Chrysostomos of Smyrna and Hevrin Khalaf: A common fate at the hands of Turkey.
“The first casualty of war is innocence”. [1]
-SL Buckley
As the Greco-Turkish war wound to a close in August 1922, with Kemalist victory imminent, the Greek Genocide, having claimed over 500,000 victims up to this point, [2] would enter its’ final stage: The Catastrophe of Smyrna.
The Turkish army entered Smyrna, the last stronghold of the Greek Army in Asia Minor, on 7 September 1922, and proceeded to burn the Armenian and Greek districts of the city, [3] and anarchy descended upon Smyrna, where over 150,000 refugees crowded the quay, in a futile attempt to escape the wholesale Kemalist massacres in the city, most succumbing to the subhuman conditions from lack of aid, as ships in Smyrna’s harbor, largely American, were under strict orders to help only Americans, and no one else. [4]
Smyrna in flames
Amidst all this, the Metropolitan Archbishop, Chrysostomos of Smyrna, remained in the city, steadfast in his desire to protect his congregation. [5] However, he was summoned for a meeting by Officer Nureddin Pasha on 10 September 1922, [6] at the conclusion of which, Chrysostomos exited the building, and as he did so, Nureddin came onto the balcony, and declared to the crowd below that “Chrysostomos was theirs to judge and deal with in any manner they choose.” [7]
The crowd did just that, taking Chrysostomos to a barbershop, where he was macrabrically dressed in white, and had his beard torn off, his eyes gouged out, [8] and his nose, ears and hands and chopped off. [9] Left for dead, his misery was only ended by a Cretan whom he had once helped out, the man shooting Chrysostomos 4 times until he was dead. [10]
Today, Chrysostomos is memorialized with a statue in the Nea Smyrni district of Athens, itself somewhat of a memorial to Smyrna pre-1922, where memorial ceremonies are held yearly for the catastrophe of Smyrna, as well as the life, and death, of Chrysostomos. [11]
Chrysostomos’ statue in Nea Smyrni, Athens, Greece
Almost a century later, the autonomous region of Rojava, in northeastern Syria, would meet a similar fate at the hands of Turkey as the Greeks of Asia Minor.
As the final defeat of ISIS neared in March 2019, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, commonly known as Rojava, emerged victorious over Mesopotamia. Having previously defeated ISIS in Kobane, from late 2014 to early 2019, Rojava took on ISIS, and became a secular, egalitarian utopia of sorts, surrounded by the Caliphate and Turkey, surviving against all odds. [12]
In July 2012, as the Syrian Army withdrew from northeast Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) filled the power vacuum and assumed control over the 3 new “cantons” created as a result of the withdrawal — Afrin, Kobane, and Jazira. [13]
Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria, December 2012
The rise of the PYD, however, worried Turkey, as it saw the PYD as the Syrian arm of the PKK, a Kurdish group designated as terrorists by Turkey, at war with them for almost 3 decades. Additionally, the sudden provenance of Kurdish autonomy on the Turkey-Syria border, where large numbers of ethnic Kurds live, was seen by Turkey as a detriment to the then-ongoing peace process with the PKK. [14]
Additionally, Turkey’s funding and support of jihadists in Syria [15] was not just limited to their objective of overthrowing Assad — it was also in an effort to weaken the PYD, such as in Ras al-Ayn/Serekaniye, where the YPG, the PYD’s armed wing, and Turkish-backed Islamist fighters clashed in 2013. [16]
The decisive turning point of Rojava’s future with Turkey, however, took place in Kobane. As ISIS approached the city in October 2014, surrounding the YPG, Turkey allowed ISIS fighters through the border, while blocking Kurds wishing to fight for the YPG. [17] Erdogan also refused international calls to help the YPG, merely stating “Kobane is about to fall to ISIS”, [18] and noting that Turkey would only launch a military operation against ISIS “if it was also against Assad’s forces.” [19]
Regardless, with US help, the YPG eventually pushed ISIS out of Kobane by early 2015, and swiftly began liberating various towns and cities from ISIS — most notably, Tel Abyad in June 2015, cementing their control over the entire Turkey-Syria border east of the Euphrates, to the ire of Turkey. [20]
YPG victory over Kobane, 2015.
In ISIS’ backyard, a new, secular, egalitarian movement was emerging in Rojava, Ocalan’s ideology of democratic confederalism implemented on the ground for the first time. And it worked! With minimum female quotas of 40%, involvement of every citizen in municipal governance, ethnic and religious pluralism protected and defended, Rojava was emerging as everything its’ neighbours weren’t. [21]
Turkey, however, refused to tolerate this, and along with continuing its’ support for various jihadist groups (including ISIS), [22] invaded Syria under the pretext of “fighting terror” in 2016 and 2018, in the latter, conquering Afrin Canton, and imposing upon it Sharia Law, abuse of religious minorities, looting, ethnic cleansing, Turkification, and more. [23] However, Rojava survived, and even took Raqqa without Turkish intervention, despite Turkey’s repeated demands to be involved in the battle for the city! [24]
At the forefront of the aptly-named “Rojava Revolution” was Hevrin Khalaf, an engineer, women’s rights advocate, and politician, who advocated equality and unity between Kurds, Christians and Arabs in Rojava, and worked to rebuild society. She was known to travel to rural Deir ez-Zor after its’ liberation from ISIS to teach children math, and was known as the “Jasmine of Syria.” [25]
However, Ms. Khalaf would soon meet a fate very different from the tolerance she worked for.
In October 2019, Trump, under the pretense of “the Kurds are worse than ISIS”, [26] withdrew US forces from northeastern Syria, and gave Erdogan the green light to invade Syria. Erdogan wanted at least a 30-kilometer deep occupation zone spanning the whole Turkey-Syria border, [27] which would have intercepted the M4 Aleppo-Qamishli highway, even declaring he would invade as far as Raqqa! [28]
As Erdogan’s Ahrar al-Sharqiya proxies entered Syria on October 9, and proceeded to occupy towns such as Tel Abyad, they advanced onto the M4 Highway.
The very same M4 highway Ms. Khalaf was on, en route to Raqqa/Tabqa from al-Hasakah, on October 12.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7589138-the-first-casualty-of-war-is-innocence-don-t-be-so
[2] https://www.greek-genocide.net/index.php/overview/documentation/379-the-greek-genocide-victim-toll
[3] https://greekreporter.com/2021/09/10/fire-smyrna-darkest-moment-greek-history/
[7] https://hellenicresearchcenter.org/articles/various-articles/chrysostomos-of-smyrna/
[11] https://orthodoxtimes.com/commemoration-ceremony-of-ethno-hieromartyr-saint-chrysostomos-of-smyrna/
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaKwjvxukvg
[13] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19021766
[14] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-syria-idUSBRE86Q11Y20120727
[15] https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/turkey-deserves-the-blame-for-what-happened-in-syria-1.4105830
[16] https://web.archive.org/web/20130209210918/http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/5716.html
[17] https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/turkey-kurds-battle-isis-kobani
[18] https://www.dw.com/en/turkish-president-says-kobani-about-to-fall-to-is/a-17981034
[21] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/rojava-revolution/
[23] https://rojavainformationcenter.com/background/war-on-afrin/
[24] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/trump-kurds-syria-army.html
[25] https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/06/hevrin-khalaf-murder-syrian-revolution-jihadis/
[26] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/17/trump-says-kurds-not-angels-dubs-pkk-worse-than-isil
[28] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/24/erdogan-proposes-plan-for-refugee-safe-zone-in-syria
[29]
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[31]
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