Date 16 June 1919 Perpetrator Hellenic Army | Perpetrators Greek army Location Aidin Vilayet Attack type Massacre | |
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Deaths 5000 killed, 200 wounded. | ||
The Menemen Massacre occurred on June 16–17, 1919 in the town of Menemen, shortly after the Greek forces landed in nearby Smyrna, as part of the post World War I Greek occupation of Turkey.
Contents
Killings
The Ottoman prefect of Menemen, Kemal Bey, and the six gendarmes accompanying him were assassinated by Greek soldiers in the evening of the first day. These deaths became the opening act for further killings carried out on the civilian population of Menemen the following day by a Cretan brigade aided by a number of accomplices from the local Greek minority. The event was termed as a "massacre" by an inter-allied commission composed of four generals representing the Allied Powers.
The number of casualties among the civilian Turkish population of the town during the single day of June 17 vary between two hundred, according to the October 1919 report drawn up by the Inter-Allied Commission; to one thousand, according to a delegation that arrived the next day (June 18, 1919). Captain Charns, the head of that delegation, contrasted the number of Turkish victims against the non-existence of any Greek wounded, either civilian or military. The October report, prepared by the British officers and medical delegates from the British and Italian consulates in Smyrna, rejected the 1000 casualties figure as an exaggeration, finding that at least 100 had died, and mentioning a French officer's investigation the day after the massacre reporting that 200 Turks had been killed, and 200 injured.
The events were protested by the Ottoman Sheikhulislam. The Greek military claimed that they were attacked in the town, but the commission did not give credit to their statements.They found the Greeks alone responsible for the bloodshed.
Historian Justin McCarthy, rejecting the findings of the Inter-Allied Commission, claimed the massacre was preplanned, indicated by the fact that before the attacks all Greek houses in the city had been marked with white crosses and were not affected by the pillage and destruction.
Contemporary accounts
British Admiral Calthorpe, commenting to London on the fact that some Turks of Menemen had managed to survive, stated:
In my opinion the Greeks are responsible for the whole affair... Only their complete lack of organization prevented them from obtaining a greater measure of success. It is also possible that the unexpected presence of British witnesses cooled them a little.
Celal Bayar, the third Turkish president, wrote the testimony of the local merchant; Çerkes Sefer Efendi.
We were sitting with a few people in the coffeehouse of the marketplace. About noon we heard gunfire coming from the Greek neighborhood, everyone started running towards their houses and shutting their shops. I immediately threw myself into my house. It was raining bullets over the city. This fire started in a half hour lasted until four in the afternoon. To understand what was happening I left the house. Stepping to the street I saw three dead women in front of me. I proceeded a step or two. On one side lay a ten year old boy. I advanced a little more. A girl, shot in the knee, grew pale with fear, waiting for rescue. Now I did not dare to go further. My neighbor İshak Efendi was killed in front of his house. I returned home. After a while, Todori, my servant on my farm garden near the town, came weeping, told me that his deputy Ahmet was killed and that my cattle taken by the Greeks. I did not leave my house until Wednesday June 18. One that day order was restored. They said that British and French representatives came from Izmir(Smyrna). I regained some courage and left the house. I saw the Turkish corpses taken with carts to the Islamic cemetery in the neighborhood and buried there.