Lieutenant-Colonel WILKONSKY.
O. H. VAN MILLINGEN, Major.
Excesses of which the Greeks are Accused.
The principal excesses of which the Greeks are accused took place after July 1920, when the Greek military forces occupied the territory.
These excesses are attributed either to the regular troops or to bands.
(A.) When they arrived in the territory (in July and August), the regular troops attacked various Moslem villages, principally those in the region east of Beicos. Inhabitants were killed, cattle carried off, and houses and even whole villages burnt. To this should be added individual offences on the part of soldiers belonging to Greek detachments, such as extortion of money, theft, violence and murder. In the occupied regions the Greek military authorities first made numerous arrests and caused people to be summarily executed (more particularly at Beicos-Chibukli).
A good many searches made for hidden weapons gave rise to individual offences, violence and theft. These individual offences, caused by insufficient discipline, were not usually stopped.
The attacks against villages became more frequent in March and April, when the Greek troops were abandoning the eastern part of the peninsula, and began in the region of Ada-Bazar. Turkish villages between Kudra and Ada-Bazar were chiefly affected, a large number of the inhabitants being maltreated and killed, women violated, cattle carried off and houses fired.
(B.) Greek bands, formed of men who had generally suffered under Turkish oppression, and who were just as much actuated by a thirst for vengeance as a desire for loot, carried out depredations during the Greek occupation with an amount of freedom which leads one to conclude that the Greek military authorities did not take the necessary steps to prevent these misdeeds.
In the region of Shileh, it may be even taken as very probable, if not certain, that the Greek military authorities regarded their formation and activities with favour.