Thoughts, on occasion of the Commemoration on the pogrom against Greeks of Pontus in Turkey, that took place after the First World War.
On the commemoration (2013-05-20) of the pogrom (genocide) of Greeks from Pontus, I submit, in this article, information to capture the attention for all of us, Greeks and other interested parties, who experience to day, one of the biggest financial crises in our modern history and are still wondering how did this country ended up in this situation and in spite this we do not seem to spend the effort to learn from our own experiences and mistakes, whether recent or older.
I want to clarify, at this stage, that by making the following references I don’t intend to minimize the responsibility of our contemporary politicians for their actions that have shown serious incompetence, to say the least, or even criminal behavior But it is my opinion that geopolitical considerations can be very important and in many cases supersede most internal processes, local resources and national capabilities.
In addition, geopolitical considerations are usually diachronic and barely change, hence can prove to be more decisive in international affairs.
Looking at the current crisis under this angle we may discover explanations derived from similarities on events that may have taken place at different times, many decades apart.
To put everything under prospective, Greeks under the Ottoman Empire, up to 1914 were around 2.5 millions, in comparison, Greek population in Greek mainland barely reached 4.5millions while the total population of the Ottoman Empire was 10 millions.
Nevertheless, the financial strength of this minority was disproportionably stronger, and to some extend its influence can be determined from the following numbers, as proportions of the participation that Greeks had in various sectors of the economy in Turkey at the end of the First World War.
Greeks actually contributed or controlled:
- 50% of the invested capital in industry.
- 60% in manufacturing.
- 46% of the banking sector
- From 18.063 trading companies operating at the time, Greeks owned 46%, Armenians had 23% and Muslims had 15%
- Regarding participation in various professional sectors, Greeks were, 52% of the medical doctors, 49% of the pharmacists, 52% of the Architects, 37% of the Engineers and 29% of the solicitors.
- In Constantinople, 171 out of 257 restaurants were Greek, 444 out of 471 wineries and 528 out of 654 wholesalers.
Karl Marx is quoting in his work ‘The Eastern Problem’ in 1853:
«It is a great mistake to believe that Turkey is run by Turks, Greeks, Armenians and other minorities that exist in cities and ports, hold hands and effectively control trade and economy.»
The Turks themselves admit that the Ottomans were historically conquerors, incorporated in their structure the cultures of the peoples they conquered, creating a ‘heterogeneous’ society. The Ottoman upper class was basically dedicated to military activities. Their society was essentially ‘multicultural’ and could have been developed further based on this property. But it did not happen this way, as we all know. Instead the historical developments, under the rise of the influence of the Party of ‘New Turks’ that overthrow the Sultan and founded the modern state of Turkey based on a policy of national purity and extermination of non-Muslim minorities.
Islam became the way to create the Turkish ‘ethno-genesis’.
Even today, the addition to the Turkishness of the Islamic synthesis is following this policy. See practices on Muslim minority populations of western Thrace in North Greece, Pomaks. etc.
But even if we overcome these historical facts, because they were the basis of national upheaval that occurred in the first world war and move on to more recent events, such as, the destruction Greece suffered during the second world war and the civil war that followed which has worked as a barrier to growth of the Greek economy, we can understand, to an extent, why Greece remained so far behind from the rest of western Europe in spite the support received both from USA with the Marshal Plan and European Union funds later on.
All these events can help us appreciate the background behind this crisis, which for the case of Greece is not only related to current conditions, the history appears to be repeating it self. Even the names of places and the driving forces as well as interests appear to be the same.
«You can understand how important it is oil,» wrote Horton, Consular of the United States in Smyrna in 1922, to his mother from Washington. «When experts announced that there is enough in the U.S. for 20 years only and that the entire civilization depends on it. Even our war ships are powered by diesel. I’m almost ready to admit that we need it. But I think we might have a less criminal ways to obtain it. Oil will not fire properly when is mixed with blood and smells really bad from burned churches and bibles. «
One can read among the lines from this statement of George Horton how the world powers behaved during the period between 1914 and 1922 allowing the slaughtering and expulsion of Christian populations for its natural homeland, to service their interests.
It is indicative that the activities of leading powers in Europe for this period are not included in school history books in many European countries.
Who could have imagined that, today, after nearly a century, we face the same geopolitical concerns in the same place, trying to survive between ‘financial tigers’ that compete for their own interests.
And these ‘tigers’ have not even changed their names, USA, Russia, England, Germany, Turkey, with the addition of new players such as China, Israel, upgraded Arab states from the golf, the transformation of key European nations in the form of the European Monetary Union.
In the middle of all this, Greece is again, one much smaller entity, a nation of only ten million anxiously trying to play the role of a regulatory factor to exchange it’s survival with all it’s forces and assets available.
In this fight coexist our eternal pathologies.
Through ignorance, blind and refuse to acknowledge that we were the same as those Greeks who:
- Murdered Governor Kapodistrias.
- Imprisoned the leader of the Greek independence army, General Kolokotronis,
- Managed to bring distraction due to political internal conflicts ( King Constantine versus our top politician Venizelos).
- Brought dictatorships alternating with corruption and demagoguery, fanaticism and political corruption.
While, at the same time, we were acknowledged as heroes, who inspired the liberation of the Balkan nations, who doubled Greece during the Balkan wars, who first successfully resisted the axis of fascist Italy and Germany, who contributed to the creation of a united Europe, who even temporarily created the post-war Greek industry which, unfortunately, ourselves destroyed.
‘It is about time to get rid of these pathologies that have been affecting us for decades and exploit what advantages we have as a nation to face the challenges of the time, realistically assessing the possibilities and opportunitie
Times for Change 