The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-11-06
Turks Massacre 100000 Greeks
In Their OOminiOnS

| ti0l which convlnceS them that not
alone the Turk but his German ad-
l,isors were responsible for the de.
purtations of Greeks from Turkish
dominions, as a consequence of which
zoe, 900 have suffered persecution or
! death.
| 1t is asserted that the Greek lega-
ton at ConstantinOple protested to
the then King Constantine of Greece
from the beginning of the derorta-
tions but received no assistance or
encouragement from him The lega-
tor then lodged a protest with Ia
.aat Bey, the Turkish Grand Vizier.
His reply, as shown by official pa
pers was that these measures are
taken by advice Of our German ad-
,,isors." The Greek legation then
tooE up the subject with the German
general, Liman Won Sanders, who is
declared to have replied that the
presence of the Greek communities
within the Ottoman Empire was
dangerous to military operations and
that he was "only executing the or
dcrs of the German General Staff. F."
An account of the persecution of
the Greeks which has been given to
the Associated Press states:
THE method OF depopulation
adopted has been very similar to the
method adopted with regard to the
Armenian racts. During the night,
armed irregular troops of the Turk
ish army would form Gordon
around the doomed district. The in
ltabitants would be awakened by
means of bells and ordered to evacu-
ate the village in ten minutes, for
military reasons. No extension of
lime was allowed one object being
that the victims should not be able to
Itako anything with them, either food
Tor goods. In the event of delay, the
troops drove forth the terrified peo-
pie at the point of the bayonet.
THE moment that the people had
gone, hordes of bandits and irregu-
lar soldiery poured into the empty
Villages and looted and burned the
houses in a frenzy of destruction,
while the inhabitants, old men, wom-
,an and children as we'll as the able
bodied, were on the march
Soon after the march began, the
process of determination began to be
put into effect. Men were separated
from their women and children. ana
parties were made up for trek tt
various places, usually locations in
far-distant parts of Asia Minor
Needless to say, few Of these parties
ever reached their destination, beine
gradually killed off by exposure OF
starvation Thousands died in barren
desert lands. Without food or drink
and poorly clad, speedy death al
the hands of the soldiers would have
been welcomed by many. The sol
diers, however seldom ATTEMPTED di.
rect killings at this stage, except OF
refugees who attempted escape, the
soldiery generally being content I,
let hunger and thirst and exposure
DO the work of determination fol
them
The lot Of the women and chill
dreE was the usual one. which ba.
been described many times ill ac.
counts of the Armenian deportations
BEING defenseless, they fell a prey to
the first passer-by Any Turk alone
the way who fancied a child or 4
young woman. merely took nosses-
sion, and thousands of young Greeks
are now interned in Mussulman vii.
lages. forcibly converted" to Islam
and forced to live as servants or con
cubines of the Turkish peasantry.
I'm the neighborhood of Constan
tinople. many of the deportees man.
aged TO return and appeared in the
streets of the capital, starving. beg
gins and sleeping in the back streets
and alleys. To abate this scandal
The Turkish government had the no
lice collect hundreds OF these
wretched persons and concentrated
them at Pancaldi. where their fate
is not yet known"
Ii is declared that, as a rcsul, OF
these deportations. all Greek com.
mnnlties have been eliminated in
the Iracian regions of Demotica
Sufii' lstranja, and EregIi, from the
coast of the sea of Marmora. from
the peninsula of Artaki, from all the
N''tages along the Bosphorus and