Burning of Smyrna

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Great Fire of Smyrna as on 14 September 1922

Great Fire of Smyrna is the name commonly given to the fire that ravaged İzmir/Smyrna starting 13 September 1922 and lasted for four days till the 17 September. It occurred shortly just before the Turkish army regained control of the city on 9 September 1922, thus effectively ending in the field the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) more than three years after the Greek army had landed on Smyrna on 15 May 1919. The reason that the fire is not fully determined and is a still widely disputed subject. There has been allegations from both sides, blaming, the Turks, Greeks or Armenians and there is also a theory that it was an accident caused by chaos.

Accusations against the Turks are partially based on the 1926 account given by George Horton, the U.S. Consul in the city during the three years of the Greco-Turkish War, as well as the content of the 1971 book by Marjorie Housepian (Hovsepian) Dobkin, "Smyrna 1922. The Destruction of a City". However, some doubt Horton and Housepian's impartiality, as Horton had switched to a diplomatic career from journalism and was always Greece-based as a diplomat (consul in Athens twice, in Salonica in between and finally in Smyrna during the Occupation of İzmir), and was married to a Greek-American (Catherine Sacopoulo)[3]. Furthermore, in his book's introduction, Consul Horton states that "he was [in Smyrna] up until the evening of September 11 1922, on which date the city was set on fire", which would disqualify him as an eyewitness, since the fire had started on 13 September.

Dobkin produces countless eyewitnesses, including French soldiers stationed at the consulate, who claimed to see people in Turkish uniform start the fires. The fact that only the Greek and Armenian quarters of the city were burned, and that the Turkish quarter stood, is claimed to give credence to the theory that the Turks burned the city.

Turkish sources point out to other documents; for example the official report drawn by the Chief of Smyrna Fire Fighting Department, Paul Grescowich, an Austrian national of Serbian origin, as well as an alleged telegram from Turkish commander in chief Mustafa Kemal. Turkish sources also point out to information given by Mark Prentiss, an American industrial engineer present in Smyrna during the time of the events which clearly states the fire was systematically started by the escaping Greek population with the help of the Armenians. Pentiss's account is largely based of the first source, Grescowitch.

Mustafa Kemal's telegram

As the fire spread in Smyrna, Mustafa Kemal, Commander in Chief of Turkish armies sent the following telegram about the events in the city.

FROM COMMANDER IN CHIEF GAZI MUSTAFA KEMAL PASHA TO THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS YUSUF KEMAL BEY

Tel. 17.9.38 (1922) (Arrived 4.10.38)

To be transmitted with care. Important and urgent.

Find hereunder the instruction I sent to Hamid Bey with Admiral Dumesmil, who left for İstanbul today.

Commander-In-Chief Mustafa KEMAL

Copy To Hamid Bey,

1. It is necessary to comment on the fire in İzmir for future reference.

Our army took all the necessary measures to protect İzmir from accidents, before entering the city. However, the Greeks and the Armenians, with their pre-arranged plans have decided to destroy İzmir. Speeches made by Hrisostomos at the churches have been heard by the Moslems, the burning of İzmir was defined as a religious duty. The destruction was accomplished by this organization. To confirm this, there are many documents and eyewitness accounts. Our soldiers worked with everything that they have to put out the fires. Those who attribute this to our soldiers may come to İzmir personally and see the situation. However, for a job like this, an official investigation is out of the question. The newspaper correspondents of various nationalities presently in İzmir are already executing this duty. The Christian population is treated with good care and the refugees are being returned to their places.

Despite the telegram, the fire could not be contained and much of the city was destroyed. Furthermore, the fact that Ataturk explicitly stated that there should be no official investigation leads many Greeks and Armenians to speculate that he wanted to cover up the actions of the Turkish military in Smyrna. A larger picture portrays a Mustafa Kemal Pasha already focused on the Straits (Chanak Crisis), İstanbul and Thrace, in his title of Commander-in-Chief, and even further ahead, on the foundation of the Republic and the reforms he wanted to carry out, rather than the affairs of İzmir.

Orders Issued at the Scene

According to Greek sources, unfortunately for the Greeks and Armenians at the scene, Atatürk was not in Ionia at the time, and other commanders were at the head of the Turkish army in Smyrna. Despite Atatürk's orders, which they may not have received, Turkish commanders such as Mehmet Azit and Nurettin Pasha ordered the extermination of Greeks and Armenians.

To the Commander of the Central Corps. I call your attention to the following: Death to the Hellenes who lack honour. As soon as you are given the first sign, immediately destroy all. As for whatever regarding the women, don't hesitate. Don't consider neither honour nor friendship when comes the moment of revenge. The commander of the corps Mehmet Azit.

