User:DragonTiger23/ Gemlik-Yalova Peninsula massacres

Gemlik-Yalova Peninsula Massacres were a series of systematic massacres and destruction of villages committed by the Greek Army and local Greek and Armenian gangs against the Turkish Muslim population of the Gemlik-Yalova Peninsula, during 1920-21, the majority of which during March - May 1921. Almost all Muslim villages and towns were burned down, and some 5,500-6,500 Turkish civilians were killed    or had disappeared. An Inter-Allied commission and the representative of the Geneva International Red Cross, Maurice Gehri, went to the region to investigate the atrocities. The result was that most of the remaining 20,000 Turkish refugees were saved and transported on ships to Istanbul. Journalist Arnold J. Toynbee was also present during these atrocities and wrote and extensive report of what he saw.

Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire officially surrendered to the Entente Powers and it had to disband its army. At the peace conference the British and French tried to secure territory for the Kingdom of Greece in Smyrna and its surrounding regions. As a result, the Greek army, with the support of the Entente Powers, invaded Anatolia and occupied Smyrna.

The Ottoman government and Turkish nationalists, which included people from all layers of Turkish society ranging from soldiers to civilians, under the command of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, resisted against this decision. The latter formed a new Turkish National Movement based in central Anatolia, whose aim was to repel the foreign forces that remained in Anatolia. On the other hand, the Greek army was given the task by the allies to end the Turkish Nationalist government. Following the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) the Greek army was defeated and forced to retreat.

During its retreat (August-September 1922) the Greek army carried out a scorched-earth policy and laid waste to many Turkish cities and villages and committed massacres against its inhabitants, while the Turkish army perpetrated also similar actions against the civilian population.

Massacres in Izmit and Iznik (1920-1921)
The advance of the Greek forces in June-July 1920 eastwards, outside of the 'Smyrna zone', brought a inter ethnic conflict between Turkish and Greek regular and some Circassian mercenaries groups in the Izmit district. Turkish bands savaged Christian villages in the Iznik region, east of Yalova and outside the area controlled by the Greek forces. In the nearby city of Iznik, some 539 Greeks, 20 Armenians and 18 Jews were killed on 15 August 1920. During the battles in spring 1920 between Turkish and Greek forces, the Greek advance failed.

Ever since in summer 1920 the Greek forces held an extensive and largely Muslim area, in which groups of nationalist Turks engaged in espionage on behalf of their government as well as Turkish guerrilla bands were operating against the Greek lines of communication. In the aftermath of the Greek failure, Greek troops took vengeance on Turkish villages which they suspected of harboring anti-Greek activity and in search of hidden weapons. The local Turkish villages were disarmed and so became easy prey to the local Greek/Armenian gangs who often plundered them.

The Greek army occupied Izmit and later retreated in June 1921. Toynbee sailing on a boat saw the retreating Greek army on land rapidly setting fire to the surrounding villages and the town of Karamürsel while evacuating Izmit, most of the local Christians left with the Greek army. When 35 hours later he landed at Izmit, the town was plundered and in ruins. Turkish peasants were ordered to transport the possession of the Christians with their ox carts, at the shore the ox were slaughtered to ship their meat more easily, the Turkish carters were then shot, Toynbee saw the corpses of the carters floating among the offal, and among one or two corpses of Turkish women. The mosques of Izmit had been robbed, defiled and the Turkish shops had been looted, the Christian shops not. According to Toynbee a general massacre of the Turkish population had been prevented by the French liaison officer stationed at Ismid, who started patrolling the streets in company with the commander of a French destroyed as soon as the killing began. Several thousands of Turkish refugees were sheltered at the college of the French Assumptionists. But at Friday the 24th June, three and a half days before the Greek evacuation, the male inhabitants of the two Turkish quarters of Baghcheshmé and Tepekhané, in the highest part of the town, away from the sea, had been dragged out to the cemetery and shot there, more than 300 Turks had been executed. According to Toynbee the Turkish troops who occupied Izmit behaved well to the few remaining Christians and did not plunder their shops to retaliate against previous massacres.

Arnold J. Toynbee wrote the following about Circassian involvement in Greek atrocities in Izmit and elsewhere:

Population
After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the WWI the peninsula was occupied by Great Britain. At the end of 1920 control of the region was ceded to Greek troops. The peninsula's population at that moment included a ethnically diverse population including Muslims, Greeks and Armenians. The Kaza of Orhangazi was 34% Muslim in 1914, the rest were Greeks and Armenians. The kaza of Yalova was only 36% Muslim in 1914, the rest Greek and Armenian. The Kaza of Gemlik was 57% Muslim but the town of Gemlik was almost entirely (90%) Greek by the time of the war. Gemlik was surrounded by Greek, Armenian and Muslim Turkish villages.

According to Smith an additional factor that lead to violence was the return of the Greek refugees to their homes, after being driven out from the area by the Ottoman authorities during World War I. On the other hand, thousands of Turkish refugees from the Balkan wars, who had occupied their homes in the meantime, were expulsed. This turn of event created a rural proletariat apt for brigandage and violence by irregular groups. However according to the report of the Allied commission the events during World War I and the problems of the refugees were not the primary reason of the thorough destruction of numerous Turkish villages and towns in the Gemlik-Yalova Peninsula. They stated that the massacres and destruction was carried out according to a plan by the Greek army who also encouraged the local Greek and Armenians to participate.

Events between August 1920 and March 1921
Following the Greek occupation the local Turkish population complained against the Ottoman and Allied authorities against Greek atrocities but without much effect. In a report from the Ottoman gendarmerie of Balikesir region to the gendarmerie headquarters it was stated that since the Greek occupation (August 1920) the Turkish population was subjected to cases of killings, torture, rape and theft. The weapons of the Muslim population were collected and handed over to the local Greeks and Armenians. In the Orhangazi region the villages of Dutluca (7 September 1920), Bayırköy and Paşayayla were burned and the population was massacred. In the Yalova area, in the village of Çınarcık the population was beaten with whips and sticks then shut up in the mosque, their money was taken and some were killed.

The Greek army captured Orhangazi on 16 October 1921 after resistance by Turkish militias. The next day there was a massacre in the nearby Turkish village of Çakırlı, the men were locked in the local mosque where they were burned alive and shot. Two days later on 18 October 1921 the nearby Turkish village of Üreğil (consisted of 90 families) was burned down. On 16 April, the some 1,000 Turkish inhabitants of Orhangazi were sent to Gemlik by the Greek army while the town was burned down the same day by the Greeks. The refugees reached Gemlik under very difficult circumstances, most were robbed and some killed on the way. They were later evacuated by the Allied commission to Istanbul by boat. The next day on 17 April, there was a massacre in the village of Gedelek, because the population could not pay the amount of 4,000 Lira as protection money, the men after they had been robbed of their money were stuffed into a house where they were killed..

Investigation of the Allied commission (13-23 May 1921
Finally in May 1921, a Inter-Allied commission, consisting of British, French, American and Italian officers, and the representative of the Geneva International Red Cross, Maurice Gehri, was set up to investigate the situation. In 13 May 1921 the commission started on his investigation by visiting the burned villages of Çertekici, Çengiler and Gedik and then it returned to Gemlik. Here they listened to the Turkish refugees who had gathered there, most of them were from Orhangazi which was burnt by the Greek army one month before, on 16 April. The majority of the refugees had been robbed on the way to Gemlik by Greeks, Armenians The commission listened to various cases of rape; the ages of the victims varied from as low as twelve to sixty years old.

The commission reported that the Turkish refugees lived in very crowded conditions, most of them slept in the courtyards of mosques and graveyards. In one room of six meter wide they counted sixty refugee women and children. On 14 May the commission listened to the cases of the Greek and Armenian refugees. On 15 May the commission found out that the Turkish villages of Kapaklı, Narlı and Karacaali where burning, the same evening they went by the boat Broyn to the shore of Karacaali and found on the beach the corpses of 11 Turks who had been killed several hours before with bayonets. The local population gathered around by the shore and asked for protection, they told the commission that Greek soldiers and local Greeks demanded a large amount of money after which they executed 15-20 civilians in the graveyard..

