Renowned Turkish journalist and author, Falih Rifki Atay, was quoted at the time as lamenting that the Turkish army had burnt Smyrna to the ground. He said:
"As why were we burning down Izmir? Were we afraid that if waterfront konaks, hotels and taverns stayed in place, we would never be able to get rid of the minorities? When the Armenians were being deported in the First World War, we had burned down all the habitable districts and neighbourhoods in Anatolian towns and cities with this very same fear. This does not solely derive from an urge for destruction. There is also some feeling of inferiority in it. It was as if anywhere that resembled Europe was destined to remain Christian and foreign and to be denied to us.
If there were another war and we were defeated, would it be sufficient guarantee of preserving the Turkishness of the city if we had left Izmir as a devastated expanse of vacant lots? Were it not for Nureddin Pasha, whom I know to be a dyed-in-the-wool fanatic and rabble-rouser, I do not think this tragedy would have gone to the bitter end."
So, not only are Muslims capable of "genocide," the very word was coined to describe the ethnic cleansing carried out by and genocidal actions of Muslims.
Unlike the United States and its neighbour, Sweden, Norway refuses to recognise the Armenian Genocide. Appeasement? Indifference? Skepticism? Honest disagreement?
Continue in Part XV.
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