My Ancestors Escape

PRELUDE There has always been animosity between Greece and Turkey as far back in history as we wish to go. Greece was occupied by the Turks during the Middle-Ages for almost 500 years. My ancestors from my Mother’s side were Greek. They lived in Smyrna and Constantinople in Turkey, there were in fact more Greeks in Smyrna than Greeks living in Athens, Greece in the era between 1919 and 1922. This was when the Greco-Turkish war was fought. The Greeks invaded Turkey, trying to win more land over from the Turks. The Greeks won many battles in 1919 and 1920, and killed millions of Turks, but the Turkish Army was preparing, getting stronger all the time, and they managed to push the Greeks back up to the Mediterranean Sea. The unprecedented atrocities and massacres of the Greeks was horrific. They were packed into Mosques and the mosques set alight and anyone escaping was shot. Civilians, women children, it was really nasty! Their homes and business burnt to the ground. Smyrna was burnt completely and almost the whole population with it, except for the few that managed to escape. The Turks now confident of their military strength started moving to Constantinople. Britain and the Turkish nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal persuaded the Greeks to leave, for the Turkish army wanted to eliminate them. My Greek grandparents were amongst these Greeks and my poem is how they left and what happened. Relations from my great grandfathers side were among the casualties in Smyrna. It was a savage war, but aren’t all wars savage. And so the Ottoman Empire fell into the hands of Turkey. To this day, however, there are pockets of Greeks still living in parts of Turkey MY ANCESTORS ESCAPE There were six in the family that were going to escape, Three women who if they didn’t, would be raped And murdered, like so many millions of Greeks. My great grandparents My grand aunt, Her husband and their two children left Their home in the stealth of night, they were totally bereft, They even opened their door wide, so it wouldn’t be broken Down, with the keys in the lock, afraid to be heard, Not a word was spoken! My great aunt was apparently a beautiful girl, so was dressed Like a boy, hid her hair, and wore her brothers clothes For they were keeping girls for the Sheiks harems, who knows, What could have happened, They were heartbroken and scared, But the worst was still to come, they got to the refugee boat, And walked up the gangway, but there were Turkish officials Checking what valuables they could grab, took jewelry of note, One by one they got through, five of them, put they pulled The youngest out of the queue, 19 years old, and said, you stay, My family was devastated and cried and begged them, But the Turks threatened to shoot them, They would not see another day, Masses of people propelled them forward, it was a very long queue, They finally sailed to Greece without the family’s youngest son, Who was imprisoned it was said, and he was made To break stones day and night, What a travesty for a mother of the group to bear, her son died, My great grandmother got a telegram abruptly saying her son had passed, From dysentery, my great grandfather came home To find her on the floor, She had feinted, still clutching the telegram in her hand. The unbelievable became the believable, the inevitable, the unplanned!