...September 1922, Smyrna

[akritas]

A British eye-witness described the refugee trains as 'a wonderful sight: passengers standing all along the footplates and others swarming on the roof. In the carriages the passengers were so crowded that dead bodies were passed out at stations on their way to Smyrna.' After the refugees came those parts of the army which did not bypass the city:

Then the defeated, dusty, ragged Greek soldiers began to arrive, looking straight ahead, like men walking in their sleep.... In a never ending stream they poured through the town toward the point on the coast to which the Greek fleet had withdrawn. Silently as ghosts they went, looking neither to the right nor the left. From time to time some soldier, his strength entirely spent, collapsed on the sidewalk, or by a door.... And now at last we heard that the Turks were moving on the town.

Throughout 7 September the milling people on the front continued to press for a place on the boats which sailed for Chios and Mitylene. Army headquarters was still issuing passes to soldiers and their families to sail on requisitioned boats; but the system of allocation was breaking down.

Throughout the night in the darkness of the streets (the foreign company which operated the street lights had cut off the supply of light after a brush with Stergiadis) the sound of oxcarts and soldiers trudging through the outskirts could be heard.

The Metropolitan Archbishop Chrysostom had been busy comforting and helping to feed and shelter his flock, seeking aid from the allied representatives, writing to those such as the Ecumenical Patriarch who might help.



Now on 7 September he wrote to Venizelos, his last letter, heavy with the sense of the impending destruction of a part of the living tissue of Hellenism:

Dear friend and brother, Eleftherios Venizelos,

The great moment for a great gesture by you has come. Hellenism in Asia Minor, the Greek state and the entire Greek Nation are descending now to a Hell from which no power will be able to raise them up and save them.

For this unimaginable catastrophe it is of course your political and personal enemies who bear the blame; but you too bear a great weight of responsibility for two of your actions.

First because you sent to Asia Minor as High Commissioner an utterly deranged egotist. Secondly because before you had completed your work and put the crown and seal on the unimaginably fine and magnificent creation you had built up, the establishment of the foundations of the most glorious Byzantine Empire, you had the unfortunate and guilty inspiration to order elections on the very eve of your entry to Constantinople and the occupation of it by the Greek army in the implementation of the Treaty of Scvres - now alas for ever destroyed.

But what is done is done!

There is still time though, if not to save the Treaty of Sevres, at least to save the whole Greek Nation from destruction through the loss not only of Asia Minor but also of Thrace and perhaps even Macedonia.... I have judged it necessary above all out of the flames of catastrophe in which the Greek people of Asia Minor are suffering - and it is a real question whether when Your Excellency reads this letter of mine we shall still be alive, destined as we are - who knows for sacrifice and martyrdom by the inscrutable decrees of divine providence - to direct this last appeal to you....

If in order to save Greece you judged it your duty to initiate the revolutionary movement of Salonika, do not hesitate now to initiate a hundred such movements in order to save the whole of Hellenism everywhere and especially that of Asia Minor and Thrace, which nourishes such a religious adoration for you....

It is not necessary for this Hellenism and these territories with Constantinople to be united with Greece, because that dream has been removed from us for at least a hundred years, but hasten to raise your powerful voice so that these territories may be made an autonomous Eastern Christian state, even under the sovereignty of the Sultan, with your noble self as High Commissioner.

[Michael Llewellyn Smith, Ionian Vision, pages 302-303]

[Orphic_Hymn]

THE MARTYRED CITY

by George Horton


Glory and Queen of Island Sea
Was Smyrna, the beautiful city,
And fairest pearl of the Orient she—
O Smyrna the beautiful city!
Heiress of countless storied ages,
Mother of poets, saints and sages,
Was Smyrna, the beautiful city!



One of the ancient, glorious Seven
Was Smyrna, the sacred city,
Whose candles all were alight in Heaven—
O Smyrna the sacred city!
One of the Seven hopes and desires,
One of the seven Holy Fires
Was Smyrna, the Sacred City.



