Though a minor statistic compared to systematic genocides committed in India, Persia and in various other countries, Smyrna was in some ways unique. The torching of that Greek city, now renamed Izmir (Turkey), and the massacre and dispersal of its 300,000 citizens was probably the worst single atrocity committed in the name of Allah, at least considering the brief period of its commission, a matter of only five days. As such, it deserves separate treatment from the thousands of other acts of Muslim genocide. It was also one of the best documented of the 20th Century, as it was observed by Diplomats and Naval Officers of four Western nations, France, England, Italy, and the United States. Twenty-seven warships of those countries were anchored in the bay of the city, including three American Destroyers.

This was an ethnic cleansing ordered in September of 1922 by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), the founder of modern Turkey. The approaching genocide was known well in advance by the Western Powers. The Naval Forces present were under orders to not intervene, to protect trade interests with Turkey. They were present only to evacuate diplomats and other important citizens of their respective governments. .

The City had been founded in 3,000 B.C., and was later restored by Alexander the Great. Previously to the massacre, Smyrna had been a cosmopolitan Greek seaport on the Aegean Coast of what is present day Turkey, with a bustling economy, attractive shops, and a busy social life. Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived there in comparative peace. Christians and Jews accounted for a sizable part of the population; they also accounted for the larger number of the 200,000 killed, between the 9th and 13th of September.

The city fell to Turkish forces on September 9th, and looting, rape, and murder began immediately. This escalated on the following three days, and culminated with the burning of the city on the 13th. The carnage along the seafront then began. With flames

and bayonets on one side, and the sea on the other, the inhabitants were systematically slaughtered. In his book, "Greek Fire", by Nicholas Gage, he describes the scene.

"The pitiful throng---huddled together, sometimes screaming for help but mostly waiting in a silent panic beyond hope---didn't budge for days. Typhoid reduced their numbers, and there was no way to dispose of the dead. Occasionally, a person would swim from the dock to one of the anchored ships and try to climb the ropes and chains, only to be driven off. On the American ships, the musicians aboard were ordered to play as loudly as they could to drown out the screams of the pleading swimmers. The English poured boiling water down on the unfortunates who reached their vessels. The harbor was so clogged with corpses that the officers of the foreign battleships were often late to their dinner appointments because bodies would get tangled in the propellers of their launches.....A cluster of women's heads bound together like coconuts by their long hair floated down a river toward the harbor."

This was, for all effects, the end of Christianity in Asia Minor.