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Turks still must be held accountable

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  • Turks still must be held accountable

    News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
    October 26, 2007 Friday
    News & Record Edition


    Turks still must be held accountable

    by JACK STRATAS

    In your praise for U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., for his lack of
    support for a resolution against Turkey, you showed a disregard for
    history.

    Troops from Turkey occupy half of the nation of Cyprus. Years ago, it
    invaded the island, according to Turks, to stave off a merger of
    Cyprus with Greece.

    The Turkish government to this day holds in virtual captivity the
    head of the oldest Christian church, the Orthodox Church. The
    patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church is made to reside in a dusty
    complex in Istanbul, a virtual captive of Muslim Turks.

    Throughout history, the Turkish government has shown an animosity
    against Christians, much as the News & Record.

    In his book, "The Blight of Asia," Edward Horton, a retired U.S.
    general in that area, lists atrocities committed by Ottoman Turks
    against Christians. The butcher's bill is: Chios Greeks, 50,000,
    1822; Missologini Greeks, 8,750, 1828; Mosul Assyrians, 10,000, 1850;
    Armenians, 150,000, 1895-96; Macedonians, 14,667, 1903-04; and,
    finally, the massacre in Adana, in 1909, of 30,000 Aremians.

    Horton features prominently the slaughter of indigenous Greeks in
    Smyrna by Mustafa Kemal, the creator of modern Turkey.

    No one knows for sure how many Greek Christians were slaughtered, but
    we do know from pictures that they were either killed or driven into
    the sea, and the city burned to the ground. This is a fact.

    Many of the Greeks were on the Turkish mainland by request of the
    sultan. Greek presence in Turkey reaches back to antiquity.

    The red in the modern Turkish flag celebrates the blood of Greeks
    slaughtered in Smyrna. There is a Web site you can visit titled
    "Blight of Asia."

    No one holds the Turkish nation accountable for the slaughter of
    innocents, but they should. I support Democrats in this resolution.

    The writer lives in Denton.
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