The Consequences of the Denial of the Threat of Extermination In - TopicsExpress

The Consequences of the Denial of the Threat of Extermination In Case of the Greek and the Armenian Population of Smyrna (September 1922) Tehmine Martoyan PhD in History Developing the criminal plan of extermination of the Christian population in Smyrna in September, 1922 as a guarantee of securing and the complete realization of their actions the Kemalists speculated various psychological factors among which the most elementary one was the taking unawares of the Christian population. That is the Christian population of the city should not have believed in the threat of forthcoming massacre in the broad sense and all the more expressed a wish to take part in the prevention of the crimes being realized at the moment and rapidly developing. This article refers to the position of the Armenian and the Greek Christian population for show of the intentional crime. The Armenians and the Greeks of Smyrna ignored all the warnings concerning their extermination, regarding them as fake news and relied on the convincing persuasions of the representatives of the European countries according to which there was no basis for fear, massacre could not have happened as all the Christians were protected and so on. Excluding the possibility of their extermination the Armenian and the Greek Christian residents of the city in fact ‘released’ the criminal’s hands and made easy the realization of the preliminary planned actions without difficulty. The belief of the Armenians and the Greeks of Smyrna that nothing would happen to them was completely groundless. Thousands innocent Greeks and Armenians became victims of the massacre policy of the Turkish regime. The realization of the aim of the Kemalists to empty the city from the Greek and the Armenian population had been contributed by the intentional and quick developments of the events as well as the incredible savageness displayed towards the victims.