ONE
of the cleverest statements circulated by the Turkish propagandists is to the
effect that the massacred Christians were as bad as their executioners, that it
was “50-50.” This especially appeals strongly to the Anglo-Saxon sense of
justice, relieves one of all further annoyance or responsibility, and quiets the
conscience. But it requires a very thoughtless person indeed to accept such a
statement, and extremely little thought required to show the fallacy of
it.
In
the first place, the Christians in the power of the Turk have never had much
opportunity to massacre, even had they been so disposed. If a few Turks have
been killed in the long history of butcheries that have soaked the empire with
blood, the reckoning, mathematically, will not be 50-50, nor even one to ten
thousand. In addition to this, even with the shortcomings of the Christians of
the world, in general, the teachings of Christ have made it better. In all the
former Ottoman provinces that have succeeded in casting off the Turkish
blight—Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece—there is very little, if any, record of
Turks massacred by Christians.
The
conduct of the Greeks toward the thousands of Turks residing in Greece, while
the ferocious massacres were going on, and while Smyrna was being burned and
refugees, wounded, outraged and ruined, were pouring into every port of Hellas,
was one of the most inspiring and beautiful chapters in all that country’s
history. There were no reprisals. The Turks living in Greece were in no wise
molested, nor did any storm of hatred or revenge burst upon their heads. This is
a great and beautiful victory that, in its own way, rises to the level of
Marathon and Salamis.
One
naturally asks what other Christian nation could have done any better? In fact,
the whole conduct of Greece, during and after the persecution of the Christians
in Turkey, has been most admirable, as witness also its treatment of the Turkish
prisoners of war, and its efforts for the thousands of refugees that have been
thrown upon its soil. I know of what I am speaking, for I was in Greece and saw
with my own eyes. No one, I think, will have the courage to dispute these
facts.
Had
the Greeks, after the massacres in the Pontus and at Smyrna, massacred all the
Turks in Greece, the record would have been 50-50—almost.
Next: Chapter XXXVII | Previous: Chapter XXXV | Book Contents | Book main page | Back to Top