Re: CHAT Greeks & Armenians (was: question - Turco-Japanese)

----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 8:55 AM
Subject: CHAT Greeks & Armenians (was: question - Turco-Japanese)


> On Tuesday, November 23, 2004, at 05:36 , Roger Mills wrote:
>
> > Something that has always intrigued me about Anatolia-- what happened to
> > all
> > the Greek- (and perhaps other-)speaking people who were there before the
> > Turks came?
>
> There were Greek substantial speaking cmmunities in Turkey until the 19th
> century. The largest was in Cappadocia - but there were others in pontus,
> Bithynia ans all down the Aegean coast. But with Greek wars of
> independence feelings hardened & life became more and more unpleasant for
> Greeks, and this was coupled with growing Turkish intolerance for
> non-Turkish minorities (see below).
 it didn't help any when those minorities (Kurds among them) engaged in acts
of terrorism, with the support of other nations.


> > Only the Armenians seem to have survived.
>
> Well, till the 19th century, just like the Greeks. 1894 saw the first of
> the Turkish massacres of Armenians, and these massacres were to continue
> for the next twenty five years ('ethnic cleansing' was not a 20th century
> invention).
 out of curiosity, what is it called when each side tries to wipe out the
other?
  (ie, when Armenians try to cleanse out the Turks while Turks try to
cleanse out the Armenians).[FN1]

> There are AFAIK now no Armenians in Anatolia.
  I guess that makes being Turkey's Armenian Patriarch an awfully lonely
job.

 (pretty sure there are still Armenians in Turkey).

> Armenians
> survive today in Armenia (a small remnant of their former territory) and
> the world-wide Armenian diaspora.
 [FN1] - there have been mass graves found - of both groups.