Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a CityOn one level Smyrna 1922 is a modern Greek tragedy replete with the elements of irony and horror. The Greeks, one of the victorious Allied powers during World War 1, were betrayed by their allies and their army driven into the sea at Smyrna by the forces of Mustapha Kemal, an insurgent leader to whom his former enemies had given considerable covert help. There followed an enactment of the week of orgy after the fall of Constantinople in 1453; pillage, rape and massacre culminating, in this instance, in the spectacular destruction by fire of Smyrna (now Izmir), considered an infidel city by the Turks because of its predominantly Greek character and population. Dobkin's study is a definitive work concerning a debacle deliberately soft pedalled and almost expunged from the memory of modern day man in the words of Henry Miller in The Colossus of Maroussi. |
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18 September aboard Admiral Bristol Afyon Allen Dulles Allies American Anatolia Angora Armenian quarter Armenians and Greeks arms army Asia Minor Athens battleship Birge Blight Bristol letter Bristol Papers Britain British burning Captain Chester Christian Churchill command Constantinople Consul Department destroyer diplomatic East Relief Eastern Thrace evacuation fire flag forces foreign French FRUS George Horton Greece guards hand harbour Hartunian Hepburn hundred ibid interior interview Italian Izmir Jennings Kemal killed Kinross Knauss Konak later leaders Litchfield Lloyd George London Lovejoy massacre Merrill missionary Mitilini Moslems Mosul National Nationalist naval Navy Ottoman Empire Pasha peace political population Powell protect quay quoted refugees Russia sailors Secretary September 1922 ships Smyrna Standard Oil streets Sultan Talaat thousand Thrace tion told took Toynbee treaty troops Turkey Turkey's Turkish Turkish officer Turkish soldiers Venizelos women wrote YMCA York Young Turks