Regardless, Atatürk was not on the scene at the time of the fire, as the Turkish forces were being led by Nureddin Pasha who gave conflicting orders that all of his troops should kill "four or five Greeks or Armenians."

Turkish records did not note down the existence of a commander of the corps named Mehmet Azit during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), or neither before or after.

Sources claiming Turkish responsibility

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Bodies of Greek men, women and children, lie in the beach of Smyrna.

Some sources have estimated that thousands of Armenian and Greek civilians died when the Turkish army reoccupied Smyrna in addition to the thousands of Turkish civilians killed during the fire. Lord Kinross's biography of Atatürk (1964) refers to the deaths as individual and sporadic and places the total at 2,000. According to Kinross, the fire began when Turks, in trying to round up Armenians to confiscate their arms, besieged a group who had taken refuge in a house. They then decided to burn them out by setting the building alight. According to this account, other Armenians in Smyrna, meanwhile, started another fire elsewhere to divert Turkish attention, and it is argued a strong wind could then have carried both fires from the outskirts of İzmir inward. Many of the buildings, being of flimsy construction, were reduced to ashes. Armenian originated writer Marjorie Housepian Dobkin's more recent study (selected by the Sunday Times Book of the Year in 1972) cites the estimate of Kinross that up to 100,000 people may have perished.

Many accounts proposed by some Western scholars that the Turks burned the Armenian and Greek quarters and Nurettin Pasha, the Turkish commander of troops in Ionia, is accused of starting the fire deliberately in an act of retribution. There exist conflicting eyewitness accounts and evidence over who started the fire. In a stinging criticism of the foreign policy of the Western Powers, the US Consul in Smyrna, George Horton, published his eyewitness account in 1926. He reported that he saw uniformed Turkish soldiers pouring petroleum near the US consulate. This thesis is supported by the fact that the Turkish quarter of the city was not damaged by the fire.

R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol, Commander of the U.S. Naval Detachment in Ottoman waters and then the U.S. High Commissioner to Turkey between 1919-1927 is also accused in the same context. In the memoirs of Sano Halo on the other hand written by her daughter Thea Halo it is claimed that: "R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol also pressed the U.S. not to allow the Allies to investigate reported atrocities. At the height of the slaughters and frenzy in Smyrna, and in the face of overwhelming eye-witness accounts by American missionaries and other reliable sources that Kemal's regular soldiers had systematically set fire to Smyrna, R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol took up the Turkish line of propaganda to blame the Greeks and Armenians." that R.Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol tried to shift the tone of the news reports concerning accusations of atrocities in favor of the Turks. Another source which was the subject of a New York Times article on 9 October 1922, Dr. Esther Lovejoy, Chairman of the Executive Board of the American Women's Hospitals and President of the Medical Women's International Association, refused to discuss the causes behind the Smyrna trouble, confining herself to depicting the horrors she had actually witnessed.

Mark Prentiss and Grescovich's official report

Mark Prentiss, an American foreign trade specialist in Smyrna and an eyewitness to many of the events which occurred in Smyrna, was initially quoted in the New York Times as putting the blame on the Turkish military. Prentiss set foot in Smyrna 8 September 1922, one day prior to Turkish Army setting foot in Smyrna after 3 years of Greek rule, as a special representative of the Near East Relief (an American charity organization whose sole purpose is to watch over and protect Armenians during the event of the war) along with USS Destroyer Lawrence carrying the commitee, under command of Capt. Wolleson. His superior was Rear Adm. Mark Lambert Bristol, U.S. High Commissioner to Ottoman Empire between 1919-1927, present in Constantinople. His initial published statements were as follows:

Many of us personally saw-- and are ready to affirm the statement-- Turkish soldiers often directed by officers throwing petroleum in the street and houses. Vice-Consul Barnes watched a Turkish officer leisurely fire the Cutsom House and the Passport Bureau while at least fifty Turkish soldiers stood by. Major Davis saw Turkish soldiers throwing oil in many houses. The Navy patrol reported seeing a complete horsesshoe of fires started by the Turks around the American school..

Prentiss' statements were later changed, allegedly under pressure from his superior, Admiral Bristol, who was eager to support the Turks in exchange for Ataturk's government granting commercial interests to the United States.

In his report sent in the form of a manuscript to Rear Adm. Bristol, he states that Grescovich, who had been fire chief for 12 years at that time, found evidence, largely based on Prentiss' revised statements, to suggest that Greeks and Armenians were the source of the fire. He states in his report:

"(…)The motive, usually considered of supreme importance in crimes of this sort, does not clearly point to the Turks. They had captured Smyrna. The city, as it stood, was one of the greatest prizes ever taken in Oriental warfare. The Turks had unquestioned title to its foods, its commodities of all sorts, its houses. It was a store house of supplies most urgently needed for its peoples and armies. Why destroy it?

