PERSECUTIONS OF THE GREEKS IN TURKEY SINCE THE ...

PERSECUTIONS OF THE GREEKS 23
in the report of the Consul General of Smyrna dated
December 12, 1914, No. 9157 (Ministerial Archives, No.
890), to mention a single example out of many. According
to this report a Greek who was arrested in the
Appa railway station of Denizli, was only released after
promising under oath that he would leave the country.
Undoubtedly murders form a part of the plan of
persecution of the Greek populations. This is evident
from the report of the Consulate General of Smyrna,
No. 60, dated December 22, 1915 (Ministerial Archives,
No. 5960), according to which, in the District of Mendessa
alone, exclusive of the Sanjak of Mougla, over
200 Greeks were murdered from July, 1914, to the end
of December, 1915. Also, a report from Kirk-Kilisse,
dated January 5, 1916, No. 16 (Ministerial Archives,
No. 2931) verifies the above, from which the following
extract is taken:
" At the time of the departure of the unfortunate
Greeks from Skopos, a thoroughly Hellenic virile community
of Thrace, who were abandoning their homes
and properties, with lamentations and wailing, under the
funeral peals of the bells of their churches, which the
barbarians were ringing to the accompaniment of wild
cheers as an indication of the funeral of the village
of Skopos, some of their notables and educated persons,
such as Papakyriacos, the Constantopoulo brothers, Pelopidas
Davajanidi, Zaphirios Zaphiriades and Theodore
Kokalas, were seized and after being led a short distance
out of the village were beheaded like sheep and their
bodies were left there to become the prey of dogs and
vultures. Two days before the Turks had arrested
another of the most prominent and educated citizens,
namely, Simos Simopoulos, whom they beheaded outside
of the town, after subjecting him to unheard of
tortures.
Flogging and imprisonment formed a second effective
means of annihilation. Many of those beaten were com-