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TURKEY : THE BLIGHT OF ASIA

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ASIA MINOR, THE GRAVEYARD OF GREEK CITIES

Page 4

    As to the great commercial and industrial activity, which Professor Buckler foresaw in 1922, the two following extracts from the press of 1925 are apropos. A writer in a February number of the "Gazetta del Popol", of Turin, Italy, recently returned from Smyrna, says:

    "The appearance of Smyrna is tragic. Even two years and a half after the tragedy the ruins are untouched. For two kilometers along the quay stretch the skeletons—the ghosts of houses. And behind are more miles of streets, lined by other phantom houses, like an endless morgue."

    "This phantom city is a terrible symbol of all Turkey. That which above all attracts attention is the disappearance of the Greeks, swept out, extirpated from that city, which was their metropolis in the Levant and where they dominated all forms of activity. The Armenians have also completely disappeared. The Jews endure with difficulty the handicaps which they undergo in their sphere of life."

    "The Europeans try to make the best of a bad situation, but those who are not supplied with ample capital, sufficient to allow them to face a thousand daily vexations, which the authorities inflict, are faced with the necessity of themselves retiring."

    "All forms of activity in Turkey during the past ages were created by non-Turks. There was nothing of theirs except the army. Ruthlessly the Turks condemn to death all enterprise—commercial and industrial—in which they can not themselves succeed."

    "At present Turkey has only three custom houses—Constantinople, Smyrna and Messina. Since the first of January of this year, when the law concerning the customs went into effect, all other ports have been obliged to suspend entirely their traffic. It is not possible for commercial activity to exist in them any more; traffic with Europe has practically ceased entirely. All goods shipped to and from Turkey must be unloaded at one of these towns; go through the vexatious customs formalities, and be reloaded and reshipped to their destinations." (This system of concentrating the business of the country at these three places creates the fictitious appearance of increased activity at these ports, at the expense of al1 the others. Macri, which formerly had fifteen thousand inhabitants, has now a miserable two thousand survivors. The same is also true of Adalia, formerly important, and now completely dead.)

    "The rug industry no longer exists. The Armenians and Greeks, who were its personnel, have fled and settled in Rhoades, Piraeus, and some at Bari. There no longer remains any one in Smyrna who knows how to make carpets."

    "Ten years ago, by the Armenian massacres and deportations, Asia Minor was laid desolate. To-day, the industrious and productive portion of its population has completely disappeared. It will soon become, if not a desert, a wilderness. Everywhere along the coast are cities, which were abandoned to the Turks two years ago and are now completely depopulated. The tillers of the soil have become shepherds and nomads—the land no longer belongs to any one. Within a few years, if God does not work a miracle, and endow the Turks with gifts which they have always lacked, Asia Minor will become a desert in the heart of Mediterranean civilization."

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