17 Temmuz 2019 Çarşamba

TNT POW Reports: Turks in Greek Hands (1920-1923)/Part XXI-B

//Ed. Note:  This is the second part of this POW's report,
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).

muslims in crete 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
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. 

girit müslümanları 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
                    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.  

candia crete 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu
             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.

muslims in crete 1920 ile ilgili görsel sonucu

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

mubadele-02
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//

Hiç yorum yok:

Yorum Gönder