Paradise lost : Smyrna 1922 : the destruction of a Christian city in the Islamic world / Giles Milton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Milton, Giles.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Greco-Turkish War, 1921-1922.

Atatürk, Kemal, 1881-1938.

Atatürk, Kemal.

Massacres--Turkey--İzmir.

Massacres.

World War, 1914-1918--Peace.

World War, 1914-1918.

Peace.

Islam--Relations--Christianity.

Islam.

Relations.

Christianity.

Greeks--Turkey--20th century.

Greeks.

Civilization.

İzmir (Turkey)--History.

İzmir (Turkey).

Turkey--History--1918-1960.

Turkey.

History.

Turkey--Civilization--20th century.

Turkey--History--Ottoman Empire, 1288-1918.

Turkey--İzmir.

Physical Description:

426 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, 2008.

Summary:

On Saturday, September 9th, 1922, the victorious Turkish cavalry rode into Smyrna, the richest and most cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman Empire. The city's vast wealth had been created centuries earlier by powerful Levantine dynasties, and its factories teemed with Greeks, Armenians, Turks, and Jews. Together, they had created a majority Christian city that was unique in the Islamic world. But to the Turkish nationalists, Smyrna was a city of infidels. In Paradise Lost, best-selling author and journalist Giles Milton tells the largely unknown story of destruction of this extraordinarily heterogeneous, tolerant city-a disaster that would prefigure the coming clash of civilizations between East and West.

In the aftermath of the First World War and with the support of the Great Powers, Greece had invaded Turkey with the aim of restoring a Christian empire in Asia. But by the summer of 1922, the Greeks had been vanquished by Ataturk's armies after three years of warfare. As Greek troops retreated, the non-Muslim civilians of Smyrna assumed that American and European warships would intervene if and when the Turkish cavalry decided to enter the city. But this was not to be.

The Turkish troops rampaged first through the Armenian quarter, and then throughout the rest of the city. They looted homes, raped women, and murdered untold thousands. Turkish soldiers were seen dousing buildings with petroleum. Soon, all but the Turkish quarter of the city was in flames and half a million refugees crowded the waterfront, desperate to escape. Twenty-one allied battleships were anchored in the harbor-their captains under strict orders not to rescue the Greek and Armenian men, women, and children who were being tortured, raped, and killed before their eyes. The city burned for four days; by the time the embers cooled, more than 100,000 people had been killed and millions left homeless.

Unfolding through eyewitness accounts and the memories of survivors, many interviewed for the first time, Paradise Lost offers a vivid narrative account of one of the most vicious military catastrophes of the modern age.

Contents:

Map of Turkey and Greece: 1922 XVI

Map of Smyrna: 1922 XVIII

Map of the Greek Military Advance XIX

Part 1 Paradise

Wheel of Fortune 3

The Great Idea 29

Enemy Aliens 54

Rahmi's Double Game 69

Saving the Enemy 89

Part 2 Serpents in Paradise

Peace and War 111

Blood on the Quayside 135

Ex Oriente Lux 152

The Shattered Vase 171

Into the Desert 198

Part 3 Paradise Lost

Wednesday, 6 September 1922 221

Thursday, 7 September 1922 232

Friday, 8 September 1922 240

Saturday, 9 September 1922 249

Sunday, 10 September 1922 261

Monday, 11 September 1922 274

Tuesday, 12 September 1922 288

Wednesday, 13 September 1922 302

Thursday, 14 September 1922 327

Friday, 15 September - Monday, 18 September 1922 338

Tuesday, 19 September - Saturday, 30 September 1922 352

Aftermath 372.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-413) and index.

ISBN:

9780465011193

0465011195

OCLC:

209637228