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Rating: 
Summary: A Foaming-at-the-Mouth Religious Fanatic's Testimony
Review: .
The title of this sorry tale by George Horton... surely a role model of more than a few Imperial Wizards of the Ku Klux Klan... says it all. Can you imagine describing an entire nation and its people as something that spoils or destroys or causes decay; that is, a "blight"?The best part of this propagandistic sham is that we can better understand the outrageous bias in the minds of most Western officials and missionaries stationed in the Ottoman Empire circa WWI, whose reports are still being presented in this day and age as proof of how monstrous the Turks were. Horton is a combination of consul and religious zealot, an appropriate blend of personality so far out in left field, it's shocking. At one point, he even feels comfortable with quoting the words of a cardinal, "...The Turk (is) the 'great anti-Christ among the races of men' "
Christ has taught us to see that every human life is costly to God. "... for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal 3.28)" False Christians like Horton, who saw the Turks as less-than-human, were the order of the day. (His boss for a few years of his tenure, Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, was not a Christian, but was of a similar stripe; he felt the Turks had "inferior blood.") One reason why their lies came across as so convincing is that "moral" people of God were perceived as truth-tellers. Horton sees the "destruction of Smyrna (as)... the closing act in a consistent program of exterminating Christianity." (The word "Smyrna" - like "Constantinople" - was Christian code for the names of cities already renamed "Izmir" and "Istanbul" centuries prior.) Naturally, the Turkish point-of-view is dismissed, and they get the blame for... driving straight onward to take back their own city from the retreating Greeks, who leave a scorched-earth policy in their wake (offering a strong clue as to the real culprits with a genuine motive), take back their own city, and then... just for fun...BURN it. (Horton's reason: extermination of Christians. Makes about as much sense as the Nazis burning Berlin to exterminate the Jews residing within.) Horton presents himself as an eyewitness, as if he actually exposed himself to danger by strolling far from his comfortable U.S. consul's office. Or did he just rely on the word of the missionaries and Armenians, to whom he lent a monumentally sympathetic ear? Fellow reviewer Johnglu has quickly accepted Horton's claim, and tells us: "Christianity versus Islam in the Middle East. Sound familiar?" Familiarity breeds contempt, and the reason why tales of Christian persecution sound so familiar is because that is the only version told in the Christian West. Going back as far as the Crusades, the ones being persecuted in Middle Eastern religious conflict has mainly been the Muslims. We only hear about Armenians, Greeks and others being massacred, while the atrocities committed by Christian peoples are kept hush-hush. Johnglu also unthinkingly gives credence to "the United States protecting its oil interests," neglecting that the Turks had lost all their oil-producing regions by 1918's end. When Horton and current Turcophobes offer this false reason as an explanation for Turkish sympathy, it could either be out of ignorance... or, as with the case of the racist U.S. consul who had to know better, out of having an agenda. Elsewhere, Nick has written: "Of course this book, and many others like it, is simply a polemic that is aimed at condemning Turks and promoting "Christian" values at the expense of fact... The crimes of others against Muslims are simply never acknowledged. It is from polemics and propaganda tracts like this that the concessions for oil myth derives. That this approach continues is regrettable and undeniable; this book, along with others of the same ilk have recently been republished by a company specialising in 'the republication of classic books' under the editorship of (and there should be no surprises here) of an individual called Ara Sarafian."
