Paradise Lost, Giles Milton

Paradise Lost, Smyrna 1922:

The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance

 by Milton Giles, Publications Sceptre 2008 Great Britain.

The British journalist and writer Milton Giles has not written about Smyrna for first time.

In his previous book “The nose of Edward Trenkom” the story takes place in the capital of Ionia during the First World War The fact that Smyrna’s history was not widely acquaintance in Britain, made Milton to deal with the facts that were happening in that city of Hellenism after the end of the War, which brought to the genocide and expiation of entire population.

Although Milton is a Christian Orthodox his view is not towards to Orthodox Church, and he is not positive towards to Greeks, neither to his compatriots British and the Americans. However, he does not prevent to take an evident place in the question who put fire and destroyed Smyrna. “In our days, he writes, many Turks support the fact that the fire was a sabotage action of Greeks and Armenians.  But there are a number of documents and written descriptions that certify the fact that “Turkish army put the fire in Smyrna on purpose”.

His opinion is based on unpublished material from Levantines who were living in Smyrna and who Milton seems that trusted more than the Greeks, the Turks and the Armenians. Levantines “who were not interested who controls and governs Smyrna, but how they will work and make money, they have described exactly what they had seen and faced without bitterness”.

“Lost Paradise” is not a myth-making book, but a book that refers in history and events.

Translated from Mikrasiatiki Echo, No 396