Turkish journalists acknowledged truth about Smyrne fire

[Tsontos]

Journalist and eye witness to the burning of Smyrne, Atay Falih Rifki Atay, acknowledged it was the Turks responsible for the fire contrary to the overwhelmingly accepted idea in Turkey that the Greeks did it out of spite. Given the vast majority of the town's population was Greek its not surprising who started the fire and for what purpose.

Atay Falih Rifki Atay, a prominent Turkish journalist and author who witnessed the fire, acknowledges Turkish responsibility for the burning of Smyrna. His account is strikingly different from most Turkish accounts of the fire and hence deserves close attention. Atay also details the ferocious brutality of Nurettin PaÅŸa.

For your reference you will also find the cover of the book. Note that I have the 1969 edition and not the later 1980 reprint. If there happens to be significant demand I will provide you with an English translation of this page and perhaps a few important extracts from the preceding and following pages.
(6th line down) onwards. The line translates as: "Why were we burning Izmir down?"


Best Regards,
Nikos

[Spartan]

An English translation would be great.

It is nice to see a Turk tell it how it really happened.

[Nikephoros]

Here it is in text format. I would like to see it translated. I have asked someone over email to translate it from Turkish for me. Even if I do not get it translated having it in text form makes it easier to translate at a later date.

ZAFER SONRASI
325
Bildiklerimin doğrusunu yazmaya karar verdiğim için o zamanki notlarımdan bir sayfayı buraya aktarmak istiyorum: «Yağmacılar da ateşin büyümesine yardım ettiler. En çok esef ettiğim şeylerden biri. bir fotoğrafçı dükkânıni yağmaya giden subay, bütün taarruz harbleri boyunca çekmiş olduğu filmleri otelde bıraktığı için. bu tarihi vesikaların yanıp gitmesi olmuştur. İzmir'i niçin yakıyorduk? Kordon konaklan, oteller ve gazinolar kalırsa, azınlıklardan kurtulamıyacagımızdan mı korkuyorduk? Birinci Dünya Harbinde Ermeniler tehcir olunduğu vakit. Anadolu şehir ve kasabalarının oturulabilir ne kadar mahalle ve semtleri varsa, gene bu korku ile yakmıştık. Bu kuru kuruya tahripçilik hissinden gelme bir şey değildir. Bunda bir aşağılık duygusunun da etkisi var. Bir Avrupa parçasına benzeyen her köşe. sanki hıristiyan veya yabancı olmak, mutlak bizim olmamak kaderinde idi. Bir harb daha olsa da yenilmiş olsak, izmir'i arsalar halinde bırakmış olmak, şehrin Türklüğünü korumaya kâfi gelecek miydi? Koyu bir mutaassıp, öfkelendirici bir demagog olarak tanımış olduğum Nureddin Paşa olmasaydı, bu facianın sonuna kadar devam etmiyeceğini sanıyorum. Nureddin Paşa, tâ Afyon'dan beri Yunanlıların yakıp kül ettiği Türk kasabalarının enkazını ve ağlayıp çırpınan halkını görerek gelen subayların ve neferlerin affetmez hınç ve intikam hislerinden de şüphesiz kuvvet almakta idi.»
Nitekim İzmir zaferinin hemen arkasından bir Nureddin Paşa meselesi çıkacaktır. Zaferin bu en küçük hisseli adamı izmir'e girer girmez şöyle bir vizita kartı bastırmıştı: «Küt-ül-Amare muha-sırı, Afyon ve Dumlupınar muharebeleri gaalibi, İzmir fâtihi Nureddin Paşa.>> Izmir'de ilk buluştuğu adam da müftü idi. Nureddin Paşa kendisine bir vasiyetname bırakıyordu: ölünce Kordon bo-yuna bir camii, bir de türbesi yapılacaktı. Fâtih bu türbeye gömülecekti. Müftü, bir risalesi ile. biraz sonra irticaın bu sakallı ve azametli liderini bütün Türkiye yobazlarına takdim ettirmek üzere idi. İzmir'den İzmit'e gittiği zaman da, Çay'da komutanlara danışıldığı zaman:
— Yeni geldim, diye taarruz hakkında oy vermiyen bu adam :
— Ben Mesta-Karasu üstüne yürümek için hazırlanmıştım, beni burada tuttular, diyecekti.
***
Yakup Kadri, ben ve Asım Us, Bornova'da bir İngiliz evine yerleştik. Bornova karargâhların bulunduğu yer olduğu İçin. her gün

[Nikephoros]

A friend has been nice enough to translate from the Turkish:

AFTER THE VICTORY

325

Because I have decided to write the truth about what I know, I will quote a page from the notes I made at that time: The looters too helped the fire expand. One of the things I regret the most [is]; an officer who went to loot a photograph’s shop left pictures he had taken during the entire offensive wars at the hotel, [leading to] the burning and loss of these historical documents. Why were we burning Izmir? Were we fearing that we wouldn’t be rid of the minorities [the non-Muslim communities in Turkey] if we left the mansions, hotels and casinos [cafés, bars etc.] to stand? At the time of the 1st World War, when Armenians were deported, we burnt down any and every habitable neighbourhood and quarter of cities and towns in Anatolia with the same fear. There is no thing which will not come from this driest of dry [in e.g. purest of pure] feelings of [wishes of] destruction. In this there is also the effect of a sense of inferiority complex. It was surely in our fate not to be [a place] resembling a piece of Europe in every corner, as if (sic) being Christian or foreigner. If there had been another war [and] if we’d been defeated; would leaving Izmir in ruin be sufficient in protecting the city’s Turkishness? If it hadn’t been for Nureddin Pasha, whom I came to know as a dark fanatic, raging demogogue, I don’t believe the continuation of this tragedy would have been possible till the end. Nureddin Pasha was without any doubt strengthened by the feelings of rancor and revenge harboured by the arriving officers and people who had witnessed the ruins of Turkish towns burnt down to coal by the Greeks and the crying and agitated populace of these, [even] before [the time of] Afyon. Likewise, after the victory at Izmir, a Nureddin Pasha issue will arise (sic). This man, with the smallest share in the victory, as soon as he entered Izmir, printed a personal card reading "Besieger of Küt-al-Amara, winner of the Afyon war and conqueror of İzmir." And the first man he met [in e.g. held a meeting with] in Izmir was the mufti [or “mullah”]. Nureddin Pasha left a declaration for himself [saying]: at his death a mosque the size of Kordon [quarter in Izmir] and his tomb were to be built. The Conqueror was to be buried in this tomb. The Mufti, was little after going to present this bearded and majestic [in e.g. grand] leader to the whole of Turkey’s religious fanatics in through [one of] his booklet[s]. And when he went from Izmir to Izmit, at the time of his meeting with commanding officers:
- I came again, said the man not commenting [in e.g. giving oppinion] on the war:
- I came prepared to walk over Mesta-Karasu, [but] I’ve been held here, he was to say.