IMVROS and TENEDOS

70 years after the signing of the Treaty

of Lausanne

Imvros and Tenedos are two small islands in Northern Aegean Sea between

Greece and Turkey, strategically located outside the Straits of the

Dardanelles, the only communication between the Black Sea and the

Mediterranean. In 1923, after the end of a war between Greece and Turkey,

the two countries signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which, among other things,

provided for the handing over of these two islands to Turkey, even though at

that time they were under the control of Greece and their population had

always been exclusively Greek. The reason for such provision was purely

geopolitical, i.e. to secure control of the Straits by Turkey. In exchange

the Treaty (article 14 and articles 37-44 of the 3rd section) provided for a

special administrative status of the islands that guaranteed protection of

life and property, free use of the native language (Greek), religious

freedom, and generally all human rights. These articles of the Treaty were

considered "Basic Laws", which, it was agreed, Turkey would have no right to

abrogate through any other law, regulation or administrative act.

Seventy years have passed since the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne. There

was information in the Turkish press that Turkey is preparing to celebrate

that occasion. It would be appropriate then to see how Turkey "honored" its

signature regarding these two islands.

The same concern pertains as to how the provisions of the Treaty about the

Greek community of Constantinople (Istanbul) were violated by Turkey, but

this should become the subject of another discussion. In any case, we

believe that the following should be known by all people concerned with

human rights and rights of minorities, about the condition of the native

population in these two islands.

(1) In September of 1923, immediately after the islands were handed over to

Turkey, article 14 was violated by the appointment of a Turkish governor

instead of a governor from the local Greek population, as the Treaty clearly

provided for. In violation of the same article, control of the police,

courts, customs, and port authorities, came under the Turks.

(2) Sixty four lawyers, doctors, teachers, and merchants were characterized

as "collaborators of the (previous) Greek regime" and proclaimed

"undesirables". An additional 1500 persons were denied return to their homes

because they had abandoned the islands before September 1923 (a violation of

the 15th protocol regarding amnesty, attached to the Treaty).

(3) In 1927 a new law was voted in the Turkish Parliament (Law 1151), that

made official the previous administrative measures, despite the statements

in the Treaty that no law could override its provisions.

(4) During World War II, a property tax (the notorious Varlik kanunu ) was

imposed, which called for taxes arbitrarily fixed at many times above the

total worth of the property of the islanders, in an obvious attempt to

financially ruin the population (violation of articles 39 and 40).

(5) At the same time, real estate properties of Christian monasteries, which

offered sustenance to many families, were confiscated and given to ethnic

Turks brought over from the eastern parts of Turkey; very quickly these

newcomers leveled down the churches and other buildings of the monasteries

in violation of articles 38, 39, 40, and 42 of the Treaty.

(6) Men of the islands between the ages of 20-40 were at that time

conscripted in the Turkish Army and sent to the infamous "labor battalions"

(amele taburu), where they were subjected to forced labor in the harsh

winter conditions of the mountains of Eastern Turkey and Kurdistan

(violation of articles 39 and 40).

(7) The bishop of the islands and the leaders of the local communities were

arrested and exiled to Anatolia (eastern Turkey), thus leaving the local

population leaderless (violation of articles 38, 39 and 40).

(8) In 1964 the Turkish authorities confiscated the school buildings of the

local community (kindergarten, grammar school and high school) together with

their furniture, libraries and teaching equipment. The teachers were fired

and were not even allowed to get a job in the minority schools in

Constantinople. Teaching the Greek language was not allowed even at home and

the Greek children were forced to learn only Turkish (violation of articles

38, 39, 40, 41 and 42).

