Mick Hartley

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The forgotten refugees

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Full text [the X thread has images too, which I haven't copied here. Or, better, see the thread reader]:

1. Until 1912, Turks made up 35% of the population of Selanik (Thessaloniki, Greece), having arrived in 1456. Following Greece’s annexation, 50,000 Turks, including Atatürk’s mother, fled. No Turks remain in Thessaloniki today.

2. Until 1923, Greeks made up 33% of the population of Constantinople (Istanbul). Despite arriving 1,600 years before the Turks, persecution and pogroms from 1923 through 1964 drove out 100K Greeks. There are only 2,000 Greeks left in Istanbul today.

3. Until 1947, Hindus made up 47% of the population of Karachi (Pakistan). Predating the arrival of Muslims by 1,000 years, they were forcibly moved as part of the Partition of India. Hindus make up only 2-4% of Karachi’s population today.

4. Until 1939, Germans made up 95% of the population of Danzig (Gdańsk, Poland) when it was annexed by the Nazis. Following WWII, 350K Germans were expelled from the historic Prussian city after its incorporation into Poland. There are no Germans left today.

5. Until 1939, Germans were also 95% of the population of Königsberg (Kaliningrad, Russia). After WWII, 300K Germans were expelled as the Soviets “repopulated” it. Less than 1% of Kaliningrad's population is German today.

6. Until 1941, Poles made up 63% of the population of Lwów (then Poland), where they had lived there since the 14th century. The Soviets expelled 200K Poles between 1944-46 due to shifting borders after WWII. There are fewer than 2,000 Poles in Lviv, Ukraine today.

7. Until 1941, Jews made up 30% of Baghdad’s population, having arrived there 1,000 years before the Arabs. Persecution, starting with the 1941 Farhud pogrom, led to their rapid expulsion and exodus. There are no Jews left in Baghdad.

8. Until 1947, Sikhs made up 20% of the city of Lahore, where they had lived for centuries. Following the Partition of India, nearly all of Lahore's 100,000 Sikhs fled communal violence or were forcibly displaced to India. Today, there are no Sikhs left in Lahore, Pakistan.

9. Until 1948, Jews were 30% of the population of Tripoli, Libya. They arrived in Tripoli before the Romans and Arabs more than 2,300 years ago. Persecution under Italian fascists and then Arab nationalists forced them to flee. There are no more Jews in Tripoli.

10. Until 1974, Greek Cypriots made up 80% of the population of northern Cyprus. Following Turkey’s invasion, 200K Greek Cypriots fled the violence or were expelled, while 50K Turkish Cypriots were displaced from the south. Today, Greeks make up less than 1% of northern Cyprus’

Not only are the Palestinians the only descendants of refugees still embracing violence in pursuit of their claims: they're the only refugees serviced by their very own UN organisation, UNRWA, employing some 30,000 people, which looks after the day-to-day business in Gaza such as education (teaching Jew hatred) while the supposed government, Hamas, gets on with the business of building tunnels and arming themselves for the fight against Israel.

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5 responses to “The forgotten refugees”

  1. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    A very good friend, an Arab living in the UK since his university days (now in his 70s) and married to an English lady, once pointed out to me, that the city in the world with the largest Jewish population had been Bagdad, the city where he was born and grew up!
    Questions: Where might the 2.8 million Arabs in the West Bank and the 2.3 million in Gaza go? What compensation should they get for housing, jobs, businesses etc.?

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  2. Shalev Avatar
    Shalev

    Is this a good opportunity to mention that palestine is a miss pronunciation of the Hebrew word Polshim which mean Invaders?

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  3. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Wikipedia
    The term “Palestine” comes from the Greek toponym Palaistínē (Παλαιστίνη), which was first used by the 5th century BCE historian Herodotus. Herodotus used the term to describe a district of Syria where Phoenicians interacted with other maritime peoples.

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  4. Richard Avatar
    Richard

    One might add the 400,000-odd refugees who fled Karelia for Finland after the Finnish-Soviet Winter War of 1939-40. They were all rapidly resettled in Finland, increasing the country’s population by about 12%. There are still ethnic Finns in Russia, but not in the areas Finland was forced to cede to the Soviet Union as a result of the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940.

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  5. Graham Avatar
    Graham

    It might be fitting in that hypothetical scenario to offer the Gazan and WB Arabs the same compensation the 950,000 Jews dispossessed, robbed and expelled from muslim-dominated lands received in the 20th century, but in reality they’re not leaving those areas. Instead, with Hamas smashed and decapitated maybe the ‘international community’ can cease funding and supporting the Iranian regime’s war against Israel and help the Arabs establish a real, functioning state which can live peacefully alongside its neighbour.

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