MİLLİ MÜCADELE VE BÜYÜK TAARRUZ’A ANADOLULU BİR RUM’UN GÖZÜNDEN BAKMAK

Abstract

The non-Muslims who led a peaceful life in ‘the system of nationality’ applied in the Ottoman Empire without any interference in their language, culture and religion for centuries have become one of the important reasons for the unrest lived because of the separatist movement they made since especially 19th century. This period has reasoned to the Geek’s, who were the most important non-Muslim class in Anatolia, going in action to take advantage of the helplessness of the state after the Ottoman Empire’s reaching its final stage with its defeat in the First World War. Regarding this aim, local Greeks both supported the occupation wholeheartedly and exposed many inhumane treatments to Muslim Türkish Folk by voluntarily joining into the Greek army. Even though the narratives about the atrocities committed are ignored by some in the context of the Turkish-Greek friendship that emerged as a result of a romantic understanding, they maintain their freshness in memories as a case. In our study here, through the memories of Manoli Aksiyotis, an Anatolian Greek who personally took place in the Greek Army during the Greek occupation which started in Anatolia, we will try to present what he did and felt during the Greek Army’s occupations’ period that ended with the Great Offensive with his memories.