(9) In 1964 the Turkish Parliament voted Law 6830 "on land expropriation" ,

that according to its Article 5 gave the right to the "designated civil

authorities to expropriate land, without being limited by any previous legal

arrangements, and to adjust the amount of compensation according to their

own subjective judgment". Eventually about 98% of all fertile and arable

land was expropriated at prices equivalent to the worth of a basket of eggs

in the local market, thus having been confiscated for all intents and

purposes. In 1964 about 6,150 acres of arable land was owned by the Greek

inhabitants of the islands. In 1990, after all these virtual confiscations

only 16 acres were left in their hands. On top of that, pastures, that

traditionally had been used for sheep grazing, were characterized as

"forested" or "about to be reforested" state lands, on which the local

people no longer had the right to bring their flocks. Thus the people,

mostly farmers and shepherds, were deprived of their farms, olive groves,

vineyards, orchards and pastures. Next to these measures, the few remaining

water sources next to the villages were diverted toward army barracks or

state-owned farms taking away from the locals even the ability to cultivate

the little gardens in their yards. And, finally, together with the land, the

authorities confiscated any farmhouses and any other installations in the

farming areas, and prohibited even the passage of the former owners through

those areas (violation of articles 38, 39, 40 and 42).

In order to further terrorize the local population, the following also took

place:

(10) "Open farm prisons" (agir ceza) were created on Imvros, where some of

the worst inmates from other prisons of the country were transferred. These

criminals were allowed to freely roam the island, terrorize, loot, rape and

murder the people of the islands (violation of articles 38, 39, 40 and 42).

(11) An army regiment was moved to the islands and the soldiers were allowed

to destroy farmhouses and country chapels, to rob, beat, rape and murder

local people. Military outposts were installed within inhabited areas and

did the same things there (violation of articles 38, 39, 40, 42).

(12) A teachers' college/boarding house was founded for 800 students

transferred there from mainland Turkey; the main "teaching courses" had to

do with terrorizing the local population and raping local women (violation

of articles 38, 39 and 42).

(13) Out of 262 country chapels of Imvros, 248 were desecrated and looted

and are now used as stables, army outposts, warehouses and latrines, or were

demolished and the building materials used to make army barracks and

prisons.

The historical cathedral in the village of Kastro (dated from the 16th

century) was put on fire and its ruins are now used as a stable. The people

of the island were not allowed to repair the cathedral even at their own

expense (violations of articles 38, 40, 42 of the Treaty).

(14) On the night of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus (July 1974) all the

inhabitants of the village of Kastro were forced to abandon their houses.

Then the cemetery of the village was desecrated and the bones of the dead

were scattered into the ravine next to the village (violation of articles

38, 39, 40 42).

(15) The Imvrians and Tenedians that lived abroad were stripped of their

Turkish citizenship, thus losing their "civil rights" and the ability to

return to their ancestral homes (violation of articles 38, 39, 40).

(16) Soon this officially tolerated terror reached the point of murders of

local people. In September 1973 freely wandering prison inmates assassinated

Stelios Kavalleros, a merchant from the village of Panaghia. His mutilated

body was found by his neighbors in the bottom of a well.

In the summer of 1977, Styliani Zouni, a mother of two young children, was

raped and then murdered by a Turkish soldier in the village of Aghioi

Theodoroi.

In July of 1980, George Viglis from the village of Schinoudi was tortured

and murdered by prison inmates in his farmhouse.

In 1983 two more Imvrians, Eustratios Stylianides and Nicholas Ladas were

assassinated by settlers from mainland Turkey, the former in the village of

Schinoudi and the latter in the village of Panaghia.

In November of 1990 Zaphiris Deliconstantis, the mayor of the village of

Glyky, was assassinated by a Turkish immigrant.

Of all these assassins none has been arrested or convicted so far (violation

of articles 38, 39, 40).

(17) The ethnic composition of the islands' population was forcibly altered

through the mandatory settling of ethnic Turks from the mainland. Such

people were brought to the islands, were given state subsidies, and were

housed in complexes built specifically for them, or in the houses of Greeks

forcibly taken away from their previous owners. The lands and property

confiscated from the Greek native population were also handed out to these

settlers (violations of articles 14, 39, 40).

As a consequence of all these and other acts of commission or omission by

the Government of the Turkish Republic, the Greek Imvrians and Tenedians

were forced to desert their hearths, where their ancestors had lived for

more than 3,000 years, and to scatter as refugees all over the world. In

1960, according to the official census there were 5,487 Greeks and 289 Turks

in Imvros. Today there are 300 Greeks and 7,900 Turks on that island. Less

than 50 Greeks remain in Tenedos.