On September 15, 1922, fires set by the Turkish army continued to ravage the city of Smyrna as more were being lit.
The nationalist forces had lit four fires around the perimeter of the city’s Armenian neighborhood. The flames thereafter spread and engulfed much of the city, forcing hundreds of thousands of helpless refugees — mainly Greeks — to flee to the waterfront.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes received a warning that Britain was close to war with the Turkish nationalists, as the British had reinforced their fleet and ordered their Mediterranean commanders to sink any Turkish vessels attempting to cross the Dardanelles.
Facing demands from American religious leaders, the State Department began to pressure its stubborn and spiteful admiral at Constantinople to assist in refugee relief and a possible evacuation; however, he resisted, making it clear that he didn’t like Greeks, Armenians or Jews, and that he wanted no part of a rescue.
All the while, hundreds of thousands remained stranded on the Quay at Smyrna, hungry, thirsty and tormented by the Turkish army.
These historic details are covered with remarkable detail by Boston University Professor Lou Ureneck in his book, titled The Great Fire.
An excerpt from Ureneck’s book reads as follows:
“This was no ordinary city fire. Huge even by the standards of history’s giant fires, it would reduce to ashes the richest and most cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman Empire. The fire would ultimately claim an even more infamous distinction. It was the last violent episode in a 10-year holocaust that had killed three million people — Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, all Christian minorities — on the Turkish subcontinent between 1912 and 1922. It would also serve as a marker of the end of the Ottoman Empire.“
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