The Massacre of Greeks at Fulacik, June 1920.

fulacik map

Map of current-day Turkey showing approximate location of Fulacik. Base map credit NordNordWest

Fulacik (Gr: Φουλαζίκ) is located about 20km NW of Nicaea (Iznik) in western Turkey in the historic region of Bithynia (Gr: Βιθυνία). Prior to the genocide, the village was inhabited entirely by Greeks, approximately 2,000 of them. The Turks referred to the village as Kucuk Yunan, in other words 'Little Greece'.

The massacre of Greeks at Fulacik began on the 23rd of June 1920 when a band of Kemalists raided the town and demanded money from the residents. All Greek males over the age of 14 were made to assemble inside the church of Saint George where the commander of the Kemalist band, Kemal of Karamursel, tied a rope around the mouth of Father Phillipos and began riding him like a horse. Father Phillipos fainted and fell to the ground so Kemal cut one of his eyes out. The church was then doused with petrol and set alight while the 300 males were still inside. The houses in the village were also set alight. Those who escaped the massacre hid on a nearby mountain for 40 days without food, surviving only some wheat.

On the mountain, parents smothered their children to death so their cries wouldn't be heard by the Kemalists. The body of Father Phillipos was found laying in grass next to a river. His beard had been removed from his face, the bridle still in his mouth, his clothes in tatters torn by rocks and branches, his throat cut and only a flap of skin attaching his neck to his body.1

The massacre of the Greeks of Fulacik was one a series of massacres in the region of Nicomedia (Tr: Izmit) during the Greek Genocide commonly referred to as the Izmit massacres. An interallied commission of inquiry assayed the region in 1921 and concluded that 12,000 Greeks were massacred throughout the region between 1920-1921.2
 

1. Faltaits, K, The Genocide of the Greeks in Turkey: Survivor Testimonies from the Nicomedia (Izmit) Massacres of 1920-1921. Cosmos 2016, pp. 43-51.   
2. Reports on Atrocities in the Districts of Yalova and Guemlek and in the Ismid Peninsula. London, 1921, p. 11.



 
 

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