Chapter XXXVII: Asia Minor, the Graveyard of Greek Cities

The possibilities of Asia Minor for Aryan civilization are better understood when one casts an eye back on that country to the period when it was covered with teeming millions and dotted with cities that were mothers of art, literature, philosophy, industry and all that is most useful and beautiful in human development. All this has been repeatedly swept over by Asiatic and Mongol invasion and is now covered with the Turkish blight.

In a paper read in December, 1922, by W. H. Buckler, of Baltimore, the well-known diplomat and archeologist, he calls attention to the great wealth of opportunity for archeological research in New Turkey, and he urges American scholars to concentrate their attention upon Anatolia and its new capital, Angora, and he expects that “the development of towns, roads, etc., will be much more rapid than formerly, and this change will be most marked at Angora, which, from a village must shortly transform herself into a metropolis.”

It is possible that a few new buildings may be put up at Angora in the near future, but the process of reasoning which connects the carrying out of massacres on a hitherto unprecedented scale with a freshly acquired ability for administration, agriculture, commerce and finance is incomprehensible.

On this point, precisely, Sir Valentine Chirol, already quoted, very opportunely says:

“The Turk’s only real business was, and always has been, war.
But it is difficult to see how far Turkey has profited by
exchanging a narrow religious fanaticism for an equally narrow
racial fanaticism. All we need consider is what Turkey is
to-day. Her population is estimated at between six million and
eight million decimated by the war and believed to be shrinking
as it was already doing before the war, from congenital
disease. It will, it is true, be for the first time, an almost
purely Turkish population, for of the Greeks and Armenians
who in 1914 still numbered some three million in Asia Minor,
only the scantiest remnants are left. Yet they were the most
intelligent and economically valuable communities of the old
Ottoman Empire. She (Turkey) can hardly aspire to a much higher
position than that of a third rate power barely equal in
general resources to any of the Balkan states over which she
used to rule, and she has herself abdicated the prestige and
influence which the possession of the Khalifate had conferred
upon her.”[17]

But the very learned and accomplished writer, Doctor Buckler, brings out some facts of stupendous importance and significance. To quote his words:

“The range of Anatolian historical monuments and documents
covers about five thousand years. The periods represented by
remains extend from the third millennium B. C., with its South
Cappadocian Cuneiform tablets to the fifteenth century A.
D., with its Seljuk architecture and inscriptions. Among the
subjects of history on which Anatolian remains throw light are:
Law, politics, economics, education, art, (including sculpture)
philosophy, literature.”

He goes on to say that the term “Anatolia,” as here used, covers all of Asia Minor lying west of a line running north from Alexandretta to the Black Sea, and a list of ancient cities and towns having mints of their own in the fourteen classical districts included within that area, works out as follows:

Lycia, Pamphylia and Pisidia 95 towns
Lycaonia, Isauria and Cilicia 82 ”
Phrygia and Galatia 61 ”
Bithynia, Paphlagonia and Pontus 34 ”
Ionia, Lydia and Caria 84 ”
---------
Total 356 ”

Among the sites already excavated, or earmarked for excavation, he mentions Pergamon, Miletus, Sardis, Colophon, Priene, Cnidus; and among those partly spoiled for excavation by their mere existence as modern towns, are Smyrna, Halicarnassus, Adalia, Philadelphia, Thyatira and Ankyra. The last named is now the Turkish capital, Angora. The most, if not all, of the cities mentioned by Doctor Buckler were centers of Greek or Christian culture, or both.

It is natural that the archeologists, in their anxiety to obtain permission to work in Asia Minor with safety should be very careful to say nothing that might offend the sensibilities of the Turk. They must use all their diplomacy in dealing with him in order that as much as possible may be unearthed of the treasures of Greek art and wisdom that lie buried beneath the land now in the hands of the Khemalists, still wet with the blood of the last survivors of an ancient civilization.

