From: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish,talk.politics.mideast,talk.politics.soviet,soc.culture.greek,soc.culture.europe,soc.history
Followup-To: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: But, sixty of them were massacred by Greeks in a single night.
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 00:47:06 EST
Reply-To: sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic)
Distribution: world

In article <1992Nov8.025331.25207@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> 2120788@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU () writes:

>So I see that we are Greeks when Argic wants it to be so!

Are "paliks" part of some pattern in somebody else's night sky - a projection
of their imaginations and wonderings?

   <<The inclusion in the Treaty of Berlin of stipulations providing
   protection for the Jewish and Muslim minorities in Southeastern Europe
   stimulated more popular anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hysteria in all
   the countries involved, with blood-libel accusations once again being
   used as pretexts for attacking and ravaging Jewish quarters as well as
   for new tactics for boycotting Jewish shopkeepers, merchants and
   professionals, a movement which was quickly adapted by the Christian
   millets in the major cities of the Ottoman Empire. Because the Bulgarians,
   Rumanians and Greeks correctly regarded the Jews as supporters of the
   Turks, both Jews and Turks were expelled from these countries in equally
   atrocious and brutal manners. Their property was plundered and their
   homes and shops taken over without compensation, while the survivors
   fled in desperation to Edirne and Istanbul. While official statements
   subsequently were issued granting equal rights to Jews, little was done
   in fact and they continued to be persecuted regularly well into the
   twentieth century.>>

  <<Things were not much better elsewhere in Southeastern Europe or the
   Greek islands of the Agean and the eastern Mediterranean. In 1891 the
   Jews on Corfu were subjected to severe persecution by local Greeks due
   to the revival of the old ritual murder accusations [26]. Many of
   those who survived found refuge in Ottoman territory with the help of a
   popular subscription drive carried out in Istanbul under leadership of
   the Banque Camondo. In 1881 and 1884, and again in 1892 and 1903,
   thousands of Jews came to Ottoman territory as a result of pogroms
   in Russia which went on between 1881 and 1921 with only slight periods
   of respite. In 1899 Jewish families arrived in Istanbul in flight from
   persecution in Vidin, in independent Bulgaria.

   The conquest of Ottoman Thrace and Macedonia by Greek and Bulgarian
   forces during the Balkan Wars (1912-13), including Salonica, Corlu,
   and Edirne, was followed by general attacks on Jews, their synagogues,
   homes and shops, in both countries [27], resulting in a renewed exodus
   toward Istanbul and beyond. Two reports from Salonica graphically
   described the situation caused by the invading armies:

      'All the self-interested justifications of the newspapers of Europe,
      all the lies which they have used to cover up the truth, can never
      destroy the impression of the terrible anguish which has marked the
      entry of the Greeks in Salonica. A week of terror and horror one can
      never easily forget. The Hellenes now cruelly feel today all the
      damage that the explosion of hatred by the (Greek) population has done
      to their cause. The mob has shown itself odious and the government
      weak...The incompetence of the Greek administration and the horrors
      inflicted by the soldiers has put them in a terrible situation. The
      consuls guaranteed the absolute safety of the Muslims, but sixty of
      them were massacred in a single night....'[28]

     'It wasn't only irregulars (Comitacis) who massacred, pillaged and
      burned. The soldiers of the Army, the Chief of Police, and the high
      civil officials took an active part in the events at Serres. Out of
      6,000 houses, 4,000 were burned. Almost 1,200 shops were consumed by
      flames and destructive bombs. The (Jewish) population lost all, and
      without even anything to wear is in despair. Everyone wants to
      emigrate...'[29] >>

Serdar Argic

                     'This war quickly developed into one of extermination. 
                      We closed the roads and mountain passes that might 
                      serve as ways of escape for the Tartars [Turks] and 
                      then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)

Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish