Download or read book Smyrna 1922 written by Marjorie Housepian Dobkin and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September, 1922, Mustapha Kemal {Ataturk}, the victorious revolutionary ruler of Turkey, led his troops into Smyrna (now Izmir) a predominantly Christian city, as a flotilla of 27 Allied warships-- including three American destroyers-- looked on. The Turks soon proceeded to indulge in an orgy of pillage, rape and slaughter that the Western powers anxious to protect their oil and trade interests in Turkey, condoned by their silence and refusal to intervene. Turkish forces then set fire to the legendary city and totally destroyed it. There followed a massive cover-up by tacit agreement of the Western Allies who had defeated Turkey and Germany during World War I. By 1923 Smyrna's demise was all but expunged from historical memory.