in which he describes in some detail the situation of the
Moslems living in Crete under the Greek government
in 1923.//
PART XXI-A click here for the first part of this POW's
report.
PART XIX in this report, the POW gives a very good
account of the tumultuous political situation in Crete
in the aftermath of the Greek Army's defeat at the
Battle of Sakarya (Aug.-Sept. 1921).
Crete in 1861 - Turks and Greek Moslems are in the red areas.
Andalusian Moslems in Crete click here for information about
the arrival of the first Moslems in Crete from Andalusia (Spain)
via Alexandria in 824-827 A.D.
Security situation in Crete:
Moslems are never sure about their safety
because since the Greeks are
the enemies of the Moslems on the island
they have put certain things into
law. They take every opportunity to do
as they please towards Moslems. The
Cretan Moslems work secretly
with regard to matters affecting the nation
(Turkey). They take pride in
being Turks
but don’t talk about it openly because they’re afraid of
spies.
Cretan Moslems must appear to be happy living
with Greeks and never
show any gloom over their calamatous situation – to do so
would just
about constitute a crime.
Last year in August, when they were following
events in Asia Minor (Turkish Army's advance toward Izmir) the
poor
Moslems were subjected to the greatest degradations. Prior to our
arrival in Crete, Greek migrants from Turkey began to arrive in
Crete
and seizures and violence directed at the Moslem villages began in
general, resulting in hundreds of deaths and unimaginable atrocities
not seen
even in the Middle Ages.
After these persecutions,
the desperate villagers were forced to seek
refuge in the Moslem-majority towns
with just the shirts on their backs.
In
the course of this calamity, the Moslems’ money, goods, animals and
livestock
were seized from them, their homes and properties destroyed.
There were more than 10,000 of them who were
forced to flee to the
central towns. These poor people were not even given the chance to
take a last yearning
look on the villages and the soil where they were
born and raised. Those who could find the courage to return
to their
wrecked villages were warned in advance that they would be
slaughtered if they came back. Kandia has the
highest density of
Moslems. Nevertheless, let alone the
outskirts, it is even dangerous for
Moslems within the city. In short, life security is nonexistent.
Chania (Hanya), Crete, 1897.
Subsistence: For the
Cretan Moslems, the most critical problem is
indeed subsistence, for which
their means have been very much
constricted, to the extent that they don’t have
the strength anymore to
hold up under the pressure of an ever-tightening
belt. Moslem
merchants have been
deprived of the facilities of the financial
institutions. This class, which manages the whole of the Moslem
capital and commerce but which is
restrained from profitable and large
operations, is eating up its resources,
made worse by the dramatıc fall
in the value of the drahma.
The
Christian merchants, on the other hand, have long kept imports and
exports, and
the facilities of the official offices and financial institutions
to
themselves. The Moslems, who in times
past dominated the
Christians, are now mere spectators on the stage of
commerce. When
this picture of the
present situation in commerce is considered, the
consequences are apparent. In addition,
the working class, which is
consigned to getting by on sweat and toil,
and the farming class, which
has been removed from its homesteads, deprived of
farms and forced to
migrate to the city, are both on the verge of
annihilation.
Military
Service: It can be easily understood
that for those who, as
described above, are oppressed under horrific
conditions, military service
constitutes an excessive burden. The government, although knowing
that the
Moslems are not obliged to serve, wants to put them in a difficult
position in
order to make money, such that those who were born in 1879,
80, 81 and who
avoided the call-up for the Great War, are now forced to
choose between serving
or paying one thousand drachmas now – this
will be increasd to 5,000 soon – to
get out of serving in the military.
Cretan Greek soldiers and children, 1920.
