ABOUT GENOCIDES...

Stories many would like to forget.

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) defines genocide in part as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". Determining what historical events constitute a genocide and which are merely criminal or inhuman behaviour is not a clear-cut matter. Some of accounts below may include ancillary causes of death such as malnutrition and disease, which may or may not have been intentionally inflicted.
(This text taken directly from WIKIPEDIA)

A list exists on WIKI showing genocide statistics around the world. In this, the Greek genocide by the Ottoman Empire is listed as having between 200,000 and 1,000,000 victims.

Was this the only genocide perpetrated by the Ottomans?  Well... no.

The Turks did five genocides/massacres over the span of  40 years. A very short period in the big scheme of things.

      Numbers                           Populations affected                    Period   

80,000 - 300,000              Hamidian  Massacres (Armenians)    1894-1896
800,000 -1,500,000         50%   of Armenians                             1915-1923
275,000 - 750,000           75%   of Assyrians                               1915-1923
200,000 - 1,000,000           Greek Genocide                                1915-1918
13,160 - 70,000                Dersim Massacre                                1937-1938

 This map shows the extend of the Ottoman empire and in a red circle the areas where most genocides were perpetrated.

It is important to realise that the Ottoman genocides had one and only one aim.
ETHNIC CLEANSING.
This is a new concept, something that other Empires did not engage into and which probably shows the need of the Turkish population to establish itself over all other nationalities residing in the affected areas.
This TURKIFICATION incudes Pan-Islamism as a state ideology as Turkish massacres have a large anti-Christian character and genocides are mostly against Christian populations.

BUT THE WORST GENOCIDE EVER...

Can only be the genocide of Jews, leftists, Gypsies, homosexuals and other groups by the German NAZIs in the 1940s.
Between 5 and 11 million people were gathered and put to death by extremely inhumane means.
The history is very recent and records are all too clear to be forgotten.
There is a very important Greek connection here as the massacres involve areas in Greece too.
A substantial number of Greek officials denied cooperation to the NAZIs in many cases as is the case of the Zakynthian  Mayor Loukas Karrer and Bishop Chrysostomos, who, when asked by the NAZI commandant Berenz on September 9 1943, to hand in a list of all Jews of the island they handed a list with two names only: theirs. This resulted in the saving of all Zakynthian Jews.
However this has not been a widespread experience. The Greek Jews were all but eradicated from the Hellenic peninsula.
The most numerous Jewish populations transferred to concentration death camps originated in Thessaloniki and the person which oversaw this operation was Max Merten.

The case of Max Merten               

is very interesting and a brief account of his personal history will
enlighten.
1942 April.  Max Merten comes to Greece as general overseer of    
         the Jewish expulsions, responsible for the transportation of
         45,000 Jews to Auschwitz. He was responsible for the looting
         of the Jewish cemetery amounting the astronomic sum of 125,000,000 gold francs. This
         earned him the pseudonym "Butcher of Thessaloniki".
1946 The Americans offer his handing over to the Greek authorities as part of the treaty for the
         handing over of war criminals to the countries where they did their crimes.
         The Greek government rejected the offer and proposed his release because of his excellent
         behaviour and his services to Greece.
1957 March. Merten, General Secretary of the German Ministry of Justice, comes to Greece to give
         evidence in the trial of another war criminal, Arthur Maisnerkei  as a defence witness.

 

         He was recognised by court officials and was arrested immediately.

Interesting fact: The Germans want their war criminals to escape justice.

1958 The German ambassador made numerous representations for the release of Merten and    
         eventually the Karamanlis government cave in the demands of chancellor Adenaouer in order to
         achieve the signing of a loan from Germany worth 200 million marks.
1958 November. The agreement between Greek and German governments on the loan had a secret
         close for the cancellation of any prosecution of war criminals although Merten was excluded
         from the deal. The opposition was alerted and in:
1959 January the government brought the matter in Parliament, however there was a lot of reaction
         both  in Greece and abroad.
1959 March. Merten was tried  and convicted to 25 years imprisonment.
1959 November. Merten was extradited to Germany.
1961 November. Merten was convicted to four years for slander!!!
         against Greek politicians especially Constantine Karamanlis.

And that is how German NAZIs repay their benefactors.

But this is another story...

SOURCES:

PRONEWS
WIKIPEDIA