Part 1

HELLENISM IN ASIA MINOR

BY DR. KARL DIETERICH

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY CARROLL N. BROWN, Ph.D. The College of the City of New York

With an introductory preface by Theodore P. Ion, D.C.L., and a brief article on Hellenic Pontus by D. H. Oeconomides, Ph.D.

This publication is due to the generosity of EURIPIDES KEHAYA of New York

PUBLISHED FOR THE AMERICAN-HELLENIC SOCIETY 105 WEST 40TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.

BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH 35 WEST 32ND STREET, NEW YORK 1918

COPYRIGHT 1918 BY THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH

THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS RAHWAY, N. J.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I A SURVEY OF HELLENISM IN ASIA MINOR 1

II HELLENISM IN ASIA MINOR—By Karl Dieterich, of the University of Leipzig, translated by Carroll N. Brown, Ph.D., of the College of the City of New York. With a preface by Theodore P. Ion, D.C.L. 8

III HELLENIC PONTUS—A Résumé of its History, by D. H. Oeconomides, Ph.D. 56

AMERICAN-HELLENIC NEWS 63

A SURVEY OF HELLENISM IN ASIA MINOR

Asia Minor is the country which, more than all others, recalls the highest development of Hellenic civilization. Its deeply indented coast formed a chaplet of Hellenic democracies which reached out into the interior and actually attacked the Persian civilization, upon which they imposed their own stamp. These democracies constituted the first rampart of the civilized world of that time, holding back Persian barbarism. Their history is one of continual struggle between these two civilizations, a struggle that was terminated at Salamis and at Platæa, where the Persian ambitions were definitively buried and Greek civilization saved.

The wise men, the thinkers, the philosophers, that these democracies produced, were numerous, and the influence of their teachings was very great. These even today are radiant with a sublimity that has never been excelled.

It was in this Greek element and among the populations Hellenized by them that Christianity first germinated. It was the Greeks of Asia Minor who first offered their blood for the triumph of the new faith. The foremost Church Fathers, John Chrysostom, Saint Basil and very many others, were born there or taught there.

Throughout the Middle Ages the Byzantine-Greek civilization flourished in these lands. It formed the most powerful barrier against the wave of barbarism which threatened to inundate the civilized world. The desperate resistance offered by Hellenism permitted the West, by its contact with Byzantine Hellenism, to acquire those requisite elements which have formed the basis of Western civilization.

When the powerful tide of Turkish invasion, coming after so many other barbarian inroads, completely submerged Greek culture there, the Hellenic idea which this element represented was so strong that it survived everything. It was in vain that the fierce conquerors, as the tradition states, cut out the tongues of the inhabitants in order to cause this people to unlearn its language; it was in vain that they carried away their children to make of them fierce and cruel janissaries, who became exterminators of their own people. The Hellenic idea, the attachment to national traditions, was never submerged.

As soon as the fury of the conqueror was somewhat appeased, and at a time when that part of the Balkan Peninsula where Hellenism first arose and from which later it radiated over the then known world all the brilliance of its beauty was no longer showing any sign of life, the Greeks of Asia Minor founded the first Greek school of modern times, that of Cydonia (Aïvali). This school produced the first real ecclesiastics, the first genuinely educated men. Smyrna, called by the Turk himself “the infidel city,” because of its preponderant Greek element, followed her example. The graduates of these schools formed the nucleus from which the idea of the Greek renaissance sprang forth. From this source have come the men that have sacrificed their lives and their fortunes in order that Hellenic culture, which seemed forever to have disappeared, might again be revived.

It is this country of which we are going to study the ethnological composition.

Its boundaries are, on the north, the Black Sea; on the east, the Russian frontier traversing the snow-covered mountain range of the Taurus and Antitaurus and continuing to the Gulf of Alexandretta; on the south, west and northwest, the Mediterranean, the Ægean Sea and the Sea of Marmora.

Its area is 534,550 square kilometers; it is traversed by numerous watercourses and is one of the richest countries in the world. If well administered, it could support tens of millions of inhabitants.

