Reports on atrocities in the districts of Yalova and Guemlek and in the Ismid Peninsula

by Inter-Allied Commission of Enquiry into Atrocities in Yalova and Guemlek

In the region now occupied by them the Greek forces armed, and used as auxiliaries, refugees, from Greek villages which had been looted or burnt by the Turks. By their attacks on Turkish villages situated outside the effective zone of occupation of the Greek troops, and by the atrocities committed by them, these bands have revived former hatred and have brought about the ferocious reprisals of which Greek villages—and specially those of the region south of Ismid—have been the victims.

The Greeks have also employed as auxiliaries a large number of Circassians (Moslems from the Caucasus), more than 30,000 of whom had taken refuge in the region east of Ismid. These have become the enemies of the Nationalists.

These Circassians furnish excellent semi-regular combatants, but also form bands whose poorly-controlled activity admits of excesses and thus helps to perpetuate the régime of continual reprisals which is gradually ravaging and depopulating the country.

To sum up, the Greeks ensure order in the regions effectively occupied by their troops, but at the price of oppression suffered by the Moslem population.

In the regions not effectively occupied by the Greeks the latter favour the activities of bands of their own countrymen, and are thus partly responsible for the system of guerilla warfare and atrocities there existing.

Excesses Committed by the Turks.

Attacks on Christians, which had become less numerous since the armistice, increased in numbers and ferocity—more particularly with regard to the Greeks—in March 1920, and even more so in June and July 1920 (when preparations were being made for Greek offensives).

Turkish bands of a more or less Kemalist persuasion are scouring the entire sanjak of Ismid as far as the environs of Scutari (Pashakeui, 20 kilom. east of Scutari).

As often as not, these bands are assisted by the Turkish inhabitants of neighbouring villages. A large number of villages have thus been looted or burnt and their decimated population has been obliged to flee.

There should more particularly be mentioned the names of Yeni-Keui, south of Shileh; about a dozen villages in the region north and north-east of Ada-Bazar, and some twelve villages in the region south of Ada-Bazar, amongst them the large village of Orta-Keui, near Gueiveh (16,000 inhabitants), and several villages south and south-east of Ismid.