Ataturk's crimes against Armenians

In The Sunday Times, William Dalrymple reviews the book Paradise Lost Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of Islam’s City of Tolerance by Giles Milton. This book is a powerful account of one of the most horrific humanitarian disasters of the 20th century, the genocide of the Turks against the Armenians. According to Dalrymple,

Milton has written a grimly memorable book about one of the most important events in this process. It is well paced, even-handed and cleverly focused: through the prism of the Anglo-Levantines, he reconstructs both the prewar Edwardian glory of Smyrna and its tragic end. He also clears up, once and for all, who burnt Smyrna, producing irrefutable evidence that the Turkish army brought in thousands of barrels from the Petroleum Company of Smyrna and poured them over the streets and houses of all but the Turkish quarter. Moreover, it is clear that it was done with the full approval of Ataturk, who was determined to find a final solution to his “minority problem” to ensure the future stability of his fledgling Turkish republic. A relatively homogenous Turkish nation state was indeed achieved; but as Milton shows, the cost was suffering on an almost unimaginable scale and one of the most horrific humanitarian disasters of the 20th century.