It is divided for purposes of administration into eight provinces, Sebastia, Trebizond, Kastamuni, Konia, Angora, Aïdin, Broussa, Adana and four independent provinces, Chryssioupolis, Nicomedia, Balukiser, Vizi or Dardanelles.

To determine the importance of the Greek element in the population let us examine each archbishopric from the ecclesiastic as well as secular point of view.

The following table presents statistics as to the numbers of churches, priests, schools, etc., supported by the Greeks of Asia Minor:

================+========+=======+=======+========+=======+=======+========+====== Metropolis |Churches|Priests| Boys’ |Teachers| Pupils| Girls’| Women |Pupils | | |Schools| | |Schools|Teachers| ————————————————+————————+———————+——————-+————————+——————-+——————-+————————+—————— 1. Smyrna | 40 | 114 | 35 | 241 | 11,055| 27 | 202 | 7,651 2. Crine | 46 | 75 | 34 | 65 | 3,965| 14 | 32 | 2,055 3. Heliopolis | 53 | 77 | 41 | 100 | 4,360| 19 | 49 | 2,120 4. Pisidia | 46 | 54 | 18 | 53 | 2,685| 10 | 31 | 1,235 5. Philadelphia| 20 | 22 | 15 | 26 | 1,060| 8 | 16 | 723 6. {Ephesus } | | | | | | | | {Magnesia} | 126 | 177 | 100 | 286 | 15,940| 65 | 150 |10,150 7. Cydonia } | | | | | | | | 8. Broussa | 24 | 27 | 13 | 40 | 2,975| 7 | 20 | 1,045 9. Nicæa | 29 | 41 | 23 | 63 | 3,155| 8 | 25 | 1,210 10. Chalcedon | 43 | 100 | 28 | 99 | 6,970| 25 | 70 | 4,230 11. Nicomedia | 76 | 75 | 77 | 83 | 3,479| 6 | 20 | 1,120 12. Cyzicus | 81 | 128 | 72 | 195 | 8,115| 25 | 67 | 2,630 13. Proconnesos | 26 | 33 | 13 | 48 | 2,280| 8 | 19 | 790 14. Amassia | 330 | 441 | 286 | 586 | 17,000| 69 | 87 | 3,910 15. Ancyra | 8 | 13 | 5 | 20 | 840| 2 | 7 | 260 16. Iconium | 50 | 102 | 42 | 159 | 6,915| 23 | 50 | 2,070 17. Cæsarea | 44 | 98 | 58 | 133 | 5,075| 16 | 49 | 1,778 18. Rhodopolis | 65 | 86 | 57 | 120 | 3,300| | | 19. Chaldia | 211 | 259 | 189 | 380 | 9,705| 2 | 5 | 160 20. Trapezus | 250 | 161 | 95 | 203 | 8,535| 11 | 35 | 1,679 21. Colonia | 120 | 140 | 93 | 182 | 3,840| | | 22. Neocæsarea | 300 | 400 | 150 | 300 | 11,300| 15 | 36 | 2,100 | ——- | ——- | ——- | ——- | ———-——| —- | —- | ————— |1,988 |2,523 |1,444 | 3,382 |132,549| 360 | 970 |46,916 ================+========+=======+=======+========+=======+=======+========+======

The administration of the Greek Orthodox Church is in the hands of twenty-two Metropolitans, or Archbishops, having under them a proportionate number of bishops and priests. The Metropoles, or Archbishoprics, are the following: Smyrna, Crine, Heliopolis, Pisidia, Philadelphia, Ephesus and Magnesia, Cydonia, Broussa, Nicæa, Chalcedon, Nicomedia, Cyzicus, Proconnesos, Amassia, Ancyra, Iconium, Cæsarea, Rhodopolis, Chaldia, Trapezus, Colonia and Neocæsarea, under the authority of the Œcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.[1]

The number of Greek inhabitants is probably above 2,000,000. The Hellenic populations are chiefly concentrated in the provinces of Aïdin and Broussa, where out of a population of approximately 3,000,000 the Greek element is about 1,300,000, the coast regions, however, being inhabited almost purely by Greeks. The non-Greek inhabitants are largely Catholics, Armenians, Turks and Jews. On the coasts of the Black Sea, too, the Greeks are largely in the majority. It is to be noticed that in many villages of this region the inhabitants speak a language closely approaching the ancient Greek, from the point of view of syntax as well as of verb-formation.

