History-Forger Erdogan claims “Greeks burned Smyrna in 1922, not the Turks”

Launching his pre-election campaign in the city of Izmir, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed it was the Greeks who burned down the city of Smyrna in 1922 and not the Turks.

“The biggest blow suffered by this beautiful city was by the Greek soldiers who burned the city as they were withdrawing,” Erdogan told a crowd of voters at the Izmir Chamber of Commerce on Sunday.

“Our ancestors did not want to destroy or burn, they always wanted to build and create,” the Turkish president claimed further adding that evidence for the good intentions was the quick development of the city after the War of Independence.

The city was assigned to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres and was under Greek administration form 1919 to 1922.

The city of Izmir, Smyrna, was burned on 13. September 1922, four days after the Turkish Army led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had re-gained control of the city with more than 120,000 Greeks and 20,000 Armenians, 80,000 Muslims and a large number of Sephardic Jews in 1920.

Picture by US Red Cross

The Great Fire of Smyrna destroyed all Greek and Armenian quarters of the city, Muslim and Jewish quarters escaped the damage. According to contemporary eyewitnesses and sources the fire was largely extinguished on September 22nd. The death toll is estimated up to 100,000 people.

The blaze began late afternoon in the Armenian quarter of the city  and spread quickly due to the windy weather and the fact that no effort was made to put it out. Approximately 50,000 to 400,000 Greek and Armenian refugees crammed the waterfront to escape from the fire. They were forced to remain there under harsh conditions for nearly two weeks. Turkish troops and irregulars had started committing massacres and atrocities (incl mass deportations, rapes) against the Greek and Armenian population in the city before the outbreak of the fire.

Turkish distortion of history claims that it was Greeks and Armenians who put the fire in order to damage Turkish reputation.

According to international historians say it was the Turkish soldiers who started the fire intentionally.

The city is known to be a stronghold of  main opposition party Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Erdogan is expected to visit 50 provinces and 20 districts across the country until the elections on June 24th.

PS By June 23rd Erdogan will have thoroughly re-written the history of Ottoman and modern Turkey.