A sufficient cause is doubtless presented by the age-long hatred existing between the various races, increased, in so far as the Greek soldiers and the Greek population of Guemlek are concerned, by the presence of 2,000 Armenian refugees who suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks during the war, and by that of 3,600 Greek refugees, many of whom witnessed the atrocities committed by the Kemalists at Fulajik, Elmalik and Nicea. But although this hatred can explain the severity of the treatment suffered by Moslem villages, it does not appear to have been the determining factor of their destruction on so general and rapid a scale.
A distinct and regular method appears to have been followed in the destruction of villages, group by group, for the last two months, which destruction has even reached the neighbourhood of the Greek headquarters.
The members of the commission consider that, in the part of the kazas of Yalova and Guemlek occupied by the Greek army, there is a systematic plan of destruction of Turkish villages and extinction of the Moslem population. This plan is being carried out by Greek and Armenian bands, which appear to operate under Greek instructions and sometimes even with the assistance of detachments of regular troops.
This destruction of villages and the disappearance of the Moslem population consequent thereon doubtless has as its object to guard the flanks and rear of the Greek army against any possible attack by the population in the event of an early offensive, and perhaps even to create in this region a political situation favourable to the Greek Government.
In any event, the commission is of opinion that the atrocities reported against Christians on the one hand, and Moslems on the other, are unworthy of a civilised Government, and that in the region occupied by the Greek army, the Greek authorities, who are alone in authority there, are responsible, and, in the region under the Kemalist régime, the Turkish authorities.
8. In view of the conclusions arrived at in the course of its enquiry, the commission considers that it is not within its terms of reference to suggest the measures which would remedy the state of affairs in the region of Guemlek. The dispersion of nearly the whole of the Moslem population of the kazas of Yalova and Guemlek is already a fait accompli.
In order, however, to avoid the recurrence of similar happenings in the future in other regions occupied by the Greek army, the commission proposes that an inter-Allied gendarmerie be introduced into these regions, or, at any rate, that Allied officers should be attached to the various Greek commands, for the purposes of surveillance.
Finally, the commission expresses the hope that the 600 Moslems who are still at Yalova, Ak-Keui and Samanli, should be authorised to take refuge in Constantinople or its environs and that steps should be taken to this effect.
| Great Britain. | Italy. | France. |
| G. M. FRANKS, | E. ROLLETTO, | G. VIEG, |
| Major-General. | Colonel. | Lieut.-Colonel. |
May 23, 1921.