The question of who was responsible for starting the burning of Smyrna continues to be debated, with Turkish sources mostly attributing responsibility to Greeks or Armenians, and vice versa. Other sources, on the other hand, suggest that at the very least, Turkish inactivity played a significant part on the event.[1] However, the majority of non-Turkish researchers agree that the fire was caused by Turkish soldiers in order to completely eradicate the Christian presence in Anatolia.[2]
- ^ Neyzi, Leyla (2008). "The Burning of Smyrna/ Izmir (1922) Revisited: Coming to Terms with the Past in the Present". The Past as Resource in the Turkic Speaking World: 23–42. doi:10.5771/9783956506888-23. ISBN 9783956506888.
- ^ Goalwin, Gregory J. (2022). Borders of Belief: Religious Nationalism and the Formation of Identity in Ireland and Turkey. Rutgers University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-9788-2648-9. Archived from the original on 20 November 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
Many Turks argue that it was the Greeks and Armenians themselves who started the fire, but reports from Western observers at the time lead most scholars to place the blame squarely on Turkish soldiers, who were seen igniting Christian-owned businesses in the city.
- Bali, Rıfat N. (2009). The Saga of a Friendship: Asa Kent Jennings and the American Friends of Turkey. Libra. p. 55. ISBN 978-605-89308-3-4. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
The question of "who burned Izmir?" is still very much debated. Most, if not all, of the foreign observers claim that the Turkish Army burned it as it wanted to eradicate the last traces of Christian presence.
- Papoutsy, Christos (2008). Ships of Mercy: The True Story of the Rescue of the Greeks : Smyrna, September 1922. Peter E. Randall. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-931807-66-1. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
Some sources, mostly Turkish, have claimed that the Armenians and Greeks set these fires themselves, to keep the Turks from having Smyrna, but most eyewitness accounts (and only a relative few are relayed here) attribute this fire to the Turks.
- Saracoglu, Cenk (2011). Kurds of Modern Turkey: Migration, Neoliberalism and Exclusion in Turkish Society. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-84885-468-0. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
While some Turkish-based sources have blamed the Greeks and Armenians for burning their buildings before they departed from İzmir (Kaygusuz, 1956: 225–226), most researchers outside Turkey have blamed the Turkish side for orchestrating the fire in order to eradicate the traces of non-Muslim presence in the city (Housepian, 1971).
- Prott, Volker (2016). The Politics of Self-Determination: Remaking Territories and National Identities in Europe, 1917–1923. Oxford University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-19-108354-9. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
..few Western scholars question the overall responsibility in the subsequent systematic destruction of the European, Greek and Armenian districts of Smyrna. For such a rare, pro-Turkish view see Heath W. Lowry, "Turkish history: On Whose Sources Will it Be Based? A Case Study on the Burning of Izmir", Journal of Ottoman Studies 9 (1989): 1–29.
- Bali, Rıfat N. (2009). The Saga of a Friendship: Asa Kent Jennings and the American Friends of Turkey. Libra. p. 55. ISBN 978-605-89308-3-4. Archived from the original on 29 January 2023. Retrieved 29 January 2023.