
  coast to the east of Chios, was the scene of constant friction between
  Greeks and Jews, which frequently gave rise to outbursts of violence,
  the reverberations of which would be felt in neighboring places with a
  Jewish population, such as Chios. The most common cause of mob assaults
  on the Jews was the ritual murder accusation, the infamous calumny
  which had originated among the Greeks of Hellenistic times. Nineteenth-
  century Smyrna witnessed a whole series of such accusations, the first
  of modern times having occurred in 1774 in the time of Rabbi Haim ben
  Jacob Aboulafia. In 1864 a Greek child disappeared as Easter approached
  when the Jews were commonly believed to be preparing for this terrible
  ceremony. The accusation of ritual murder was made. The child's body
  was soon found in the well of a house where he had fallen while playing,
  but not before bloody attacks had been made on the Jews. In April 1872
  another instance occurred. A Greek child was missing, so for two days
  the Jews of Smyrna received violent treatment from the Greek mob; two
  Jewish women were killed, and several Jews injured. On the second day
  the child's body was found in a sewer, and seven doctors testified
  that there was no sign of blood having been extracted from it.
  But the anti-Jewish furore of the Christian community could not be
  quelled; during Easter a crowd of Greeks bearing religious banners
  and armed with knives marched on the Jewish quarter, and only the tardy
  intervention of the Turkish authorities averted wholesale massacre.

  Meanwhile, when the news of the alleged kidnapping in Smyrna was heard
  in Chios, a band of Greeks immediately marched into the Jewish quarter
  in the Kastro and did much damage to Jewish property. For similar
  reasons there was another attack in 1892. In that year a Greek child
  disappeared, and the Greeks of Chios made the infamous charge against
  the Jewish community. The Turkish authorities attempted to restrain
  the mob from violence while searches were carried out, but Jews underwent
  some manhandling before the child was discovered, quite unharmed, in a
  drain where he had fallen whilst playing. Eight years later, the rumour
  spread in Chios that it had fallen to the Jews of the town to abduct a
  Christian, and the disappearance of two Greek boys was connected with
  them. It transpired that the children had gone to another village, and
  their parents, who had instigated the calumny on this occasion, were
  punished by the Turkish authorities.

  An additional cause of tension between the Greek and Jewish communities
  of Turkey in the second half of the nineteenth century was the persistence
  of chronically bad relations between the young kingdom of Greece and the
  Porte over the large tracts of territory which were generally considered
  properly [sic] part of Greece. Not unnaturally the Greeks still under
  Turkish rule were ardent supporters of the cause of the Government of
  Greece in its confrontation with the Porte. But not less naturally,
  the Jews of Turkey had no such loyalties, and tended to support their
  legitimate rulers. In Chios this allignment of sympathies gave rise to
  many violent incidents. At moments of exceptional excitement, such as
  the move to war in 1881 (averted at the last moment), and the actual
  shooting war in 1897 (which was a disaster for the Greek cause) Jews were
  assaulted in the streets by Chians; even the peasants of the villages
  gave expression to their patriotism by boycotting the Jewish pedlars
  who traded amongst them.>>

Nejat