Since July 1920 the Greek military occupation had restricted the operations of Turkish bands to the eastern and south-eastern part of the peninsula, but the region of Karamursal (south of the Gulf of Ismid) still constitutes an impervious Nationalist centre, from which various bands attack Greek villages in the neighbourhood, aided by the population of Turkish villages.

Excesses committed by enemy bands are often given as a motive or as a pretext for these expeditions.

The latter became very numerous in the spring of 1921, and extended as far as the southern environs of Ismid, bringing about the destruction of all the Christian villages in this region with the exception of Bagchejik.

The Greek authorities have submitted a list of thirty-two villages looted or burnt, with more than 12,000 persons massacred, 2,500 missing, and the remainder of the population (more than 15,000) living as refugees at Ismid.

In view of the numerous witnesses examined by it, the commission is of the opinion that these facts should be accepted as fundamentally true, notwithstanding a certain amount of exaggeration in the figures.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES