Let us not forget the 'Morea Massacre' and the atrocities committed by Greeks against Turks

Today, Turkey-Greece relations are being conducted on extremely delicate balances, and the problems between the two countries are gradually deepening. For example;

• Greece, together with the US, has embarked on an operation to encircle Turkey with the steps it has taken from Dedeağaç to Crete—including the demilitarized islands in the Sea of Islands (Aegean Sea). 

• Greece has also entered into military cooperation against Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean along with the US, France, Israel, and the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC), and has signed the Achilles Shield Agreement with Israel targeting Turkey. 

• Moreover,  it wants to seize the entirety of the Sea of Islands (Aegean Sea) and a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean. For this purpose, Greece wants to increase its territorial waters to 12 miles and control 64 percent of the Sea of Islands (Aegean Sea). In this case,  a ship departing from the Marmara will need to obtain permission from Greece to go to the Mediterranean. This is exactly why Turkey issued a declaration in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) in 1995,  adopting the "Casus Belli - Cause for War" resolution.

The aforementioned problems are new versions of issues carried over from the past to the present.

Therefore, remembering and knowing the events that took place between the two countries and peoples in the past is necessary to prevent them from happening again. In other words, this determination is not about scratching the bitter truths of the past; it is of vital importance in terms of foreseeing the future as much as understanding the truth and the present day.

It is imperative to look at the relations of Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC) towards Turks and Turkey from the perspective of this evaluation.

The Greek State and the Greek Cypriot Administration Distort History Through Their Media

The Greek State and the GCASC continuously distort history through their media. There are numerous examples in this context. Some of them are as follows;

• The 104th anniversary of the Turkish War of Independence was portrayed as the "Asia Minor Disaster," and Turks and the Republic of Turkey were accused of committing genocide. 

• In the film "Smyrna, my beloved" (Sevgili İzmir), which denigrates Turkey and Turkishness, the blame for covering up all kinds of atrocities committed by the remnants of the occupying Greek army and collaborating Greeks while leaving Izmir on September 9, 1922, was attempted to be shifted onto the Turks.

• The decision obtained by the Greece-guided GCASC through its application to the European Parliament on September 3-4, 2026, is one of them. During the 2027 EU budget discussions of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, a recommendation was adopted to allocate funds for a so-called monument planned to be built with unfounded allegations against the Turkish Armed Forces.

However, History, on the contrary, has witnessed the massacres and atrocities committed by Greeks against Turks. 

One of these is the Morea Massacre. 

What is the Morea Massacre?

Before the 1821 rebellion began, Turks, Greeks, and Jews lived intertwined in the Morea. No Muslim Turk had anticipated that their Greek neighbor would show up at their door to kill them. However, the imperial powers of the West supported the Greek rebellion to gain a share of the Ottoman Empire's territories.

But for this purpose, the thesis that the cultural and secular roots of the civilization Europe possessed originated from Ancient Greece was put forward and accepted. Committees in many European countries, primarily Britain, and in America collected money and contributed by sending volunteer groups to the rebellion.

With the Greek rebellion, in the first stage, the city of Tripolitsa in the Morea was continuously besieged by 50–60 thousand Greeks for 5 months. Greek rebels carried out one of the greatest massacres in history in Tripolitsa 205 years ago on September 23, 1821. In the attacks that froze the blood of witnesses, almost all of the nearly 40 thousand Turks in the city were brutally killed within 3 days.(*)

When the rebellion began, it was estimated that a Muslim population of over 90 thousand lived on the Morea Peninsula. When independence was declared, no trace of this population remained. The survivors had to leave their homeland behind and migrate from the Morea. 

Throughout the 1821 rebellion, hunger and death became a natural part of daily life in the Morea. Not only Turks but also the Jews in the region took their share of this ruthless massacre.

However, the massacre carried out against the Turks during the 1821 Rebellion was reflected to the public opinion of Western imperial countries in a distorted manner. 

Because the reports sent outside of Greece were prepared by intellectual romantics who had not participated in the war and lived in Athens, they were written in proportions suitable for the ideals of the Greeks. In these reports, contrary to the actual truth, it was written that the Turks were committing massacres. 

While the European public condemned the Turks, they did not know that it was the Greeks who committed barbarism and started the massacre.

On the other hand, foreign sources covering the murders and massacres committed by Greeks against Turks in the Morea began to be destroyed one by one from the libraries of America, France, Germany, and England in the following years. 

What Did Foreign Authors and Historians Say About the Morea Massacre?

