Constantinoupolis
by Ted Karakostas
The destruction of the Greeks of Constantinople, Imbros, and Tenedos was the continuation of the Genocide that had systematically annihilated the Greek populations of Asia Minor through the combined means of massacres, mass deportations into the interior, and the final onslought of 1923 which resulted in the physical removal of over 1,000,000 human beings from their ancestral homes. The anti-Greek pogroms of 1955 and the forced expulsions of 1964 and after stand as a historical affirmation that the goal of every successive Turkish regime was to simply wipe out the Greeks from all territory under their control.
What is particularly odious and very disturbing is that just as the Great Powers had actively supported the Genocide of three decades earlier by their presence in the harbor of Smyrna and by their roles in the legalization of Genocide at the Lausanne Conference, is that the final destruction of the Greeks of Constantinople, Imbros, and Tenedos was entirely acceptable. For by 1955, Turkey was a member of the NATO alliance and a recipient of American economic and military assistance. The failure of America and NATO to condemn Ankara, to impose sanctions on Turkey, or to vigorously protest the pogroms demonstrates that the powers remain to the present day accomplices in the systematic Genocide of Hellenism.
The advance of Turkey towards membership in the European Union is an ominous development for the remaining Greeks and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The events of 1955 continue to haunt us today. The policies that led to the destruction of the Greeks of Constantinople, Imbros, and Tenedos are still in effect today as can be seen by the closure of Halki and the violence against the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