It was a matter of common knowledge, on the other hand, that the Armenians and Greeks were determined not to let this booty fall into the hands of their hated enemies. There was a generally accepted report in Smyrna, for several days before the fire, that an organized group of Armenian young men had sworn to burn the city if it fell to the Turks. Evidence gathered by Paul Grescovich, Chief of the Smyrna Fire Department, and carefully checked by myself, together with information which came to me from other sources, points to the Armenians as authors of the fire.(…)

(…)

While I was there a squad of from fifteen to twenty Turkish soldiers, under the command of the captain, came to take over the hospital for Turkish military purposes. The refugees were searched, as they came from the grounds, and arms of various sorts sufficient to fill a truck were taken from them.(…)

On the following morning, Wednesday, the thirteenth of September, the situation was critical in the extreme. Paul Griscovich, Chief of the Smyrna Fire Department, told me that he had discovered bundles of discarded clothing, rags and bedding, covered with petroleum, in several of the institutions recently deserted by Armenian refugees. Grescovich impressed me as a thoroughly reliable witness(…) Twelve years ago he became chief of the Smyrna fire department, which he continued to conduct in a very efficient manner, for that part of the world, during the Greek occupation. He told me that during the first week of September there had been an average of five fires per day with which his crippled department had to cope. In his opinion most of these fires were caused by carelessness, but some undoubtedly were of incendiary origin. The average number of fires in a normal year, he said, would be one in ten days, and the increase to five a day seemed significant.

(…)Sunday night, Monday and Monday night, and Tuesday, so many fires were reported at such widely separated points that the fire department was absolutely unable to deal with them. They were extinguished by Turkish soldiers.

(…)It was on Wednesday morning that Griscovich himself found evidences of incendiaries. He told me that early that morning had seen two Armenian priests escorting several thousand men, women, children from the Armenian schools and Dominican churches where they had taken refuge down to the quays. When he presently went into these institutions he found petroleum-soaked refuse ready for the torch.

The chief told me, and there is no doubt that he was sure of it, that his own firemen, as well as Turkish guards, had shot down many Armenian young men disguised either as women or as Turkish irregular soldiers, who were caught setting fires Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

At 11:20 Wednesday morning, at least half a dozen fires were reported almost simultaneously around the freight terminal warehouses and the passenger station of the Aidine Railroad.

It is noteworthy that these fires broke out in buildings which it was greatly to the advantage of Turks to preserve, and to the advantage of enemies to destroy.

(…)

During several weeks after the fire I had an opportunity to talk with many Turkish commanders, and they were all of one mind in leveling either bitter or philosophical accusations at their enemies for destroying the city(…) "Why should we burn the city?" they would ask. "Smyrna, with all its wealth and treasure, was ours. The fleeing Greek army had abandoned huge quantities of military stores and food supplies that were desperately needed by our armies and civilians. These have been destroyed, together with the warehouses and stations where many fires broke out. Besides, the fleeing Greeks and Armenians, many of them wealthy as you know, had abandoned everything in their homes and their stores. We were in absolute and undisputed possession. Do you think that we are such fools as to have destroyed everything?"

My attention has been called to many statements published broadcast in this country (United States) that the Turks were seen pouring petroleum around the American Consulate. I was in the vicinity of the Consulate most of the time and saw no petroleum.

(…)I have been able to find no evidence that either Turkish soldiers or Turkish civilians deliberately fired the city or wished its destruction.

The evidence all points in another direction..."

Greek scorched earth policy

Template:Totallydisputed section The Greeks have been accused of following a scorched earth policy while fleeing from Anatolia during the ending phase of Turkish War of Independence after each battle they lost. Some sources believe the fire in İzmir to be the continuation of the scorched earth policy of the Greeks.