• One of the works attempted to be destroyed is the book "Death and Exile" by author McCarthy.

  In his book, McCarthy wrote that the nationalist slogan of the uprising was the discourse pouring from the mouth of Germanos, the Bishop of Patras (Balyabadra); "Peace to the Christians! Respect to the consuls! Death to the Turks!"

• Historian David Howarth examined one by one the books, articles, and diaries written by British, Italian, French, and German officers and journalists who had observed the 1821 revolution on site after returning to their countries, and reflected the massacre committed against the Turks in the Morea in an exemplary manner.

• Scottish Colonel Thomas Gordon wanted these horrific and shameful events he saw in Tripolitsa to be known forever: "Within two days, not a single living soul remained in the city where tens of thousands of Turks lived. Most of them were killed by having their heads, arms, and legs cut off," he said.

• Historian N. Lorga conveys the Greeks' capture of Tripolitsa on October 5, 1821, as follows: "The Greeks, who had no trace of discipline in them, set the place in blood and fire in a more terrible way than the most savage Asians. Except for those from whom they hoped for ransom, they tore everyone to pieces, including women and children. One of the ringleaders estimates the number of Turks killed in and around Tripolitsa to be 32 thousand, which is many times higher than the number of Greeks killed during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Nothing was left of the city of Tripolitsa but a smoking ruin."

• British author William St. Clair described the Greek massacres in the Morea with these striking sentences: "They were destroyed without the world knowing. Over 20 thousand Turkish men, women, and children were massacred by their Greek neighbors during slaughters that lasted for several weeks. They were killed deliberately and without remorse."

• The notes pouring from the pen of Lütfi Efendi, one of the witnesses, were as follows: "With the uprising of the Greeks, the Turks, who had made the Morea their homeland for about four centuries, were subjected to very severe attacks by the rebels. As far as can be understood from the observations of some European authors who joined the rebellion to support the Greeks but were startled by the brutality they saw, these savage murders by the Greeks bore the exact characteristics of a genocide."

In short, in order to understand our present and our future, let us not forget the Morea Massacre committed by Greece against the Turks. 

Our Call to the Greek People  

Despite the unfriendly approaches of Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration towards Turks and Turkey in the past and present, we still want to make a call to the Greek people:

"Take into consideration the Friendship relations during the Atatürk and Venizelos Era (**).

Do not forget the philanthropy of the Turkish people who opened their arms to you during the great famine and civil war. Remember the SS Kurtuluş (***).

Try to coexist in peace with Turkey and the Turks in the Sea of Islands (Aegean Sea) and the Mediterranean.

Do not become the pawn of imperial powers like the US, France, and Israel again as in the past (****),

Say no to colonization (*****),

Western Thrace Turks (******) and 

the Turkish cultural identity of the Rhodes and Kos (İstanköy) Turks (*******)."

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Notes for the Curious:

(*) Ali Fuat Örenç. The Morea Turks Destroyed During the Independence Process of Greece https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/701016; Salâhi R. Sonyel. How Were the Turks in the Morea Destroyed During the Days of the Greek Uprising? Belleten Turkish Historical Society Issue: April 1998, Volume 62 - Issue 233 Pages: 107-120

(**) Zafer Çakmak. Venizelos Nominating Atatürk for the Nobel Peace Prize. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/670789

(***) http://kizilaytarih.org/dosya014.html. Those who died of starvation on the streets of Athens during the Second World War were being transported to mass graves by trucks. 70,000 people had died of starvation. Turkey had sent 2,000 tons of food aid with the SS Kurtuluş.  

(****) Nilüfer Erdem, 2021 The Collapse of the Megali Idea Dream Supported by Imperial Powers: The Anatolian Defeat or the Asia Minor Disaster. (Ed.) Kaymakçı, M., C. Özgün, N. Erdem (In;) The Turkish Image in Greek Perception (Its Origins and Cultural Ways Out for Friendship) Publications of the Rhodes, Kos and Dodecanese Turks Culture and Solidarity Association

(*****) https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/dunya/yunan-basini-duyurdu-abdnin-dedeagactaki-yeni-askeri-ussu-faaliyete-gecmeye-hazirlaniyor-1973619

(******)http://www.bttdd.org.tr/sorunlarimiz/bati-trakya-turklerinin-sorunlari.html

(*******) Mustafa Kaymakçı, 2017. "Encyclopedia of Rhodes and Kos Turkishness", Publications of the Rhodes, Kos and Dodecanese Turks Culture and Solidarity Association

September 16, 2026