The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-04-06
GREEKS URGE END
OF TURK REGIME
Leading Greek Daily Demands Aid of
Nations in Expulsion of Turks.

The Greek daily newspaper, Atlantis,
in a front page story recently asked the
aid of the world in expelling the Turks
from 7urope,:. The article called attention
to the Greek struggle for freedom and
the heroic sacrifices made by Greek
troops. The article is reproduced here,
in full:
This is the month when Greece cele-
brates the one hundredth anniversary of
her independence, while her armies ad-
vance VIGOROUSLY in Asia Minor putting
. the Turk behind those frontiers whence
he invaded Europe five hundred years
| ago.
| America was not yet on the map when
! the Hellenic empire of Constantinople fell
on that i'll fated day of May 29th, 1853.
| The Greek struggle for national indie
| pendence had begun since that time, and
found it's best expression in the great
| revolution of 1921 to 1927, which Gull
/ minated in the establishment of the
Greek state.
| Fifteen generations of Greeks felt
during five long centuries the oppres-
sion, the barbarism and the atrocities of
! the most backward race that ever took
| possession of the most classic land of
| Europe. That this nation was not ex-
tinguished under the Turk during those
IGIIIblS years. WIASiI IESeh DOyS were
| snatched away from their homes to swell
the hosts of the Janissaries, while Greek
| maidens were sold to slavery in the pub
| lie markets, and when the life of a
| Christian was worth less than that of a
| dog, is one of the wonders Of human
! history; but that the Greek nation has
| succeeded, not only in preserving it's
| language and traditions and culture and
religion, but in overthrowing the yoke
| ~t,A l>,,- &c 1F voTes
of national vitality, which no other peo-
pie has ever shown, or will ever be able
| to show.
Today almost five hundred years after
| the fall of Constantinople and hundred
! years from the Hellenic revolution of
| 1921, the victorious Greek .-armies are
! battling beyond the old capital of Eski
| Shehir and beyond the black fortress of
| Kara -Hssar, while from the Gulf of an
| Client Nico1nedia renamed Ismid by the
| Turks, to the shores of the Black sea.
! and all along the Chatalja line Greek
| soldiers, assisted by Greek warships, sur
round the Holy City of Constantinople.
where the heart of the Turkish govern
ment has almost ceased to beat.
Removed is from STEAMBOAT the last
! vestige of Turkish power, and if there
still is sultan and Turkish guard in
Constantinople, their prestige is non-ex-
| istant and their authority dead. Chris
| tian Europe, civilized Europe. was late
! in fulfilling it's duty to ChriStendom and
civilization; but, finally she did, and the
overthrow of the Turkish power in Eu-
rope will stand forever of the
highest accomplishments of the last war.
for the victorious outcome of which
America has so generously contributed.
The Ottoman empire lay . PROSTATE;
Arabia is an Independent kingdom; Pal
estine is free; Mesopotamia no longer
pays tribute to COnstantinOple; Syria is
an autonomous state; Thrace and the
Aegean islands, Macedonia and Epirus
have rejoined their Greek motherland,
even Ilbania is forming an independent
state. There is left Armenia, still bleed
ing under the Turkish scimitar and never
to be free unless Turkey is definitely
eliminated from Constantinople and re-
duced to the status of a small state
whose rule will be confined to Turks
alone.
The Greek armies fighting in the in
terror of Asia Minor are still fighting
the battles of civilization against the
nodes Of barbarious Ausia. They go for
ward fully convinced that race which
has remained in the most beautiful spot
OF eastern Europe for five centuries, con-
. ttnuously destroying all that is best in
civilization. without the capacity of
producing either culture or art, or beauty
is not a race fit to govern much more
superior peoples. That was the issue at
| Thermopyale and Sslamis between Ath-
ems and Persia, and that is the issue
today between Greece and the Turks.
It is thanks to the Greek Nalor at
Marathon that Europe was not submerg-
ed under the waves of Asiatic barbarism;
it is thanks to the millenial struggles of
the Byzantine empire against the Turks
and Saracean that Europe was saved
from submission to the invaders CT the
East.
And it is to the valor OF the Greek
troops fighting today in Asia Minor that
the final liquidation of the Ottoman en-
pire is bein6 accomplished under our
eyes.
The Turk has fallen. and Greece is
back n her old colonies. in the cities
built by Greeks, in the fields developed
Oy the Grcel.-. in tho temples and
churches that married the advance of the
race under both its pagan and Christian
civilization.
For cIe thousand years Constintinople
as the center of the Greek byzantine
empire has served Europe and upheld
the banner of western culture against
the barbarians of east and north. F.1r
five hundred years the Turks remained
in Constantinop1e and the Near East, as
a butchering, demoralizing, grating, in.
competent, reactiOnary, and uncivilized
intruder, a foreigner to the civilization of
Europe and enemy of liberty and
progress.
Now his turn to go has come. and
the Greek ARMY is accomplishing the job.