We have then, the following classes who find themselves in the same situation with regard to the Turk, that is to say, who are prevented from saying anything that might offend him: Certain missionaries; the business men with interests still in Turkey; the concession hunters; the diplomats; the archeologists. I believe that many of these are sincere in their admiration of the Turk, founded on the supposition that his crimes have been greatly exaggerated and were more or less justified.

This conviction I do not share and I am convinced that it would have been better for the whole Western world and the Turks as well, if the non-Moslem minorities had been protected, and Christian civilization given a chance to develop in the Ottoman Empire.

Houses near Athens erected for Asia Minor refugees by the Greek Government.]

As to the great commercial and industrial activity which Professor Buckler foresaw in 1922, the two following extracts from the press of 1925 are apropos. A writer in a February number of the _Gazetta del Popolo_, of Turin, Italy, recently returned from Smyrna, says:

“The appearance of Smyrna is tragic. Even two years and a half
after the tragedy the ruins are untouched. For two kilometers
along the quay stretch the skeletons—the ghosts of houses.
And behind are more miles of streets, lined by other phantom
houses, like an endless morgue.

“This phantom city is a terrible symbol of all Turkey. That
which above all attracts attention is the disappearance of the
Greeks, swept out, extirpated from that city, which was their
metropolis in the Levant, and where they dominated all forms of
activity. The Armenians have also completely disappeared. The
Jews endure with difficulty the handicaps which they undergo in
their sphere of life.

“The Europeans try to make the best of a bad situation, but
those who are not supplied with ample capital, sufficient
to allow them to face a thousand daily vexations, which the
authorities inflict, are faced with the necessity of themselves
retiring.

“All forms of activity in Turkey during the past ages
were created by non-Turks. There was nothing of theirs
except the army. Ruthlessly the Turks condemn to death all
enterprise—commercial and industrial—in which they can not
themselves succeed.

“At present Turkey has only three custom houses—Constantinople,
Smyrna and Messina. Since the first of January of this year,
when the law concerning the customs went into effect, all
other ports have been obliged to suspend entirely their
traffic. It is not possible for commercial activity to
exist in them any more; traffic with Europe has practically
ceased entirely. All goods shipped to and from Turkey must
be unloaded at one of these towns; go through the vexatious
customs formalities, and be reloaded and reshipped to their
destinations.[18]

“The rug industry no longer exists. The Armenians and Greeks,
who were its personnel, have fled and settled in Rhoades,
Piræus, and some at Bari. There no longer remains any one in
Smyrna who knows how to make carpets.

“Ten years ago, by the Armenian massacres and deportations,
Asia Minor was laid desolate. To-day, the industrious
and productive portion of its population has completely
disappeared. It will soon become, if not a desert, a
wilderness. Everywhere along the coast are cities which were
abandoned to the Turks two years ago and are now completely
depopulated. The tillers of the soil have become shepherds and
nomads—the land no longer belongs to any one. “Within a few
years, if God does not work a miracle, and endow the Turks with
gifts which they have always lacked, Asia Minor will become a
desert in the heart of Mediterranean civilization.”

And a writer in a recent number of _Le Temps_ of Paris says:

“Constantinople is a dying city. The Bosphorus, once thronged
with the world’s shipping, is now all but deserted; the
offices of foreign business houses are winding up their
affairs; the banks will loan money only at the most exorbitant
rates. The troubles with the Greeks and Armenians have resulted
in the expulsion en masse of those peoples. Even the Turkish
population proper is emigrating in the hope of finding brighter
commercial prospects.

“As the prosperity of the great city declines, its ancient
rivals, Alexandria, Beirut, Saloniki and Piræus are receiving
the benefits of its former trade.”

How can it be otherwise?

Efficiency to massacre does not mean ability in industry and commerce, and the fanatical destruction of great industrial masses has always proved a serious blow to the prosperity of the country where the crime has occurred, as witness the persecution of the Huguenots in France. In Turkey it has meant ruin.