On 16 May the commission went to the village of Küçük Kumela, the local Turkish population was hiding in their houses out of fear, but when they realized it was the Allied commission a group of 1,000 villagers gathered around them. They told that the situation was terrible since one month and that last Thursday a group of 60-65 Greek soldiers accompanied by 40 Greek civilians came to the village and killed three men and one woman.. The day before another Greek group had killed 8-9 people.. Meanwhile a Greek officer pressured the villagers to return to their homes where he claimed that they would be safe, but the horrified villagers stayed with the commission.. Later that day the commission went to the village of Kapaklı which had been burning for three days. They found 8 bodies under the rubble, 4 of them women.. The survivors told the commission that Greek soldiers were responsible.. Then the commission investigated the village of Narlı, which had been completely burned down and was still burning..

Conclusion of the Allied commission
It became clear that between March - May 1921 the population had been massacred or fled on a very large scale. Almost all villages and towns had been burned, while the survivors were crammed up in a few locations. First the villages were plundered and almost all of the villagers' livestock were taken away from them, then there was raping and killing and finally their houses were burned. To protect them the allied commission decided to transport all refugees with boats to Istanbul and in total 20,000 refugees were transported.

The Inter-Allied commission, consisting of British, French, American and Italian officers, and the representative of the Geneva International Red Cross, Maurice Gehri, prepared two separate collaborative reports on their investigations in the Yalova-Gemlik Peninsula. These reports found that Greek forces committed systematic atrocities against the Turkish inhabitants. And the commissioners mentioned the "burning and looting of Turkish villages", the "explosion of violence of Greeks and Armenians against the Turks", and "a systematic plan of destruction and extinction of the Moslem population". In their report of the 23rd May 1921, the Inter-Allied commission stated as follows:

According to Maurice Gehri the massacres in the Gemlik-Yalova Peninsula were a result of the defeat of the Greek army at the Battle of İnönü.

The later famous historian Arnold J. Toynbee was active in the area as a war reporter, Toynbee stated that he and his wife were witnesses to the atrocities perpetrated by Greeks in the Yalova, Gemlik, and Izmit areas and they not only obtained abundant material evidence in the shape of "burnt and plundered houses, recent corpses, and terror stricken survivors" but also witnessed robbery by Greek civilians and arsons by Greek soldiers in uniform in the act of perpetration.

Michael Smith adds that Circassian irregulars also took part in these massacres However this is not mentioned in the contemporary sources, nor the report of the commission or Toynbee.

Places which were burned and where massacres ocurred

 * Yalova
 * Izmit
 * Gemlik
 * Orhangazi (old name Pazarköy)
 * Karamürsel

There were 15-16 villages burned or according to another estimate 27.
 * Çertekici
 * Çengiler (today Sugören)
 * Gedik
 * Kadıköy
 * Zağferan
 * Hacı Mehmed
 * Kavri
 * Çınarcık
 * Elmalı
 * Narlı
 * Kırcaali (today Karacaali)
 * Kapaklı
 * Büyük Kumela (today probably Büyük Kumlu)
 * Küçük Kumela (today probably Küçük Kumlu)
 * Bahçecik
 * Badaengir
 * Yüksek Kocadere (today Şenköy)
 * Alçak Kocadere
 * Kaçık (today Gacık)
 * Yortan (today Kazimiye)
 * Kirazlı
 * Akköy
 * Armutlu
 * Sultaniye
 * Selimiye
 * Hayriye
 * Ereğli
 * Fıstıklı
 * Reşadiye
 * Dereköy
 * Karakilise
 * Sığırcık
 * Üvezpınar
 * Paşaköy
 * Kürdköy (today probably Kurtköy)
 * Gökçedere
 * Ortaburun
 * Güllük
 * Çalıca
 * Değirmendere
 * Teşvikiye
 * Samanlı
 * Esediye
 * Çakırlı
 * Üreğil
 * Mecidiye
 * Haydariye
 * Lütfiye
 * Ihsaniye
 * Cihanköy