James Loder Park, the U.S. Vice-Consul in Constantinople at the time, who toured much of the devastated area immediately after the Greek evacuation, described the situation in the surrounding cities and towns of İzmir he has seen, as follows:

Manisa...almost completely wiped out by fire...10,300 houses, 15 mosques, 2 baths, 2,278 shops, 19 hotels, 26 villas…[destroyed]. Cassaba (present day Turgutlu) was a town of 40,000 souls, 3,000 of whom were non-Moslems. Of these 37,000 Turks only 6,000 could be accounted for among the living, while 1,000 Turks were known to have been shot or burned to death. Of the 2,000 buildings that constituted the city, only 200 remained standing. Ample testimony was available to the effect that the city was systematically destroyed by Greek soldiers, assisted by a number of Greek and Armenian civilians. Kerosene and gasoline were freely used to make the destruction more certain, rapid and complete. The destruction of the interior cities visited by our party was carried out by Greeks. The percentages of buildings destroyed in each of the last four cities…were: Manisa 90 percent, Cassaba (Turgutlu) 90 percent, Alaşehir 70 percent, Salihli 65 percent. The burning of these cities was not desultory, nor intermittent, nor accidental, but well planned and thoroughly organized. There were many instances of physical violence, most of which was deliberate and wanton. Without complete figures, which were impossible to obtain, it may safely be surmised that 'atrocities' committed by retiring Greeks numbered well into thousands in the four cities under consideration. These consisted of all three of the usual type of such atrocities, namely murder, torture and rape.

Many of the buildings from which the fire originated were supply depots and warehouses, which can said to be advantageous for the Turks to preserve.

British refugees from Smyrna

Mr. H. Lamb, the British Consul General at İzmir reported that he "had reason to believe that Greeks in concert with Armenians had burned Smyrna" . This was confirmed by the correspondent of the Petit Parisien at İzmir in a dispatch on 20 September 1922.

There were not only Greeks and Armenians but also British taking refuge from İzmir as the invasion ended. While some fleeing to İstanbul, where they think it can still be held in British hands, some fled directly to Britain. There had been no record of missing British nationals during the fire. There were also eyewitnesses to the fire among the British refugees. According to The Times dated 6 October 1922:

Thirty-six refugees from Smyrna arrived at Plymouth to-day, having been sent home from Malta.

(...)

Mr. L. R. Whittall, barrister-at-law, who has been in Smyrna for some years said there was no evidence as to who set fire to the town, but the consensus of opinion was that it was Greek and Armenian incendiaries..

Other sources

Template:Totallydisputed section While some sources believed the fire to be the continuation of the scorched earth policy of the Greeks, some believed Armenians had received instructions to burn İzmir as a sacred duty and to bring about an international intervention.

Alexander MacLachlan, the missionary president of International College of İzmir who has also been an eyewitness to the fire states that Turkish soldiers seen to have setting the fire were actually disguised Armenians. An article posted on The Times of September 25 1922 about MacLachlan is quoted as follows:

The Turks did not massacre Greeks, as Greeks had done to Turks in May 1919. About the worst the Turkish Army did was force captured Greek soldiers to shout "Long live Mustafa Kemal" (in return to their forcing Turks to shout "Zito Venizelos" when they entered Smyrna) as they marched into detention. Turkish soldiers protected International College during the disruption of the occupation; a Turkish cavalryman rescued MacLachlan from irregulars who nearly beat the missionary to death while trying to loot the agricultural buildings of the college. A three-day Smyrna fire (September 13-15), which Turks made every effort to control, destroyed nearly a square mile in Greek and Armenian areas and made two hundred thousand people homeless. Included in this loss was the American Board's Collegiate Institute for Girls. MacLachlan's investigation of the fire's origin led to the conviction that Armenian terrorists, dressed in Turkish uniforms, fired the city. Apparently the terrorists were attempting to bring Western intervention. Informing Washington of a three million Dollars claim by the American Board against the Ankara government, Barton requested through an aide that the U.S. participate in any conference planned by the Allies to rewrite the Treaty of Sevres. As the West talked of negotiating with the Kemalists, part of the American public began to realize that Armenianism and godliness were not identical. Ever since missionaries in the nineteenth century had become the dominant U.S. concern in the Ottoman Empire, opinion in America increasingly favored Christian minorities.

The Aftermath

It took years before Smyrna, one of the biggest ports of Anatolia, recovered and flourished once again with its former glory. The entire city suffered substantial damages in its infrastructure, whereas it is noteworthy that the Greek and Armenian quarters were literally eliminated from the face of the earth (where the Greek quarter once stood, now exists a big city park), though the Turkish and Latin quarters suffered minor damages - nowadays the only houses older than the Great Smyrna Fire still at place are almost exclusively those of the European quarters of the city. As a result, the city had to be rebuilt from the ashes. Today, 40 hectares of the former fire area is a vast park (Kültürpark) serving as Turkey's greatest open air exhibition center (İzmir International Fair, among others) that is preserved in memory of the great fire which devastated the city.

See also

• Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
• Chrysostomos of Smyrna
• Greco-Turkish relations
• Turkish War of Independence
• Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

External links

• İzmir fire
• Report by Mark O. Prentiss