Nicaea
The Nicaea Massacre of 1920
The cave where the bodies of 400 slaughtered Greeks were found, Nicaea 1920.
The massacre of the Greeks of Nicaea (Tr: İznik) in 1920, was one of a series of massacres committed by Kemalist forces in the Izmit region of Turkey. Collectively, these massacres are referred to as the Izmit Massacres.
In August of 1920, a large band of Nationalists under the command of a certain Djemal (spelt Cemal), surrounded the Greek precinct of Nicaea, seized the entire Greek population and later massacred them. Some victims were led out of Nicaea past Lefka Kapusuwhere they were slaughtered en masse. The bodies were later found thrown in wells while others were burnt and found piled up in a cave. Thomas Anastasiadis lived through the Nicaea massacre. In an oral interview he recounted:
“For 75 days the chettes had blocked off the Greek neighborhood of Nicaea. Nobody could leave. They had placed objects blocking the four exit gates of the town. The entire town of Nicaea was closed in. On the 14th of August [1920], on the eve of the feast day of the Virgin Mary, the day on which our church celebrated, the chettes gathered all the Greeks of Nicaea, 87 families, and lead them out of Lefke Kapusu, eastwards, to the pastures. There they were all slaughtered with German bayonets. They threw the bodies inside a cave and burnt them. They didn’t spare the church either; they destroyed it. They raped women on the altar. Twenty days after the slaughter, the Hellenic Army entered the town and 1
stayed for 3 days then left. They did not retaliate on the local Turks who were not to blame for what happened.”
The testimony of Haralampos Pliziotis, a member of the Hellenic army revealed the extent of the massacre:
“A few of us went for a walk outside of Nicaea to look for the slaughtered Christians. On the ground, we saw heads, hands, legs and other body parts scattered all over the place. Anyone that witnessed it would have lapsed into a state of delirium. A little further down we saw three wells filled with bodies from top to bottom. Then finally we found the cave where we saw roughly 400 bodies of varying ages, piled up, slaughtered in different ways. We couldn’t stay even a single minute as we began feeling dizzy and on the verge of being sick. We immediately left and went to the Greek neighborhood which was terrifyingly quiet, and then went to the church of Saint Sophia, an old Byzantine church, but couldn’t tell if it was a church or a barn.”
Stathis Lolosidis was a native of Nicaea and was able to witness the massacre of his town folk by hiding behind a bush. He recounted:
“They slaughtered the men with great knives chopping at them; and the women – starting with little girls of six years old to elderly women – they would rape and then slaughter… Up until noon they raped and they butchered and turned human flesh into tiny little pieces and then they brought carts and picked up the body parts. From my own family they killed my wife Olga, my mother Sofia, my brother Kostas, my child Sofia. I had no one else. “
War correspondent Kostas Faltaits was able to interview one of the few survivors of the Nicaea massacre and compiled a list of victims’ names.
THE BLACK BOOK OF NICAEA
UNENDING CATALOGUE OF MOURNING – BLOOD CALLS FOR REVENGE
FROM EMBROS’S POSTED CORRESPONDENT
KIOS [GEMLIK],
April.
I managed to compile, from the only living survivor of the Greek town of Nicaea [İznik],
a list of Greeks who were massacred by the Turks last August. Since neither the Metropolis of Nicaea, nor any other official body bothered to compile the names of the victims of such a shocking crime, I think it’s relevant even today, some months later, to publish the names of these martyred victims. The facts of the massacre which occurred within a few hours, without exception of any citizens of the town, is the only thing that can be presented in the chronicle of such an atrocity.
Here are the names by family:
Family Nikolaos Anastasiadis; 7 people
Savvas Anastasiadis; 2
Savvas Psomas; 6
Efthimios Psomas; 6
Pavlos Raptis; 13
Phillip Raptis 6
Efstathios Simeonidis; 6
Evsimani Simeonidis; 3
Gregory Vasiliou; 8
Sultana Vasiliou; 5
George Simeonidis; 3
Jordan Simeonidis; 4
Stylianos Hatzivasilliou; 5
Kyriakos Theodorakis; 7
Elenko Keyvelis; 2
Savvas Keyvelis; 5
Michail Papageorgiou; 6
Panagis Papageorgiou; 7
Jordan Papajordan; 8
Demetrios Papageorgiou; 10
Iovakos Favianou; 14
Lazaros Ladas; 5
Ioannis Ambatzis; 6
Emilios Kesisoglou; 4
Sofronios Hatzistavridis; 7
Theofanis Anagnostidis; 3
Demitrios Seferidis; 3
Anastasia Tsakiriadis; 2
Ioannis Tarafopoulos; 4
Konstantinos Kakoulopoulos; 2
Michail Talamopoulos; 9
Matthew Tournazidis; 4
Michail Papazoglou; 4
George Algianos; 5
Konstantinos Papoutzou; 3
Sultana Gaggime; 3
Vasiliki Kontoglou; 2
Angelos Hasapidis; 2
Efthimios Hatzipavlidis; 6
Maria Karayaka; 4
Vasilios Kavoukidis; 4
Christos Sivrisoglou; 5
Hariklia Kalaintzis; 3
Kyriakos Vola; 6
Michail Samaras; 6
Dimitrios Karaoglou; 3
Elizabeth Vasiliou; 5
Stylianos Koutsopoulos; 4
Dimitrios Sideras; 5
George Naftis; 4
Anthi Hatzis; 4
Ioannis Katemlis; 5
George Katmli; 7
Michail Papazoglou; 4
Panagiotis Mavridis; 6
Nikolaos Koulouras; 5…
Achilleas Tzamtzis; 6
Jordan Paschalidis; 4
Chrysafos Potopoulou; 4
George Stavridis; 6
Evdoxia Devrisidou; 5
Stylianos Litourgou; 6
Konstantinos Armoutzis; 3
Panagis Hatzopoulou; 5
Stylianos Hatzopoulos; 6
Apostolos Tapia; 3
Eleni Rokka; 3
Haralambos Yannakou; 10
Aristidis Vafiadis; 5
Jordan Yannakou; 5
Ioannis Karaka; 5
George Sarris; 6
Vasiliki Dimitriadis; 5
Angeliki Saratzikli; 7
Simeon Nikolaidis; 6
Maria Psoma; 3
Sevastos Evstathiadis; 5
Panayiotis Gianopoulos; 6
Theofanis Paritsis; 3
Alexandros Koukoulas; 2
Alexios Papadopoulos; 5
Harilaos Prodromitis; 3
Ekaterina Pasia; 3
Vasilios Hasapidis; 6
Petros Kyriakou; 3
Hariton Alexandrou; 6
There were more names of slaughtered Greeks which we have not included in this list.
Kostas Faltaits
References:
1. British Reports on Ethnic Cleansing, Minutes of the Armenian Greek Section, 47th session, 29 Sep 1920.
British High Commission, Constantinople.
2. Archeio Proforikis Metadosis (Archive of Verbal Testimonies/Transmissions), Bithynia, Folio 97. Testimony
of Thomas Anastasiadis to Ermolaos Andreadis (1971).
3. Charalambos Pliziotis, Recollections from the Front 1920-1921, Asia Minor-Thrace. From his diary dated 20
Sep 1920.
4. Faltaits Kostas, The Genocide of the Greeks in Turkey: Survivor Testimonies from the Nicomedia (Izmit)
Massacres of 1920-1921. Cosmos, 63.
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