Blood on the Quays: Smyrna’s Forgotten Massacre

In September 1922, a humanitarian crisis unfolded on the stone quays of Smyrna, a city in what is now western Turkey. The Turkish Nationalists’ brutal raids had left 250,000 Christians in a desperate bid for survival. Despite the pleas of the refugees, a pitifully small number had been rescued, leaving tens of thousands homeless, destitute, and abandoned. The latest reports estimated that 75,000 refugees were huddled on the quays, without hope, unless the United States intervened.