For their religious needs they have 1,988 churches and 2,523 priests, and for the instruction of their children they maintain 1,444 schools for boys with 3,382 teachers and 132,549 pupils, and 360 schools for girls with 970 women teachers and 46,916 pupils.

We must remember that the churches and schools are maintained at the expense of the Greeks themselves, since the Turkish Government only intervenes in order to impede and destroy. Reckoning at $500 a year the pay of a priest or teacher, man or woman, we arrive at the sum of $5,000,000 a year, which must be multiplied by three in order to cover the expenses of the construction of churches and schools, their repair and upkeep, and the salaries of the inferior employees of all these establishments.

The number of pupils of both sexes constitutes nearly nine per cent of the whole Greek population (179,465 boys and girls). This is due to the fact that many of the Greeks, not included in the preceding enumeration, who live mingled with other populations, whether Armenian or Turk, and who do not possess the means of supporting schools of their own, send their children from great distances, in spite of the difficult communications, in order to attend these schools. Often the parents, who have lived for generations among the Turks, have lost the knowledge of their national language, but their national consciousness is nevertheless so strong that they expose their children to countless dangers in order to permit them to learn the language of their ancestors. These Turkish-speaking Greeks live chiefly in the interior of the country, even as far as the Persian frontier, and the greater part of these, lost among other more numerous peoples, are not included in the above statistics.

These numbers show that the people are loyally devoted to their language, their traditions and their religion, for the tremendous sacrifices to which they subject themselves for the sake of the maintenance of Hellenic culture evidence the tenacity with which they cling to their national sentiments.

They show equally that this people is eager for progress in civilization, for the number of educational establishments that it maintains and the large number of children that attend them, show that it wishes to acquire a higher civilization and thus become an agent of progress for the peoples whom the fate of conquest has established among them.

Sober, industrious, intelligent and honest, it demands only liberty in order to be able to give scope to its activity. Though conquered by the Turk, the Greek, in his turn, won the upper hand by his intellectual superiority. The Turk, who has become accustomed to the Greek way of living and thinking, and has adopted many of his habits, among the most prominent of which is the respect for woman and the sanctity of the home, will be happy to live under the administration of his Greek compatriot, with whom he was perfectly satisfied when the Turkish Government, before the chauvinistic Young Turk party had established its fierce tyranny, renounced the services of the Greek functionaries.

An interesting side of this dwelling together of Greek and Turk is the respect that the Anatolian Turk habitually professes for the Orthodox religion. Sometimes the Mussulman even has recourse to the offices of the Greek priest, either to have a mass chanted, or in order to touch the holy sacraments, the saints’ pictures, etc., so as to be cured of some illness, or to obtain some benefit which his ascetic religion does not afford him.

If the Turkish Government by its misrule had not provoked the driving out of the Mussulman populations of Europe (a course which has gradually reduced the territory of the Ottoman Empire), the uprisings experienced periodically would not have been so frequent. These numerous fanatics who had lived since the time of the conquest by exploiting the Christian populations, transported their methods to Asia Minor, and, seconded by a government whose materialism knew no limits, they undertook the extermination of the Christian populations of Asia Minor in order to rob them of their property.

When one realizes that, under an administration which existed only to mulct the worker by taxation, these populations have succeeded, in spite of numberless persecutions, in making so formidable an effort in order to secure their spiritual needs, it is easy to imagine what progress in civilization and wealth awaits this country, when an era of liberty and security shall be introduced under a paternal administration.