And six fared out in the long ago-
O Smyrna, the Christian city!
But hers shone on with a constant glow—
O Smyrna, the Christian city!
The others died down and passed away,
But hers gleamed on until yesterday—
O Smyrna, the Christian city!



Silent and dead are churchbell ringers
Of Smyrna, the Christian city,
The music silent and dead the singers
Of Smyrna, the happy city;
And her maidens, pearls of the Island seas
Are gone from the marble palaces
Of Smyrna, enchanting city!



She is dead and rots by the Orient’s gate,
Does Smyrna, the murdered city,
Her artisans gone, her streets desolate—
O Smyrna, the murdered city!
Her children made orphans, widows her wives
While under her stones the foul rat thrives—
O Smyrna, the murdered city!



They crowned with a halo her bishop there,
In Smyrna, the martyred city,
Though dabbled with blood was his long white hair—
O Smyrna, the martyred city!
So she kept the faith in Christendom
From Polycarp to St. Chrysostom,
Did Smyrna, the glorified city!

[akritas]

General Plasteras responce to the British Ambassador when the latter have tried (with threads) to stop the "Trial of 6"......

Hellas existed honestly Ally of England.
You abandoned her but that she was continued alone the struggle. She saw her populations to slaughtered, the Greek land to be mutilated.
She can live also alone.
And if she collapses we set up in the Tow Malea a plate that will write, that here flourish sometimes a culture, that destroyed the Western Forces, with protagonist the England.
This you will transmit in your Government. We finished gentleman. We do not have nothing other we say. Go!

Η Ελλάς υπήρξε τίμια Σύμμαχος της Αγγλιας. Την εγκαταλείψατε αλλά εκείνη συνέχισε μόνη τον αγώνα.
Είδε τους πληθυσμούς της να σφαγιάζονται, την ελληνική γη να ακρωτηριάζεται.
Μπορεί να ζήσει και μόνη.
Και αν καταρρεύσει θα στήσουμε στον Κάβο Μαλέα μιά πινακίδα που θα γράφει, πως εδώ ανθούσε κάποτε ένας πολιτισμός, που κατέστρεψαν οι Δυτικές Δυνάμεις, με πρωταγωνίστρια την Αγγλία.
Αυτό να διαβιβάσεις στη Κυβέρνησή σου. Τελειώσαμε κύριε. Δεν έχουμε τίποτα άλλο να πούμε. Πηγαίνετε!

The BLACK RIDER, the leader of a regiment that NEVER LOST A BATTLE.!!!

[Tsontos]

can you elaborate about that regiment akritas?

[akritas]

Originally Posted by Voulgaroktonos

can you elaborate about that regiment akritas?

The 5/42 Evzones Regiment or 42nd Regiment (Greek: 5/42 Σύνταγμα Εύζωνων or 42° Σύνταγμα) was an elite Evzones regiment of the Hellenic Army. Renowned for its fighting prowess, during the Greco-Turkish War, the unit earned the nickname Setan Asker ("Army of Satan") from their Turkish adversaries. The unit served in the Balkan Wars, the Greco-Turkish War, and the Greco-Italian War & World War II.

Nikolaos Plastiras - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



[The last battle from the book of Giannis Kapsis, Xamenes Patrides,1989, Levanes Publications]

[Ehetlaios]

Tromero...

[akritas]

9 September 1922

The last day of martyr Archbishop Chrysostom via

[Michael Llewellyn Smith, Ionian Vision, pages 367-368]

The Archbishop Chrysostom had been tireless in looking after the crowds of frightened refugees in the cathedral church and in using all his powers of persuasion - to little effect _ on the foreign represen ta ti ves to provide some protection for the Christians.

Early on the 9th a Turkish policeman called at the Cathedral of St Photeini and asked Chrysostom to accompany him. It was about this time that Nureddin Pasha, the commander of the Turkish 1st Army and well known to the Greeks from his previous service as nomarch of Smyrna as a ruthless and ambitious officer, arrived to take command in the town. The Greeks in the cathedral became uneasy, but around 5 o'clock the Archbishop returned. He had been taken to the police station to sign a proclamation that the Christians should remain in their homes and surrender all weapons to the Turkish authorities.

