Greek war crimes

Greek war crimes were violations of the laws of war committed by Greece.

Greek War of Independence
The Turkish and Albanian population living in the Peloponnese were massacred, especially in areas dominated by Greek soldiers. Turkish and Albanian communities in the Peloponnese disappeared. Historians state that a total of more than 20,000 Muslims were killed on the peninsula during this period, often with the advice of priests in the region; Some historians estimate this number as 15,000; But there are estimates that 35,000 people were killed in the Tripolitsa Massacre alone. Russian soldiers and Greeks killed 400 Turks in the city of Mistras in 1770. Turkish children were taken to the minarets and thrown down from there. According to the records kept by William Ogden Niles during these rebellions, the Turkish population of the city of Patras was completely killed, except for a small minority. In August 1821, the Turkish inhabitants of the town of Monemvasia, faced with starvation as a result of the long siege, attempted to eat the corpses, while the Greeks killed sixty men and women captured at sea outside the town's walls. Then the Greeks said they would take the Turks to Anatolia and the doors were opened; but the Greeks plundered the town and killed many Turks. Later, they put about five hundred Turks from the town on a ship and left them on a deserted island off the coast of Anatolia, where the survivors of the Turks who faced starvation were rescued by a French merchant.

According to William st. Clair, "the genocide in the Morea ended only when there were no more Turks left to kill".

Navarino Massacre
Navarino massacre occurred during March-19 August 1821. Nearly 3000 civilian Turk massacred in here. George Finlay about the Navarino Massacre:

"'Women, wounded with musketballs and sabre-cuts, rushed to the sea, seeking to escape, and were deliberately shot. Mothers robbed of their clothes, with infants in their arms plunged into the sea to conceal themselves from shame, and they were them made a mark for inhuman riflemen. Greeks seized infants from their mother's breasts and dashed them against rocks. Children, three and four years old, were hurled living into the sea and left to drown. When the massacre was ended, the dead bodies washed ashore, or piled on the beach, threatened to cause a pestilence...'"

Tripolitsa Massacre
During the Tripolitsa Massacre, nearly 5,000-35,000 Turks were massacred by Greek rebels. Kolokotronis says in his memoirs:

"Inside the town they had begun to massacre. ... I rushed to the place ... If you wish to hurt these Albanians, I cried, 'kill me rather; for, while I am a living man, whoever first makes the attempt, him will I kill the first.' ... I was faithful to my word of honor ... Tripolitsa was three miles in circumference. The [Greek] host which entered it, cut down and were slaying men, women, and children from Friday till Sunday. Thirty-two thousand were reported to have been slain. One Hydriote [boasted that he had] killed ninety. About a hundred Greeks were killed; but the end came [thus]: a proclamation was issued that the slaughter must cease. ... When I entered Tripolitsa, they showed me a plane tree in the market-place where the Greeks had always been hanged. I sighed. 'Alas!' I said, 'how many of my own clan – of my own race – have been hanged there!' And I ordered it to be cut down. I felt some consolation then from the slaughter of the Turks. ... [Before the fall] we had formed a plan of proposing to the Turks that they should deliver Tripolitsa into our hands, and that we should, in that case, send persons into it to gather the spoils together, which were then to be apportioned and divided among the different districts for the benefit of the nation; but who would listen?"

The massacre at Tripolitsa was the final and largest in a sequence of massacres against Muslims in the Peloponnese during the first months of the revolt. Historians estimate that upwards of twenty thousand Muslim men, women and children were killed during this time, often with the exhortation of the local clergy.

Turkish War of Independence
Violence against civilians coincided with the beginning of the war on May 19, 1919. Greece adopted a scorched earth policy, especially when it retreated from Anatolia. By the end of the war, an estimated 640,000 civilian casualties occurred in the west.

Yalova Massacre
In May 1921, Greek Army soldiers systematically murdered thousands of civilians and burned 27 villages. According to Maurice Gehri, the head of the delegation that examined the massacre, approximately 6,000 people were murdered, and according to Ottoman sources, approximately 9,100 people were murdered.

The delegation chaired by Maurice Gehri came to the following conclusion after necessary investigations:



Menemen Massacre
It is the ethnic cleansing and massacre committed by the Greek Armed Forces soldiers against the Turks in the Menemen village of Izmir on June 17, 1919. According to French officers, at least 200 Turks were killed and more than 200 were injured in the massacre. In the words of Admiral John de Robeck, Izmir has become a slaughterhouse.

When the Greek Army occupied Izmir, Chrysostomos Kalafatis made the following speech to the Greek soldiers:

"My soldier children, children of Hellens (Greeks), today you are showing the greatest miracle of Jesus by reconquering the lands of our ancestors. The more Turkish blood you shed and drink for this cause, the more reward you will receive. By drinking a glass of Turkish blood, I will appease my grudge and hatred towards them. Come on, all the saints will be behind you. The land of your ancestors awaits you!"

Izmit Massacres
In the massacre that took place on June 24, 1921, the city was looted, burned and Turks were massacred. According to British journalist Arnold Joseph Toynbee's estimate, more than 300 Turkish civilians were killed that day. Arnold Joseph Toynbee On 29 June 1921, the British parliament debated Greek withdrawal and possible persecution.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, about the massacre:

In June 1921, my wife and I witnessed unprovoked arson by uniformed Greek troops on the southern shores of the Gulf of Izmit.

Karatepe Massacre
It is the massacre which mosques got burnt that took place in Karatepe village of Aydın on 19 February 1922. When the people of the village took shelter in mosques out of fear, Greek soldiers massacred almost the entire population, including pregnant women, babies, children and the elderly. According to some sources, 200  or more civilians lost their lives in the massacre, and according to some sources, 385  civilians lost their lives.

Alaşehir Massacre
In the Fire of Alaşehir, 2,400 people were burned and 600 people died by being shot or bayoneted by Greek soldiers. The population of Alaşehir, which had a population of 38,000 before the Greek occupation, was only 5,000-6,000 when it was liberated by the Turkish army on September 5, 1922.

Fire of Manisa
During the 1922 Manisa fire, 3500 people were burned to death, while 855 people were shot and killed by Greek soldiers. Additionally, according to Turkish sources, 300 girls were kidnapped to be raped.

Genocide of Cham Albanians
An event of ethnic cleasing and attempt of a genocide. at least 30,000 people expelled from their own reigon. the numbers are up to 35,000 according to the Cham reports.