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Rating: 
Summary: Eyewitness account of the first holocaust
Review: Although a number of books exist on the subject (I wish there were more), I was hard-pressed to find an account that was not from an Armenian or Greek author. This book, first written in 1926, is a compilation of George Horton's (the American Embassador to the Near East at the time) eyewitness testimony and general commentary as well as contributions from some other eyewitnesses depicting a slice of history that is rarely told or recognized yet would become the prototype of the European holocaust of World War II. The persecution and extermination of the Christian population of Asia Minor including Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian peoples by the Kemalist Turks is a tragic event that culminated in one of the most atrocious war crimes in history - the burning of Smyrna in 1922. George Horton, the author, was present to witness this event and tells his account of the events leading up to and including the destruction of the city with its Christian inhabitants exposed to fire, rape, and murder at the hands of the Turkish troops. If this wasn't distressing enough, he goes on to say, these crimes were committed within a hundred yards of Allied (American, British, Italian) warships that saw the the events take place but refused to intervene so as not to sour relations with the Turks (and, in the case of the United States, to protect American oil interests). It is an interesting perspective given his high ranking political stature and connections to the upper political channels. Horton goes on to codemn the genocide and describe the culpability of the Allies present in Smyrna's harbor. Toward the end of the book he talks about the Mohammedan (Muslim) invasion into traditionally Christian lands, makes comparisons between Christianity and Islam and basically comments on the role of Christianity in the Middle East, its deficiencies, its future, and how it applies to the aforementioned genocide. I initially was drawn to this book because of the actual historical events surrounding this tragedy told by an eyewitness but I was surprised to find the author's commentary on the social, political, and religious ramifications of this event: the Allies, especially the United States protecting its oil interests, Christianity versus Islam in the Middle East. Sound familiar? Although written nearly 80 years ago, there were parts of this book that seemed to foreshadow today's events. The only reason I gave this book four stars was because the author does launch into a few diatribes against the Turks and those responsible for the protection of the civilians of Smyrna. I would have to give him the benefit of the doubt however given the perspective and format in which this book is written, namely a personal testimony of events. I also found that in a few cases, the writing style (of 1926) was difficult to comprehend without a second glance at the sentence or a dictionary nearby. This was however a minor problem and did not affect my enjoyment of the book. All in all, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Eyewitness account of the first holocaust
Review: Although a number of books exist on the subject (I wish there were more), I was hard-pressed to find an account that was not from an Armenian or Greek author. This book, first written in 1926, is a compilation of George Horton's (the American Embassador to the Near East at the time) eyewitness testimony and general commentary as well as contributions from some other eyewitnesses depicting a slice of history that is rarely told or recognized yet would become the prototype of the European holocaust of World War II. The persecution and extermination of the Christian population of Asia Minor including Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian peoples by the Kemalist Turks is a tragic event that culminated in one of the most atrocious war crimes in history - the burning of Smyrna in 1922. George Horton, the author, was present to witness this event and tells his account of the events leading up to and including the destruction of the city with its Christian inhabitants exposed to fire, rape, and murder at the hands of the Turkish troops. If this wasn't distressing enough, he goes on to say, these crimes were committed within a hundred yards of Allied (American, British, Italian) warships that saw the the events take place but refused to intervene so as not to sour relations with the Turks (and, in the case of the United States, to protect American oil interests). It is an interesting perspective given his high ranking political stature and connections to the upper political channels. Horton goes on to codemn the genocide and describe the culpability of the Allies present in Smyrna's harbor. Toward the end of the book he talks about the Mohammedan (Muslim) invasion into traditionally Christian lands, makes comparisons between Christianity and Islam and basically comments on the role of Christianity in the Middle East, its deficiencies, its future, and how it applies to the aforementioned genocide. I initially was drawn to this book because of the actual historical events surrounding this tragedy told by an eyewitness but I was surprised to find the author's commentary on the social, political, and religious ramifications of this event: the Allies, especially the United States protecting its oil interests, Christianity versus Islam in the Middle East. Sound familiar? Although written nearly 80 years ago, there were parts of this book that seemed to foreshadow today's events. The only reason I gave this book four stars was because the author does launch into a few diatribes against the Turks and those responsible for the protection of the civilians of Smyrna. I would have to give him the benefit of the doubt however given the perspective and format in which this book is written, namely a personal testimony of events. I also found that in a few cases, the writing style (of 1926) was difficult to comprehend without a second glance at the sentence or a dictionary nearby. This was however a minor problem and did not affect my enjoyment of the book. All in all, I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: An account of a hidden genocide
Review: I recommend everyone who is interested in the history of Turkey, what was once Asia Minor, and the Middle East, to read this book.
It is the eye-witness account of just some of the atrocities committed by the Muslim Turks on the Christian Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians when the Young Turks, under Mustafa Kemal, began the formation of what is now modern Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.
They also created ashes of their own, by burning the Christian part of the town of Smyrn (now Izmir). A detailed account of that act can be found in the book 'Smyrna 1922' by Marjorie Housepien Dobkin. There are many modern accounts of the destruction of the two main Christain populations of Turkey at that time, but this book is more immediate, more moving, more horrifying, because it was written by an American who lived in Turkey whilst the genocide of the Christians, the Turks who were ethnic Greeks and Armenians.
Officially Turkey does not recognise it's own acts, although within Turkish archives evidence of them has been found. For this reason the accounts written by contemories such as George Horton and Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, become even more important.
This book will help understanding of the Turkish mindset regarding non-Turks, and give some background to the happennings in those countries that were once part of the Ottoman Empire, including the Middle East. It is a must-read book.
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