The
Moslems who do not pay this money at various location in a timely
manner will
be charged twice the amount, along with a 300 drachma
cash fine. So just think of the predicament of these
Moslems who were
forced to migrate to the cities to live in filth and oppression
– they have
to sell the gold bangles in their brides’ hair just to meet the
cost of
military service. Only the
Greeks, who have no soul or conscience,
could not grieve for these poor
unfortunates. The Greek government,
which imposes this level of pressure on Moslems for military service,
is
clearly not conforming to the dictates of its own constitution.
Tax Burden: The
brainless Greeks, who put themselves into a financial
mess with their
wrongheaded political policies, have forced this mess
upon the Moslems, as
well. They imagined their “Great Idea”,
for which
they created debts in the billions, are are now making the Moslems
help
pay the cost. The Moslems’ farms
and factories have been shut but since
they are under a prohibition to sell
their holdings they are scrounging
around for money to pay taxes, which
constitute a particularly heinous
burden on them. It is even a crime for a Moslem to offer an
excuse in
relation to tax payments.
Educational Resources:
One of the biggest causes of sorrow for
Cretian Moslems is the
deprivation of educational resources for their
children. Last year, as of September, all Moslem
schools were
confiscated by the government to serve as homes for Greek Asia
Minor refugees. The curriculum became
Greek, Moslem teachers
were dismissed and the status of Turkish was permanently
changed to
a foreign language. In these
circumstances, with their schools closed
Moslem children are not just deprived,
they are in danger, as well.
Moslem Places of Worship:
In the days of the 1916 mobilization, in
order to make it a masterpiece
of Greek civilization the Greek Army
detachments that came to the island’s
central towns looted and
destroyed holy Islamic places, based on the thinking
that these places
were former Greek churches that the Moslems had turned into
mosques
during the Moslem conquest of Crete.
Only by the great efforts of
Moslem leaders, in the face of major
difficulties and with Islamic zeal,
were five or six mosques left to them,
along with five or ten lodges. In
the
aftermath of the August defeat (Battle of Sakarya), Moslem
mosques and lodges –
and some private homes of Moslems – were
seized by the government and given
over to the Anatolian Greek
refugees.
There are just two major mosques left to Moslems and we
were put into
one of them, together with Moslem families who sought
refuge in the city. We prisoners were housed in the Vezir Mosque,
which a descendant of the Köprülü family had built.
In other words, a gathering place for Moslems
to perform the five daily
prayers no longer remained. One among us wanted to recite the call to
prayer but this was forbidden. So
secretly we recited the call to prayer
inside the mosque and prayed with the
congregation. Today in the city
of
Kandia recitation of the Islamic call to prayer from minarets remains
impossible.
Summary: The Cretian Moslems fear for their lives. Their distress
over bare subsistence has made
their lives a living Hell. They cannot
sell their goods nor avail themselves of their production, they bear a
weighty
burden of new taxes, they are subjected to illegal military
service and related
payments and all of their finances have been
destroyed to the point where these Moslem victims cannot revive.
Their places of worship and education have
been razed, much like
their hearts, so bad manners, hooliganism and the feeling
of remoteness
from their nation have increased, creating serious fears. It is
understood that other Moslems elsewhere
are in the same situation.
Many Moslems
were brought to Lucia from Thrace and, in fact, many
of the Moslem notables in
Macedonia were taken just with the hope
that their money could be stolen from
them. There were 8 or 10 of them
at
Lucia. It is impossible to count or
describe the atrocities committed
by the Greeks on both prisoners and their own
citizen Moslems.
My statement amounts to
merely one percent of these. May God
bless our victorious army for saving us
and all victims of oppression.
Amen.
Conclusion and a Request:
Thanks to God we prisoners have been
saved. But the poor Moslems who still remain there
need our help and
assistance. They are
looking to our liberating national leaders for
implementation and initiatives
on their behalf. I ask with all my heart
that this request be published.
13 June 1923
Wednesday
Eskişehir Darülhilâfeülâliye Medrese Director Ali Osman
120,000 Anatolian Greeks were returned to Greece and 500,000
Turks returned to Turkey from Greece after the war.
//END of PART XXI-B//
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