19 May 1919

May 19th is the day chosen to commemorate the experiences of Pontians during the Greek Genocide. It marks the anniversary of 19 May 1919 when Mustafa Kemal landed at Samsun/Sampsounta by ship.  Theofanis Malkidis writes that “19 May 1919 is the date of the landing of Mustafa Kemal in Samsun, it is the beginning of the second and more severe phase of the Pontian Genocide” (Η 19η Μαΐου 1919 ημερομηνία την αποβίβασης του Μουσταφά Κεμάλ στη Σαμψούντα, είναι η αρχή για τη δεύτερη και πιο σκληρή φάση της Ποντιακής Γενοκτονίας). It is claimed that on reaching Samsun, Kemal immediately initiated a ruthless and violent campaign against the Greeks in that region.

What is rather peculiar, however, is that no detailed narrative on the atrocities accompanying Kemal's landing seem to exist.  Indeed, books and articles by the known commentators on this issue—Konstantinos Fotiadis, Mihalis Charalambidis, Theofanis Malkidis—all testify to the significance of this day in the calendar of persecutions of Pontic Greeks but none of their works actually offer any account on the atrocities that supposedly accompanied and followed Kemal's landing. So what did happen on May 19th and the days following it?

On Tuesday morning 19 May 1919 Mustafa Kemal arrived at Samsun on the British-built steamer Bandirma which had departed from Constantinople’s Galata Bridge on the evening of May 16th.  Kemal, accompanied by military personnel and administrative staff, had recently been appointed Inspector General of the newly organized Ninth Army.  Bülent Gökay writes that “Kemal’s appointment was in fact prompted by the Allies’ demand to the Ottoman government to stop the harassment of the Christian villages in the province of Samsun by local Muslim bands. (…) The inspector general was to be basically responsible for peacekeeping and demobilisation.”  However, as all sources agree, Kemal disregarded these orders and began organizing a resistance movement that eventually would rid Turkey of foreign occupation; including, the Hellenic troops at Smyrna/Izmir; the French in Adana; the Italians in Antalya and Konya; the British in Urfa, Marash, Antep, Marsivan and Samsun.

One report speculated in advance that a renewal of atrocities against the Christian population in Samsun might accompany the initial stages of Kemal's movement:

“I consider that an outbreak directed probably in the main against native Christians is very probable, and I am to-day in receipt of very disquieting reports from Mr. Hurst, the officer in the Levant Consular Service, who is now at Samsoun.  Mr. Hurst states that Mustapha Kemal, who was sent there, with the best intentions, by his Highness Ferid Pasha, is organising a movement which is only too likely to find an outlet for its energies in massacres.” 

So far as atrocities, the accounts available described a far less eventful landing in Samsun with no evidence of ill-treatment towards the Christian populations.  For example, a telegram sent from Samsun on May 21st 1919 by the aforementioned Captain Hurst of the British navy to Vice-Admiral Sir A. Calthorpe reads:

“The general situation has been calmer for the last few days. There has been a lull as regards brigandage, except perhaps round Alacham.”

At that time British troops were stationed in Samsun and Kemal was being carefully observed by the British.  In fact, Kemal's movements and operations were so heavily restricted in Samsoun that he moved promptly inland to Amasya, via Havza, where he could operate more freely.

On 25 May 1919 Kemal traveled to the town of Havza, a town 50 miles inland on the road from Samsun to Amasya.  His residence at Havza was the Mesudiye Hotel.  According to some sources, it was in Havza where he met a Bolshevik delegation.  On 12 June 1919 Kemal went to Amasya, a further 50 miles inland.  While in Amasya, Kemal met with other regional nationalist commanders— including Ali Fuat Cebesoy and Huseyin Rauf Orbay—and together they drafted the first declaration of resistance against the foreign powers. The declaration was forwarded to all civil and military authorities in Anatolia.  The declaration claimed the country was in great danger and it also undermined the government in Constantinople claiming it was incapable of saving Turkey.

Although it is widely documented that Kemalist authorities continued the genocidal practices of the Young Turks (or CUP) towards the Greeks and other Christians in the Empire on a systematic scale, there is no evidence to suggest that this particular dimension of the Kemalist movement developed at the time of Kemal’s landing in Samsun or the days immediately following it.  For this region and at this time, the literature and documentation available confirms that Mustafa Kemal was far more concerned with achieving an independent Turkey than with the annihilation of Ottoman Greeks.  In any case, the British presence at Samsun prevented any attack on the Greek communities in that region.

In light of this, we might ask whether 19 May 1919 really makes for a fitting day for remembrance; in that, does it accurately symbolize the sufferings of Pontic Greeks during the Genocide?

The opening line of Mustafa Kemal’s famous October 1927 speech giving his account of the Turkish Nationalist Movement was “I landed at Samsun on the 19th May, 1919” and, as such, the day is viewed by Turks as the beginning of a victorious ‘war of independence’.  During his presidency of the Republic of Turkey, Kemal himself designated May 19th as a national holiday, a Youth and Sports Day. To this day, May 19th continues to be a national holiday in Turkey celebrated by Turkish school children and students across the country.  It is now more commonly known as the Atatürk'ü Anma, Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı [Remembrance of Ataturk, Youth and Sports Day].

However, it was only in the early 1990s that certain Pontic Greek groups began calling for 19 May to be a day of remembrance for Greeks of the Pontus region and on 4 February 1994 following intense lobbying led by Pontian politician Michalis Charalambidis, a Greek parliamentary decree designated May 19th as a day of remembrance.  In an interview Konstantinos Fotiadis revealed that it was in fact politician Mihalis Charalambidis who decided on the date of May 19th (Αυτός είναι που προτείνει την καθιέρωση της 19ης Μαΐου ως μέρα μνήμης της Ποντιακής γενοκτονίας και την υιοθετεί το Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο).  In other words, the decision was not based on any historical study but merely on a politician's whim and perhaps this explains why the historical accounts do not coincide with the claims.  Fotiadis has also identified Charalambidis as the "ideological protagonist" (ιδεολογικό πρωταγωνιστή) of the so-called "Pontian Genocide" thesis.

Given that May 19th had been celebrated and commemorated for several decades in Turkey, unsurprisingly Turks viewed this as an act of provocation.  Ironically, it is not unknown for Pontic Greeks to criticize the Turks for celebrating May 19th on 'their' day of commemoration, suggesting a reordering of the marking of this day by Greeks and Turks.  

On a separate note, September 14th has been designated by Greek Law 2645/98 as a day of remembrance for all victims of the Greek Genocide.  The 14 September 1922 marks the peak of the Smyrna Holocaust, when the fire which engulfed the city of Smyrna was at its peak and ferocious massacres of Greeks were taking place. The Smyrna Holocaust is widely viewed as part of the final phase of the near-decade-long genocidal campaign against the Ottoman Greeks. Therefore, September 14th is a symbolic day for all Ottoman Greeks and proves a fitting day for commemorating all those lost in the Greek Genocide without establishing a hierarchy of victims. In fact, a number of prominent Pontic Greeks have commented that the designation of separate dates for remembrance of the Greek Genocide causes considerable confusion and serves only to divide diasporic Ottoman Greek communities.  In some cases, it has even led people to believe that the genocide began in 1919 which, of course, erases the five year period 1914-1918 under the Committee of Union and Progress or Young Turks when systematic and widespread deportations and massacres were taking place.