867.4016/664
The High Commissioner at Constantinople
(Bristol)
to the Acting Secretary of
State
Constantinople, September 14,
1922.
[Received September 30.]
No. 455
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department
that on September 8, 1922 I received a communication addressed to me by
Raouf Bey, the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Angora
Government, protesting against the alleged atrocities committed by the
Greeks during their recent retreat in Asia Minor. On receipt of the
above mentioned communication, a copy and translation of which is
enclosed for the Department’s information, I was struck by the
opportunity which was afforded me of informally approaching the Angora
Government and calling to the latter’s attention what a unique
opportunity they had to gain the confidence of the Christian minorities
residing in Asia Minor, as well as of our own Government, by adopting a
humanitarian and civilized attitude in the conduct of the occupation of
the districts recently retaken from the Greek forces. I believed that
such representations, if made at the psychological moment, might serve
to check the Turkish forces from carrying out reprisals, such as
massacres and burnings, which
[Page 936]
seem to be the custom of warfare in this part of the world. In this
connection I have the honor to call the attention of the Department to
the report drawn up by the Smyrna Committee of Investigation in
1919,16 of which I
was the head, and which showed that when the Greek forces retreated from
a village they set fire to the Turkish quarter before leaving, and
similarly when the Turkish forces retreated from a village they set fire
to the Greek quarter. I therefore had an interview with Hamid Bey, the
Angora Representative, on September 7, and presented him with a copy of
the enclosed Memorandum, together with a French translation. In this
interview I attempted to impress upon Hamid Bey that the Memorandum in
question embodied my personal feelings and I most earnestly requested
that this Memorandum, should be transmitted to Angora without delay.
Whether my representations which I have reported above, had any effect,
it is impossible to say, but, at the same time, I think it worth while
to call the attention of the Department to the fact that, up to the time
of the writing of this despatch, all of the reports which I have
received from my Naval representatives in Smyrna would seem to indicate
that the Greeks during their recent retreat systematically laid waste to
the country and committed many atrocities. On the other hand, I have
received no reports up to the present time of atrocities committed by
the Turkish forces, and all are agreed that the Turkish occupation of
Smyrna—even during the first few days when that city was practically in
a panic, and when disorders of all kinds were to be feared—was carried
out in a most orderly and peaceful manner.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure
1—Translation]
The President of the Turkish Council of
Ministers (Hussein
Raouf) to the American
High Commissioner (Bristol)
The undersigned, President of the Council of Ministers and Minister
ad interim of Foreign Affairs of the
Government of the Great National Assembly of Turkey, has the honor
to bring to Your Excellency’s knowledge the following facts that he
begs you will be so good as to bring to the knowledge of your
Government.
As they did after the retreat to which they were forced by the
battles of In-önü and of Sakaria, the Greeks commit, in all the
localities which they are forced to evacuate, crimes which are only
equalled by those which they committed after the above-mentioned
battles.
[Page 937]
Thus, before leaving Afion-Karahissar and its neighborhood, the enemy
set on fire most of the Mussulman quarters of the town; a great
number of the surrounding villages have been subjected to the same
fate, and their population has been massacred.
In certain localities, notably at Ulujik, near Altun-Tash, all the
inhabitants, with the women and children, were locked up in the
mosque and burned alive.
During the battle of Dumlu-Pinar, the enemy burned completely the
villages of Hamam-Kyoi and Tash-Kyoi, and the inhabitants were
partly massacred, partly burned alive, and partly subjected to
horrible tortures. The locality of Dumlu-Pinar was specially burned
down.
It is clear that the Greek Army has decided to burn the whole
occupied country and to exterminate systematically the civil
population.
In denouncing these atrocities, the undersigned hopes that by loudly
manifesting their reprobation the Government and the press17
will try in the name of humanity to influence the Greek Government
so that they will put a stop to the ferocity of their troops.
[Enclosure 2]
The American High Commissioner (Bristol) to the President of the Turkish Council of
Ministers (Hussein
Raouf)
[Constantinople,] September 8, 1922.
Memorandum
I take this occasion in a spirit of personal friendship and with the
most disinterested of motives to call your attention to the fact
that the eyes of the world and especially of the people of the
United States are turned upon the struggle which is taking place at
the present time in Asia Minor. I am convinced that this is the
greatest opportunity that Turkey has had to show the world that a
new regime has been established and is successfully maintaining the
highest principles of civilization and humanity, and that the
members of the Government at Angora are statesmen in whom not only
the minorities living within the boundaries of Turkey but the entire
world can have confidence.
I venture to call to your attention the fact that the present time is
a crucial one in the history of the Nationalist Movement and of
Turkey; that the public opinion of the world is hanging in a balance
[Page 938]
and will be swayed one
way or the other according to the attitude of the combatants in the
present struggle be they Greek or Turk. At the present moment the
Turkish forces, as is only natural, are elated at the victories
recently achieved over their opponents. I trust you will not take it
amiss, therefore, if I venture to impress upon you as earnestly as
is within my power to do the expediency of the Turkish High Command
taking the most energetic steps to insure the populations of the
occupied territories against reprisals which are often the saddest
and most regrettable part of a war, and which if carried out in the
present instance by the Turkish forces would serve to antagonize the
public opinion of the world, and would give the opponents of Turkey
an opportunity of starting a propaganda which could not fail very
seriously to impair the cordial relations which we all hope to see
established in the future between Turkey and the rest of the world,
and which would seriously diminish the influence and prestige of the
persons in the Angora Government who are responsible for the actions
of the armed forces.
