BOMBARDING SHIPS RESCUE 2,000 GREEKS
REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF STARVING EXILES FROM HANDS OF TURKS BROUGHT TO
NEW YORK BY TWO OF THOSE SAVED
NEW YORK TIMES
7 APR 1918
"At the outbreak of the great war there was estimated to be about five million Greek Christians in Turkey, all subject to Turkish rule. According to the latest, and most trustworthy, information some seven or eight hundred thousand have been deported, and the remainder are living under the constant dread of being summoned any day to the road and the march. The region from which they have been gathered, and sent to the interior, is bounded by the Black Sea on the north, the coast lines of the Aegean, the Marmora and Mediterranean Seas on the west, the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea on the south, and an imaginary line from Alexandretta to Trebizond on the east.
On Saturday, July 20, 1917, the following orders came from the Army Headquarters at Sheishehie (Endered): 'By July 25 let no Greek man over 16 and under 50 be found in Ordou. Send all such on into the interior. As for the families, we will send further orders later.'
Deportation in Asia Minor is a euphemism for the most heartless and relentless cruelty. It means the loss of home, business property, and every personal possession. It means being driven into the desert places, forced to march at the point of the bayonet until strength is exhausted; being refused shelter, food, and drink; subject to outrage and calculated cruelty; facing, always, death by violence or from the cumulative effect of exposure, sickness and starvation. The people are herded and goaded like animals. the desperate refugees subsist chiefly on offal; graze like cattle on the roots of scanty grass tufts that push their dry and dusty stems above the sandy soil. It is impossible for words to give an adequate idea of the tragedy of bare existence under such awful conditions."