Friday, 17 December 2010

Paradise Lost - The Torching of Smyrna

If Alice had started reading this history book, she would never have fallen down that hole. This is history at its best: vivid, gripping, and full of lessons. And with a carefully thought out dramatic plot. We are first taken into the charming cosmopolitan world of early 20th C, but as Veninzelos of Greece and the ever romantic Lloyd George play for a 'Greater' Greece in the break up of the Ottoman Empire, we know, as in any Shakespearean tragedy, that there is going to be a terrible reaping. The Greeks are routed by Attaturk's men and initially enter Smyrna in perfect discipline. We know the Lord of the Flies will break out.
The story of the ensuing violence and the ghastly plight of the refugees imprisoned on a quayside sandwiched between a torched city and the water is truly awful. The success of the narrative lies in the eye witness accounts so we see the events at street level, but at the same time Milton keeps us aware of the wider international context which has ultimately allowed the tragedy to happen. Though it was the Greeks who were the initial aggressors, I was saddened to read that the Turks first raped and looted the Armenian quarter, as if the 1915 atrocities had not been enough. In the midst of the horror there is an almost Exodus like miracle. An eye witness records the wailing of the refugees, then understands they were praying. The prayer was answered in a very unexpected way. An unassuming and unknown Asa Jennings, a devout Methodist, working with the YMCA, called himself the 'American Relief Committee' and managed to get a meeting with Mostafa Attaturk who gave him seven days to evacuate all those stranded on the quay, except men of military age. Jennings then used bluff to persuade the Greeks to send ships to rescue the refugees. They came and thousands who should have died on the quayside, or been sent into the 'interior', i.e. for execution, were saved. So, rather like at the end of Schindler's List, one has a strange feeling of elation, despite all the horror. One also has serious questions about Turkey's admiration for Kemal who allowed the torching of Smyrna to happen while he planned his new country sitting in one of the grand houses in the suburbs. At some point his admirers are going to have to acknowledge that atrocities were committed and apologies are needed.

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