Week in Review - Turkish Crimes Require Atonement

This week's video review remembers the 353,000 Pontian Greeks massacred as part of Turkey's genocide upon Greeks and Armenians early last century. May 19 is a solemn day for all Greeks and Greek/Americans, and the time should always remain a shameful one for all of mankind.

It marked a period when Greece's WWI allies sat in their harbored ships and watched while Turkish soldiers ethnically cleansed the cosmopolitan and thriving Greek city of Smyrna (now Izmir) and burned it to the ground. Only a Japanese vessel came to the aid of the Greeks who as they boarded Greek ships had their arms severed so they could not climb, had their ears sliced for the jewelry there adorned and had their families destroyed. In those times, bodies coated the sea, blood painted the streets and fire darkened our world.

We as Americans cannot on one day say to Iran, we do not appease nor bargain with terrorists and oppressors, and on the next day appease Turkey because they are a NATO ally. Turkey to this day avoids recognition of the genocide, even brazenly denies them, most likely because of the compensation it would be condemned by law to pay the people whose lives were ruined. The Armenian and Greek genocides remain a forgotten holocaust, even in America, as our country recently put aside recognition of the horror in order to preserve alliance.

What alliance?! Your Wall Street Greek asks, what alliance? When America asked Turkey for flyover rights to bomb Iraq, Turkey denied us. When the U.S. asked Turkey for the use of land passage in that same assault, Turkey denied us. Turkey remains one of the most anti-American nations in this world if you take survey of the people in the streets. We demand that Turkey recognize its sins, before it attain atonement.

The horror of the period has been described by witnesses from Europe and the United States as a scourge on the history of mankind. Hitler himself, when embarking upon his own evil ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people, referred his generals to the Turkish crimes, and how history had forgotten them. Holocaust is a Greek word, meaning total consumption by fire. We are sorry to say that Turkey has more than one to atone for. Yet another holocaust the Turks should repent for is that perpetrated by the Ottomans against Greeks on the islands of Chios, Mytilini (Lesvos) and Psara in 1822.

I say, only when Turkey acknowledges human regret for its actions, and shows sign that it is ready to enter civilization, only then should it be allowed entry. I'm very sorry if I have hurt the feelings of my own Turkish friends and readers, but I ask, are you sorry for destroying my ancestors? Have you apologized for it, or do you consider it a military victory? People who lived on land for centuries were systematically displaced from it.

This was a period when the devil took control of an entire nation, and had his way with it. The crimes were so barbaric they are indescribable, and you are warned that the photographs and images within the videos do not attempt to make them more digestible (so view at your own risk). They are what they are, horrible crimes against humanity that must be acknowledged and atoned for.

Just as Germany is embarrassed by the Nazis, so should Turkey be embarrassed by its barbaric actions of the not so distant past. Men still live who witnessed those atrocities. This is a crime of our times, not ancient ages. And this is certainly not something for Turks to be proud of. It's definitely not one Greeks, Armenians nor Georgians will ever forget. The souls of our ancestors demand that.


As always, the opinions expressed in the videos may not agree with the view of "The Greek." Please see our disclosure at the Wall Street Greek website. Interests AMEX: DIA, AMEX: SPY, AMEX: QLD, NYSE: NBG, NYSE: OTE, Nasdaq: QQQQ, AMEX: SDS, AMEX: DOG.