British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in Anatolia, 1919-1922: the Armenian-Greek Section

British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in Anatolia, 1919-1922: the Armenian-Greek Section

Yeghiayan, Vartkes.
Glendale: Center for Armenian Remembrance, 2007, 296 pages. ISBN 9780977715329.

Description:
“British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in Anatolia, 1919-1922: The Armenian-Greek Section, is a provocative new book that clearly and vividly demonstrates that from 1919 to 1922, the Turkish Nationalists under Mustafa Kemal perpetrated an organized scheme of wholesale ethnic cleansing upon the indigenous Armenians of Asia Minor and Cilicia, and the Greeks of Pontus. This important book, compiled by Attorney Vartkes Yeghiayan, chronicles how the Turkish forces, after invoking a “War of Independence,” massacred innocent civilians and looted and appropriated Armenian and Greek cathedrals, monasteries, churches, institutions, fields, orchards, stores and factories, while the victorious Allies looked away. WW I “ended” when the defeated Ottoman Empire signed the Mudros Armistice, which dictated categorically that the Ottomans had to renounce their empire, with the exception of Anatolia, and the Allies would have the right to occupy the Six Armenian Provinces in Asia Minor ( Anatolia ) in case of disturbances. Ten days after the signing, the victorious British took charge of Constantinople and formed the Armenian-Greek Section to deal with all urgent and outstanding issues related to the Armenians and Greeks in. The victorious British also persuaded the Sultan to dissolve the Ottoman Parliament. In a Proclamation on 6 December 1918, Sultan Mohammed VI announced, “My sorrow is profound at the mistreatment of my Armenian subjects by certain political committees acting under my government.” The remnants of the Young Turk Regime, however, especially those who had gotten rich by the wholesale looting of Armenian and Greek assets, rejected such acts of contrition and sabotaged all efforts that would reverse their ill-begotten fortunes. “British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing in Anatolia, 1919-1922: Minutes of the Armenian Greek Section,” is the verbatim record of 87 reports the British High Commission compiled for the use of the British Foreign Office.