File talk:Kharput Christian refugees - C.D.Morris - National Geographic, Nov. 1925.jpg

False description

Skimming through Tasos Kostopoulos's book Πόλεμος και Εθνοκάθαρση: Η ξεχασμένη πλευρά μιας δεκαετούς εθνικής εξόρμησης (1912-1922) [=War and Ethnic Cleansing: The forgotten side of a ten-year national campaign (1912-1922)] (Athens: Vivliorama, 2007) I noticed this image in a gallery section of the book, which I had associated in my mind with Armenian death marches, as currently stated in the image's description. However, in Kostopoulos's book it is accompanied by a caption suggesting that the current description and title of the image in the Commons is wrong. In Kostopoulos's book (p. 32 of the images section) the caption reads:

"A caravan of 5,000 Greek-Orthodox refugees between Kharput and Trebizond, during the mandatory population exchange of 1923-25. The photograph was taken by the American C. D. Morris and published in the magazine National Geographic in November 1925. In various republications it is said, mistakenly, to depict the Young Turks' "Labour battalions", deportations of Greeks of Asia Minor or of Pontus, even a scene of the Armenian Genocide."

(Greek original: Καραβάνι 5.000 ελληνορθόδοξων προσφυγών μεταξύ Χαρποΰτ και Τραπεζοΰντας, κατά την υποχρεωτική ανταλλαγή πληθυσμών του 1923-25. Η φωτογραφία τραβήχτηκε απ’ τον αμερικανό Σ. Ντ. Μόρις και δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό National Geographic το Νοέμβριο του 1925. Σε διάφορες αναδημοσιεύσεις της φέρεται, λανθασμένα, ν’ απεικονίζει νεοτουρκικά «Τάγματα Εργασίας», εκτοπίσεις ελληνικών πληθυσμών της Μικρασίας ή του Πόντου, ακόμη και σκηνή από τη γενοκτονία των Αρμενίων.")

I naturally proceeded to check volume XLVIII, issue no. 5 of the National Geographic Magazine, published in November 1925, and found the photograph in p. 537 with the following caption:

"Photograph by C. D. Morris. A section of the trekking train of 5,000 Christians who made their tragic way from Kharput to the sea. Although Kharput, in central Asia Minor, is only 160 miles by air line from Trebizond, on the Black Sea, these unhappy refugees were forced to pursue a circuitous route which streched to 500 miles (see text, page 557)."

Under the rubric "Greeks flee from Constantinople" in p. 557 we read that, shortly after Mehmed VI's departure from Constantinople to Malta, "a Nationalist edict, posted throughout Asia Minor, announced "permission" for all non-Moslems to leave the country before November 30. Upon this notification the remaining Christian population of inner Anatolia arose en masse and fled for the Black Sea coast. § Almost immediately 40,000 women, children, and infirm -their men being held as prisoners of war- swamped the [p. 559] seaport of Samsun, and within three weeks 250,000 more were tramping the snowy roads towards Trebizond, Sinope, and Ineboli (see page 537)".:

Following this, I will fill relevant fields in the image's description per the info stated above and will be requesting a renaming to avoid further confusion on the identity of the persons or the nature of the circumstances depicted. Ασμοδαίος (talk) 14:20, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

@Ασμοδαίος: Bruce1ee found the document here https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/National%20Geographic/National%20Geographic%201925-11%20048-5%20Nov.pdf // Indeed the text is as what you said (page 537 is p. 62/196 of the PDF file), and (page 557 is page 82/196) -- however this doesn't say that the population in the picture directly was Greek nor Armenians, simply that they were "Christians". WhisperToMe (talk) 15:57, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

Hmmm... the 1914 Ottoman Census File:Proportions des populations en Asie Mineure statistique officielle d1914.png only indicated like 914 Greeks in Harput/Kharput, where the caravan originated from. How did the author of the Greek book know they were Greek instead of Armenian? WhisperToMe (talk) 16:25, 7 July 2019 (UTC)

Update: I received a scan of the page that User:Ασμοδαίος described, and he/she/they is/are correct that the page says this. Anyhow, I won't say for a fact they were ethnic Greek (as I don't know whether the author's claim is accurate), but I will report this on the image file description. WhisperToMe (talk) 22:27, 11 July 2019 (UTC)