Eleftherios Venizelos was one of the greatest figures of contemporary Hellenism. Without a doubt he fought for the country committing, fatally, like all who act, his own mistakes. He was involved in the National Schism which left its mark on the country for years and was largely the cause of the Asia Minor Disaster. One of the most unfortunate moments of Venizelos was that of 1934 when he nominated the butcher of the Greeks Kemal for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The letter sent by Venizelos to the awards committee recommending Kemal was also recently retrieved by the Turks, obviously wanting to take advantage of it politically after so many years. However, the style of the letter and the phrase:"The establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1922, when the national movement of Mustafa Kemal Pasha triumphed over his opponents (that is, of the Greeks), definitively put an end to this state of instability and intolerance".
With his proposal, Venizelos erased with his signature the genocides of the Greeks of Ionia and Pontus. Because how is it possible to propose a genocidaire for the Nobel Peace Prize... It was a huge mistake by Venizelos that completed a chain of others.
Here is the entire letter:
"Athens, January 12, 1934
Mr. President,
For about seven centuries the entire Middle East and a large part of Central Europe were the theater of bloody wars. The main reason for them was the Ottoman Empire and the absolutist regime of the Sultans. The enslavement of Christian peoples, the religious wars of the Cross and the Crescent which fatally followed, and the successive revolts of all these peoples who looked to their liberation created a state of affairs which would remain a permanent source of danger as long as the Ottoman Empire maintained the traces which had been left to it. the Sultans. The establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1922, when the national movement of Mustafa Kemal Pasha triumphed over his opponents (that is, of the Greeks), put an end to this state of instability and intolerance.
Indeed, rarely in the life of a nation has such a radical change been effected in so short a time. A declining empire living under a theocratic regime in which the concepts of law and religion were confused was transformed into a national and modern state, full of energy and life. With the push of the great reformer Mustafa Kemal, the absolutist regime of the Sultans was overthrown and the state became truly secular. The entire nation turned towards progress, with the legitimate ambition to join the vanguard of civilized peoples.
But the movement for the consolidation of peace proceeded together with all those internal reforms which gave the new predominantly national state of Turkey its present form. Indeed, Turkey did not hesitate to frankly accept the loss of provinces inhabited by other ethnicities and, truly satisfied with its national and political borders as determined by the Treaties, became a true pillar of peace in the Near East.
We Greeks, whose centuries of bloody struggles had brought us into a state of constant competition with Turkey, are the first to have the opportunity to feel the consequences of this profound change in this country, successor to the old Ottoman Empire.
From the day after the Asia Minor disaster, foreseeing the possibility of understanding with the reborn Turkey, which emerged from the war as a national state, we extended our hand to her and she accepted it with sincerity. From this approach, which can serve as an example of the possibility of understanding even between peoples separated by the most serious differences, when they are imbued with the sincere desire for peace, only good has come, both for the two countries concerned and for the maintenance of peace in the Near East.
The man to whom this valuable contribution to peace is due is none other than the President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Pasha. I therefore have the honor as the head of the Greek Government in 1930, when the signing of the Greek-Turkish pact marked a new era in the Middle East's path towards peace, to submit the nomination of Mustafa Kemal Pasha for the distinguished honor of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sincerely yours
E. K. Venizelos".
PHOTO SOURCE:TURKISH NEWS