My wife's ancestors - Maltass - Contents
Turkey - Historical Background
And in particular, Smyrna (now Izmir) in W Turkey.- Sources yet to be consulted:
- Paradise Lost by Giles Milton, 2008. Mentions some of the European families of Smyrna.
- The Smyrna Affair: The First Comprehensive Account of the Burning of the City and the Expulsion of the Christians from Turkey in 1922, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, 1971, repub as Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City, 1972, repub 1988. See extracts and search.
Bornova, NE side of Izmir, Turkey.
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From Google Maps.
Introduction
Smyrna, in what is now W Turkey, was one of the first Christian communities in the world, and is mentioned in Revelation. See also the 2nd cent. AD mathematician Theon of Smyrna.Part of the Ottoman Empire from c.1425, Smyrna was for centuries a prosperous trading port to rival Constantinople.
The Western powers established commercial bases there (by agreement with the Ottoman Empire) as early as the 16th century (e.g. the English government-backed Levant Company estab 1581), and many western merchants lived there with their families.
For centuries Smyrna was a cosmopolitan place with a large permanent European population. The westerners, from many different countries in W Europe, tended to marry among themselves, and all the families ended up related. The Maltass family went out there from England in the mid-18th cent.
Late 18th cent. - early 19th cent.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ottoman Empire was in a long period of slow contraction from its former greatest extent. The 18th cent. saw a series of wars with Russia and Austria, who took much Ottoman territory.Russia annexed the Crimea from the Turks in 1783.
Another Russo-Turk war started in 1787. Austria declared war on Turkey 1788. The war ended 1792.
Augustus Reebkomp almost certainly met Susan Maltass (they married 1791) because he was posted to the area with the Royal Navy (the Royal Navy was expanded 1791 because of Russian hostility in the Black Sea, and we know Reebkomp's ship was in the Mediterranean at least as at 1794).
Around 1800, the Levant Company controlled the trade in opium to the West, out of Smyrna. The import and use of recreational opium in the West remained legal throughout the 19th cent, before the modern era of prohibition.
The narrow Straits of the Dardanelles (the gateway to Turkey and Russia from the Mediterranean) were always of huge strategic importance. In 1807 an English fleet under Admiral Duckworth forced its way through the Straits of the Dardanelles in a historic display of rising European power (and declining Ottoman power), and intimidated Turkey. At this point Britain was allied with Russia against Napoleon's France. Turkey was allied with France.
Mid 19th cent. - The Crimean War
The Levant Company was wound down in 1825, and privately owned companies such as the Whittall companies became more important.
In the 19th cent. this area became vital to the European balance of power.
Gibbon
and
de Stentzsch (or von Stenksch-Prittag)
and
Herbert
relations
were involved in the
Crimean War
(also here)
1854-56.
Late 19th cent. - early 20th cent. - Turkish nationalism and the destruction of Smyrna
As the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the period 1894-1923 saw the extermination or expulsion of most of Turkey's ancient Christian populations (Greeks and Armenians), and the emergence of the completely Muslim country of Turkey (with Kurdish Muslims as an oppressed minority).During WWI, The Ottoman Empire was on the German (Central Powers) side, while Greece was on the Allied side. Smyrna was one of the few places to escape the 1915 Turkish genocide of the Armenians, and the city still retained its ancient cosmopolitan character at the end of WWI.
After being on the losing side in the war, the Ottoman Empire was occupied by the Allies. Greece occupied Smyrna and surrounds in May 1919, and began to expand their territory, immediately starting a new Greek-Turkish war.
There was a large ethnic Greek population living in the area occupied - and it was these who suffered terribly when the Greek army was routed. The Greek army was defeated by Kemal Ataturk, Turkish nationalist leader and founder of modern Turkey, who captured the Greek hold-out Smyrna in Sept 1922. His troops slaughtered the Greek and Armenian population, and burnt the Greek and Armenian part of the city. Rudolph J. Rummel estimates that the Turkish army under Ataturk massacred 100,000 Greek and Armenian Christians at Smyrna. The fall of Smyrna saw the ethnic cleansing of most of the ancient Greek population of Turkey (there was also a large ethnic cleansing of Muslims from Greek territory). The Turkish drive stopped at the sea (today, Greece controls as far as the islands just off Turkey's coast).
The end of European Smyrna
Where did the European population of Smyrna stand on this? Presumably many of them opposed the Greek invasion in the first place. Though it seems unusual for any of them to have supported Ataturk.Ataturk's revolution was supposed to set up a state that was secular and westernised, in opposition to the old Muslim society. Yet his followers seemed motivated by a more primitive Turkish nationalism, Islamic religious feeling, and a hatred of non-Muslims and non-Turks.
Our family was split. The Whittall family supported the Greeks. The Wood family and the Giraud family supported the Turks. After the Turkish victory, Europeans that supported the Greeks had to flee. After centuries in Smyrna, the Maltass/Whittall family and relations were split up, and spread all over the world. Many other European merchants, banks and companies, whether they had supported the Greeks or not, pulled out during this period.
For some Europeans, despite what was happening around them, life seems to have gone on much as normal. A number still live there today (including members of the Maltass/Whittall family). But it was the end of Smyrna's long history as a cosmopolitan western city.
History
- Greece
- Turkey
The Turkish democide
- Rudolph J. Rummel
estimates democide
in Turkey in this period:
- Statistics Of Turkey's Democide (see table 1 and table 2)
- Democide in Turkey
- Rummel's total estimates
(see summary)
are:
- Turkey (Young Turks) 1909-18 - killed 1,900,000 in democide.
- Turkey (Ataturk) 1919-23 - killed a further 900,000 in democide (see summary).
- The Young Turk
democide 1909-18
- The Adana massacre, 1909
- The Armenian Genocide, 1914-18 (and here and here and here)
- Ottoman Armenian casualties (and here)
- The Assyrian Genocide, 1914-20
- Culture:
- The book The Forty Days Of Musa Dagh (1934).
- The movie
40 Days of Musa Dagh (1982).
-
The movie
Ararat (2002).
- The Ataturk
democide 1919-23
- Greeks in Turkey
- The Greek Genocide, 1916-23 (and here)
- Also called the Pontic or Pontian or Hellenic genocide.
- Population exchange between Greece and Turkey, 1923
- The destruction of Smyrna
Democide denial
- This is an extremely controversial topic in Turkey,
where democide denial is almost universal.
Discussion of this topic is taken as attacking their very national identity
and their national heroes.
- Armenian genocide denial (and here)
- Note that this is quite normal for democides. Of the 5 worst democides of the 20th century only the German democide is freely and openly acknowledged in its home country. Japan is still in denial about their democide, China is very much in denial about Mao's democide, and Russia is still largely in denial about the Soviet democide. Only the Germans have fully come to terms with their past.
- Turkey
is slowly changing,
but democide denial will probably be mainstream for many years.
The Armenian Genocide (1914-18) portrayed in the movie Ararat (2002).
The burning of Smyrna
and the massacre of 100,000 Christians
(1922)
by the Turkish army under Ataturk.
Today
- Greece
- Human rights - Freedom House rank Greece as "Free"
- Turkey
- Human rights - Freedom House rank Turkey as "Partly Free"
Place names
- Constantinople is now Istanbul.
- Smyrna is now Izmir.
- Bournabat is now Bornova, on NE side of Smyrna (see map).
- Boudjah or Buca
is on S side of Smyrna
(see map).