The Anatolian Mussulmans will be the first to profit by this. Patient workers, loving the land, and living in harmony with their Christian compatriots, they will be happy to secure the product of their labor, of which the Turkish functionary constantly robbed them, so that he finally made them dislike all labor, and urged them on into the path of crime.

This living together as friends, on a footing of equality, will perhaps make Christianity flourish anew in this land which was the first to be saved from paganism, and whose fruits, transplanted to the rest of the world, have caused the springing forth of that glorious civilization which Prussian megalomania is now staining with blood.

II. HELLENISM IN ASIA MINOR

By KARL DIETERICH

Translated from the German

By CARROLL N. BROWN, PH.D., The College of the City of New York

PREFACE

By THEODORE P. ION, D.C.L.

The German dream of dominion from Hamburg to the Persian Gulf has naturally attracted the attention of the world to Asia Minor, a country which has been for centuries in a dormant condition on account of its subjection to a moribund state. Conquered and reconquered by Asiatic hordes, its wealth ravaged and pillaged many and many times, its cities, towns and villages razed to the ground more than once, and its inhabitants having been subjected again and again to massacres _en masse_, Asia Minor has been and will naturally continue to be the reservoir, so to speak, of European civilization for the Great East.

From ancient times the rays of civilization which shone on this peninsula were not Asiatic but European, that is Hellenic, the civilizing influences of the language of Homer and Plato having been kept alive even during the rule of the Mohammedan Arabs.

As is well known, the Arabian Caliphs of Bagdad were always surrounded by Hellenists and considered the books of the Greek sages more valuable than gold.[2]

Hence came the great impetus given to Arabian philosophy and positive science through the translation of the writings of the Greeks, which were subsequently transplanted to Europe by the Moors even before the time of the renaissance.

The darkest epoch of Asia Minor began undoubtedly with the advent of the followers of Osman, who, ever since their irruption into that country, have wrought havoc among its people, and within a comparatively short space of time have reduced that fair land to barbarity and desolation. The ancient seats of learning, the theaters, the stadia, the treasures of art and other tokens of Hellenic civilization are now nothing but heaps of ruins, inarticulate witnesses to the ancient glory of Hellenism.

It is a remarkable phenomenon that beneath these smoldering ruins civilization was not entirely destroyed, for in spite of the slowly burning fire Hellenism continued to exist, and toward the close of the 18th century began to show clear signs of that vitality and vigor which blossomed forth so quickly in the following century, and, in our own time, have produced such far-reaching results.

Hence the apprehension shown by the Turkish conquerors during the tyrannical régime of Abdul Hamid. Hence the great efforts made by that potentate to bring from the confines of Russia Mohammedan hordes such as Circassians and other unruly tribes and freebooters in order that they might roam about or settle there according to their fancy, with the view to offsetting the ever-increasing Greek population of Asia Minor. Hence the inrush to that country of Mohammedan emigrants from the territories which have been wrested from the Turk ever since the events of 1878, it being immaterial whether these Mussulman fanatics gave themselves to robbery, murder and massacres of the Christians in the land, or settled there in order to develop the great possibilities of agriculture in the country.

The diplomacy of Europe, having been satisfied with the platitudes embodied in the Treaty of Berlin of 1878 as to the introduction of reforms by the Sublime Porte, both in its European and Asiatic provinces, has let things take their natural course, the first outcome being the Armenian horrors of the Hamidian era, which were continued under the “constitutional régime of the Young Turks” and culminated in the scientific extermination, by starvation, of that highly gifted Armenian nation, carried out under the high patronage and guidance of the Germano-Turanians, whose diabolical activities during the present world war have overwhelmed in a like catastrophe the Hellenic population of the Ottoman Empire and particularly of Asia Minor.[3]

From the time that the present German emperor resolved to make the Near and perhaps the Far East the great market for Teutonic trade, German scientists of all kinds have been dispatched to Asia Minor to study the country from every point of view, so that the German Government may, at the opportune moment, be ready to seize the “golden fleece.”

As a result there have appeared various essays dealing with Asia Minor from different points of view, and in particular the one with which we are here concerned, by Dr. Karl Dieterich, forming the principal part of the present publication of the American-Hellenic Society.[4]

It is worth noticing that the German essayist describes in a vivid manner the vitality and the potentialities of the Hellenic population of Asia Minor, and, unlike the ruling class of Germany and many of his compatriots, he speaks favorably of the Greek populations of Anatolia.

Dr. Dieterich, referring to the persecution of the Greeks, says erroneously that these “systematic persecutions,” as he admits them to be, began with the spring of 1914 (see p. 19), while, as a matter of fact, they commenced on the very day that the Young Turks consolidated their power (1908-1909), when, in spite of their much heralded formula of “equality, justice and fraternity,” they designed and instituted a well-organized method for the annihilation of the Christian populations, the Adana massacres of the Armenians in April, 1909, being the precursors of all the subsequent horrors.

Nor did these would-be “reformers,” or “constitutionalists,” conceal their plans for the Turkification of the Christians in the Ottoman Empire, for they openly resorted either to forced conversions to Mohammedanism or to the annihilation of those who seemed unlikely to submit to be “Ottomanized.” Thus, as early as September, 1908, one of the moving spirits of the Committee of Union and Progress, namely, Dr. Nazim, during his visit to Smyrna, at a social gathering held in the house of a British subject, spoke freely about this matter.[5]

The Young Turks having thus initiated, under the very eyes of Europe, a systematic extermination of the Armenians,—whom the bloody hand of Abdul Hamid had not completely destroyed,—turned their attention to the “more dangerous Greeks.”

It was this plan for the destruction of the Christian nations that, in 1912, brought together the Balkan States, who saw that under the new régime in Turkey the peoples of these various nationalities would gradually be annihilated, if they did not take some preventive steps. The result was the war of these States against Turkey, the complete defeat of the latter and the freeing from the Turkish yoke of hundreds of thousands of people. As a further consequence of this war, there began on the part of Turkey a wholesale expulsion of the Greek population from the coast of Asia Minor simply because the neighboring islands of the Ægean had been incorporated with the Greek Kingdom. Up to the declaration of the present world war hundreds of thousands of Greeks were expelled from Turkey, having been, at the same time, deprived by the Turks of all their movable and immovable property. All these unfortunate people took refuge in Greece and gave no little embarrassment to the Greek Government.[6]

It is therefore incorrect to say, as the German writer alleges, that the persecutions of the Greeks began with the outbreak of the present war (p. 19).

The difference, however, between the _ante-bellum_ persecutions and those perpetrated subsequently is this, that while in the former cases the Greeks were expelled from their native country and were deprived only of their wealth and their property generally, in the latter not only were they compelled to abandon everything they owned, but they also perished through untold hardships and starvation. (See details about the tragical condition of the Greeks in Publication No. 3 of the American-Hellenic Society cited above.)

Nor did the Turks in carrying out this cruel work care whether Greece was friendly or unfriendly to Turkey. As a matter of fact, these persecutions were in full swing during the “régime of Constantine” (see dates in _Persecutions of the Greeks_, etc.) when that potentate was in close relationship not only with the Germans, but also with the Bulgarians and the Turks, and consequently the persecutions of the Greeks had nothing to do with the alleged projected territorial compensations to Greece; besides, Turkey was assured by Germany that Constantine, who then had the upper hand in Greece, would under no circumstances attack Turkey.

Therefore it is not correct to say, as the German writer asserts, that one of the reasons for these persecutions was the promise made to Greece by the Entente Powers in 1915 of territorial concessions in Asia Minor (see p. 19).

An indication that even such an evidently impartial writer as Dr. Dieterich cannot divest himself of the German point of view is his statement that in the struggle for life the Greeks were on the offensive, while the Turks were on the defensive (see p. 19). This, in plain words, means that it suffices for a nation to be intelligent, active, frugal, moral (as he too acknowledges the Greeks to be, p. 50), in order to acquire the odium of carrying on an offensive struggle if another nation living side by side with it happens to be stupid, fatalist, immoral and incapable of holding its ground in the struggle for life.