WEBVTT

00:00:01.230 --> 00:00:10.010
Telegram.
Thessaloniki, 2 (15) June 1914.

00:00:10.140 --> 00:00:12.090
Very Urgent.

00:00:13.030 --> 00:00:16.230
To the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Athens.

00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:22.170
Around 3,000 refugees from Phocaea arrived today.

00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:25.240
Among them, the local bishop.

00:00:26.240 --> 00:00:32.180
According to all,
last Friday at 8pm

00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.180
Phocaea was surrounded and attacked by armed hordes

00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.170
who, together with the local Turkish gendarmery,

00:00:40.230 --> 00:00:45.030
started shooting towards all directions.

00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.230
Houses and shops were looted,

00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:52.060
the entire Greek population was ousted from their homes

00:00:52.110 --> 00:00:54.210
having first been robbed of all their money.

00:00:55.020 --> 00:00:57.170
Not even the priest was spared.

00:00:58.070 --> 00:01:01.160
Churches were raided and desecrated

00:01:01.220 --> 00:01:06.160
not just by the security services
but by the rest of their employees as well.

00:01:07.050 --> 00:01:11.210
Elderly people and young children
were slaughtered or thrown alive into a well.

00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:14.220
There’s more than a hundred people dead.

00:01:15.030 --> 00:01:19.110
Most of the refuges who arrived here,
especially older men and women

00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:22.170
bear bruises from having been beaten up.

00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:26.070
Others bear bayonet or gunshot wounds.

00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:33.080
Twenty people, critically injured by gunshots,
have been taken to local hospitals here.

00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:38.030
Most are mourning lost children or other relatives.

00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:41.180
After the catastrophe was over,

00:01:42.030 --> 00:01:49.210
the Hoca ascended on the church tower
and prayed thanks for the infidels' destruction.

00:01:50.190 --> 00:01:56.160
Seeing the refugees
–desperate people still in a state of shock–

00:01:56.230 --> 00:02:01.150
has moved people deeply
throughout the city of Thessaloniki.

00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:07.110
2 more steamers came into port today,
carrying more refugees, from Thrace.

00:02:08.040 --> 00:02:11.170
The bishop of Phocaea has confided in me

00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:15.010
that the General Consul of Turkey,
to whom he paid a visit,

00:02:15.070 --> 00:02:19.090
said he believes the truth of what is being said

00:02:19.170 --> 00:02:21.200
but finds the events were justified.

00:02:22.050 --> 00:02:28.000
The Turks –he says– are revenging Macedonia
and securing their State

00:02:28.100 --> 00:02:35.010
because the Ottoman Greeks have been corrupted
by teachers and priests ...[?]... danger.

00:02:35.140 --> 00:02:39.170
The bishop ins[ists] that none of this
shall be communicated to my superiors.

00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:43.040
Governor General,
Sofoulis.