Was there genocide during the Fall of Tripolitsa?

In recent years, among the many Turkish narratives distorting reality and history, it has been widely circulated that the fall of Tripolitsa during the liberation struggle of 1821 constituted genocide against the Turks by the Greeks. 

The Fall of Tripolitsa took place on September 23, 1821. The liberation of the city was followed by a savage massacre of civilians and prisoners that lasted three days. 

Theodoros Kolokotronis, in his memoirs, speaks of the killing of 32,000 people in the city. Greek chroniclers of the time, such as Ioannis Philemon, estimated the dead at approximately 10,000 to 15,000. Modern Turkish historians and official sources put the number of victims (Turks and Jews) at 40,000. Most modern Western historians agree on a total number of between 15,000 and 30,000 dead, as the city was overcrowded with refugees who had fled there from other parts of the Peloponnese for safety. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 to 2,000 Jews were massacred, with very few survivors. 

According to International Law and Article 2 of the 1948 UN Convention, genocide is any act committed with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. 

Official Turkish rhetoric accuses Greece of "genocide" during the Fall of Tripolitsa. However, the majority of international and Greek historians reject this legal characterization, emphasizing that it is an instrumentalization of history for political reasons, as the events do not meet the criteria for genocide. 

Historians do not deny the brutality of the events. The massacre of thousands of civilian Turks and Jews after the fall of the city is an indisputable historical event, which is clearly described in the memoirs of Theodoros Kolokotronis himself. 

Why it is not considered genocide: 

1. There was a lack of central planning: Genocide requires an organized, prescribed plan for the complete extermination of a tribe. In Tripolitsa, there was no such plan. The Greek chieftains tried to contain the crowd, but without success. 
2. Motivated by revenge and loot: The massacre was the result of unbridled anger, revenge for 400 years of Ottoman rule, the recent massacres in Constantinople (hanging of the Patriarch), and the desire for loot. It was not based on a racial theory of superiority. 
3. Capitulation with the Albanians: The Greeks honored their agreement with the approximately 3,000 Albanian Muslims in the city, allowing them to safely depart. If there had been an intention to genocide Muslims as a religious or ethnic group, the Albanians would also have been exterminated. 

How is it scientifically characterized? 

Modern historians and international law classify the events of Tripolitsa as an atrocity or a savage and massive war massacre (war atrocity) in the context of a bloody and anarchic liberation struggle. 

The Turkish side uses the term "genocide" mainly as a communicative counterweight to the international recognition of real genocides of modern history, such as the Pontic Genocide and the Armenian Genocide. 

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