That evening a car drove up to the cathedral and the same policeman with two soldiers asked the Archbishop to go with them again. This time Chrysostom, with three elders of the Greek community, was taken to Nureddin Pasha in Government House. Nureddin received the Archbishop in his office, where a few days earlier Hatzianestis had had his headquarters. What passed between the two men will never be precisely known. Legend soon encrusted the encounter and subsequent events. It is probable that Nureddin reproached Chrysostom with his active encouragement of the nationalist Greek cause, and support for the Asia Minor Defence League, calling these treason in view of Chrysostom's Turkish nationality.

The French patrol in the square outside saw Chrysostom leave the building. Nureddin appeared on the balcony, and called to the crowd that Chrysostom was theirs to judge and deal with. The square was crowded with some hundreds of Muslims. They seized the Archbishop and manhandled him to the shop of Ismael, a Levantine barber. Here Chrysostom was dressed in a white barber's coat. The crowd began to strike and revile him. Knives were drawn, and the mob closed in. Before he died, the Archbishop was horribly mutilated. One source relates that a Turcocretan for whom Chrysostom had once done a favour mercifully put an end to his agony with four shots.

for fair use only

George Horton's account for Smyrna Fire via his book "The Blight of Asia":

The main facts in regard to the Smyrna fire are:

1. The streets leading into the Armenian quarter were guarded by Turkish soldier sentinels and no one was permitted to enter while the massacre was going on.
2. Armed Turks, including many soldiers, entered the quarter thus guarded and went through it looting, massacring and destroying. They made a systematic and horrible “clean up,” after which they set fire to it in various places by carrying tins of petroleum or other combustibles into the houses or by saturating bundles of rags in petroleum and throwing these bundles in through the windows.
3. They planted small bombs under the paving stones in various places in the European part of the city to explode and act as a supplementary agent in the work of destruction caused by the burning petroleum which Turkish soldiers sprinkled about the streets. The petroleum spread the fire and led it through the European quarter and the bombs shook down the tottering walls. One such bomb was planted near the American Girls’ School and another near the American Consulate.
4. They set fire to the Armenian quarter on the thirteenth of September 1922. The last Greek soldiers bad passed through Smyrna on the evening of the eighth, that is to say, the Turks had been in full, complete and undisputed possession of the city for five days before the fire broke out and for much of this time they had kept the Armenian quarter cut off by military control while conducting a systematic and thorough massacre. If any Armenians were still living in the localities at the time the fires were lighted they were hiding in cellars too terrified to move, for the whole town was overrun by Turkish soldiers, especially the places where the fires were started. In general, all the Christians of the city were keeping to their houses in a state of extreme and justifiable terror for themselves and their families, for the Turks had been in possession of the city for five days, during which time they had been looting, raping and killing. It was the burning of the houses of the Christians, which drove them into the streets and caused the fearful scenes of suffering which will be described later. Of this state of affairs, I was an eye-witness.
5. The fire was lighted at the edge of the Armenian quarter at a time when a strong wind was blowing toward the Christian section and away from the Turkish. The Turkish quarter was not in any way involved in the catastrophe and during all the abominable scenes that followed and all the indescribable sufferings of the Christians, the Mohammedan quarter was lighted up and gay with dancing, singing and joyous celebration.
6. Turkish soldiers led the fire down into the well-built modern Greek and European section of Smyrna by soaking the narrow streets with petroleum or other highly inflammable matter. They poured petroleum in front of the American Consulate with no other possible purpose than to communicate the fire to that building at a time when C. Clafun Davis, Chairman of the Disaster Relief Committee of the Red Cross, Constantinople Chapter, and others, were standing in the door. Mr. Davis went out and put his hands in the mud thus created and it smelled like petroleum and gasoline mixed. The soldiers seen by Mr. Davis and the others had started from the quay and were proceeding toward the fire.
7. Dr. Alexander Maclachlan, President of the American College, and a sergeant of American Marines were stripped, the one of his clothes and the other of a portion of his uniform, and beaten with clubs by Turkish soldiers. A squad of American Marines was fired on.