The More Things Change...

 https://x.com/porterstansb/status/1967039956200628289?s=51&t=cLq01Oy84YkmYPZ-URIMYw

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Smyrna

 https://www.greek-genocide.net/index.php/overview/documentation/the-smyrna-holocaust

 

 

 "On this day, 103 years ago, more than 100,000 Christian civilians were murdered by a Muslim army. They were burned alive, raped, tortured, beaten to death, and drowned. And they weren't the first -- they were last. Over the previous decade, more than 2 million Christians in Turkey were killed by Muslim militias in the first ethnic cleansing of the 20th Century. And nobody ever mentions it. Ever. It isn’t taught in our schools. There’s only one holocaust that’s remembered from the 20th Century. Well, let’s fix that. On September 9th 1922, Turkish soldiers under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, entered the last remaining free port city in Asia Minor, Smyrna. For four days there was an orgy of violence. Eyewitness accounts describe scenes of unimaginable horror: Muslim soldiers shot thousands of civilians; hacked to death unarmed men, women, and children; raped women and girls in broad daylight; and looted homes. On September 13th, to cover their crimes, they burned the Greek and Armenian (Christian) neighborhoods to the ground, destroying 2/3rds of the city and killing virtually every remaining Christian. Notable atrocities included the public torture and dismemberment of Chrysostomos Kalafatis, Smyrna’s Greek Orthodox Bishop. Alexander MacLachlan, a British doctor, was beaten to death because he tried to stop the rape of his servant. And thousands and thousands of other murders. Read Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City by Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, a granddaughter of a Christian survivor of this holocaust. The book draws on contemporaneous accounts (reports, diaries, letters, official dispatches, such as those from U.S. Consul George Horton) to reconstruct the events. Who came to the aid of the victims? Not our government. U.S. Admiral Mark L. Bristol, based in Constantinople (Istanbul), explicitly ordered American ships not to intervene. But that didn’t stop Halsey Powell (a decorated World War I hero from Kentucky and the captain of the USS destroyer Simpson) from saving thousands from the burning city between September 13th-22nd 1922. His efforts were organized by the local YMCA leader, Asa Jennings (a Methodist minister from New York). Powell, defying direct orders, used the USS Simpson to ferry groups of refugees (about 200 at a time) to safety, providing food, water, and medical aid. More crucially, he rallied the international fleet in Smyrna’s harbor to the cause. He convinced Italian Admiral Quintino Cataudella to commit ships, then pressured British and French commanders to follow suit. Jennings coordinated the ground operations, organizing refugees into lines, distributing meager supplies from YMCA stores, and ensuring women and children boarded first. The story of their incredible bravery, long overlooked due to U.S. foreign policy sensitivities, was revived in Lou Ureneck's 2015 book, The Great Fire: One American's Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century's First Genocide. Does this mean all Muslims are evil? No, of course not. There were many noble Arabs and Kurds who opposed this Turk-led genocide, most notably Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca. A powerful Arab Muslim leader, he publicly condemned the genocide as early as 1916. In 1917, he issued a decree calling on Arabs to welcome Armenian refugees, share resources (e.g., camels, food, shelter, and blankets), and treat them as family. By April 1918, he ordered the protection of Armenians in Syrian areas as "Protected People of the Muslims" and organized desert expeditions to rescue deportees. Collaborating with Hussein al-Attrache, a Druze chieftain, they disguised up to 4,000 Armenians as Druze fighters and escorted them to safety, saving them from death marches. Hussein's son, Faisal (future king of Syria and Iraq), provided further aid by providing transport on the Hejaz railway for refugees to reach British camps in Damascus. One group that, surprisingly, didn’t render aid, was the Jews. In fact, many Ottoman Jews supported the genocide to gain favor with the regime because many Christian Armenians were their commercial rivals in trade and banking. A notable example was Emmanuel Carasso who served as the chief advisor and banker to Talat Pasha. (Pasha was the Turkish interior minister and the chief architect of the genocide.) It was Pasha who issued the 1915 Tehcir (deportation) Law that began the most intensive period of “ethnic cleansing.” As late at 1914 Turkey was 25% Christian. Today Turkey is virtually 100% Muslim. Turkish leaders continue to deny this holocaust ever occurred. None of the people responsible for Smyrna were ever brought to justice. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) granted full immunity to all of the Turks involved. Meanwhile, less than 30 years later, we welcomed Turkey into Nato. But… the Armenians never forgot what happened. They eventually assassinated many of the Turkish leaders responsible, including Talat Pasha. It's fascinating that, no matter how many times people say, “never again,” or that something will “never be forgotten,” atrocities continue to happen. And the perpetrators and the victims are, in fact, quickly forgotten. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do good in the world. It's the only way to stop evil."

 

 

Some things, apparently, never change. Muslims killing Christians and infidels, is part and parcel of Islam.