Anastasis Haranis

Anastasis Haranis (p.3)
Gerenköy

At night, the başıbozuk came down from the mountains, shouting, to scare everyone. There was some killing that took place.

Early in the morning, my father opened the window to see what was happening. Among those attacking he saw a man who was employed by us to guard our farms, Ahmet Çavuş. He was armed.

–Hey, Ahmet! You’re with them? my father shouts.

–What can I do, boss? It’s an order!

In the morning, the bishop of Moschonisia [Cunda] sent ships and yawls to pick the Phocaeans up. My family left on those boats. Some ended up in Mytilene, some in Thessaloniki.

The Seyreköy priest and I took a carriage to Ulucak and from there the train to Smyrna. We had a few Seyreköy and Gerenköy people with us too.

In Ulucak, when we went to take the train, we met the editor in chief of the Köylü newspaper. He stopped to talk to us and said:

–Go on, move on, said the station master, do not listen to him.

Most inhabitants of Seyreköy did not flee, they stayed in their village. They had weapons, around fifty gras rifles. They spread out to different houses and the night the başıbozuk attacked they killed a lot of them. In the morning, the gendarmerie commander from Menemen showed up to talk to them.

–What’s happened, has happened. Stop now and give up our weapons and we will live in peace.

They were convinced and gave up their weapons. And the moment they did, the Turks attacked and killed them all.

In one house in particular, there were ten families from Gerenköy gathered, and a man called Yiannis Skoufos. The Turks caught him, cut off his arms and nailed him to the wall. Another man, Vangelis Kehayas, had his head cut off; it fell on his mother’s lap.

When people saw that, they started running. Those who fled reached Ulucak. There, the gendarmerie arrested them and, under the threat of weapons, turned them back and took them to Menemen.

When we reached Smyrna, I went straight to the Metropolis (Cathedral). The Bishop, when he saw me, wept. The Greek Elders (the central committee of all Greek citizens) were meeting at that very moment with the Russian consul in Smyrna.

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