CRSV: The Greek Genocide
This case note documents the occurrence of sexual violence in violent conflict. It contains explicit mentions of different forms of sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Background of the conflict
The Greek genocide was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia. It took place during World War I, and during the Turkish war of independence. The group was targeted on the basis of religion and ethnicity (Meichanetsidis, 2015). The genocide was carried out the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas, and by the government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Attaturk. During the genocide, several thousand Ottoman Greeks died, and several more were displaced. Some took refuge in the neighbouring Russian empire. As many as 300,000 to 900,000 deaths were reported during the genocide.
Prevalence of sexual violence
Reports that suggest Turkish troops and civilians abducted Greek village women and raped them for hours or days on end. Men who protested or united the rape of their wives were also subject to sexual violence (Morris & Ze’evi, 2019).
Bands of brigands from Turkey went from one village another, subjecting women to rape and sexual violence (Shirinian, 2017). Women were who rounded up at the Vazalon Monastery, a Greek Orthodox monastery, and raped and murdered them. To escape rape, dozens of women and girls leaped into a river in a Pontic village (Morris & Ze’evi, 2019).
Basis of the use of sexual violence
Sexual violence and rape were very much a part of a deliberate campaign of genocide and ethnic erasure. It was also carried out to deliberately displace large sections of the population, as part of the campaign of ethnic erasure. Sexual and gender-based violence were also used to intimidate and humiliate the Greek population, and as a form of torture and degrading treatment. The systematic campaign of genocide and ethnic erasure was also accompanied by opportunistic sexual violence as a result of the state of impunity.
References
Morris, Benny; Ze'evi, Dror (2019). The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of its Christian Minorities. Harvard University Press.
Meichanetsidis, Vasileios (2015). "The Genocide of the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, 1913–1923: A Comprehensive Overview". Genocide Studies International. 9 (1): 104–173.
Shirinian, George (2017). "Background to the Late Ottoman Genocides". Genocide in the Ottoman Empire: Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, 1913-1923. Berghahn Books
