On 29 May 1453 the Greek Christian city of Constantinople finally fell to Muslim armies. At least 2.5 million Christian Greeks and Armenians, who resisted conversion to Islam, survivors of the Byzantines, were slaughtered by the Turks, many in the early C20. Now there are 2000 Christians in Constantinople and 15 million Muslims.

 

Imagine that you are falling

Endlessly into a dreamscape

Which morphs immediately

Into a vampires' lair

That most say

Was never there.

In a quiet street

In Constantinople in June 1453

A Turk is found drained

Of blood lying in the gutter

Outside an early Byzantine

Church. The Sul'tan

Orders the immediate execution

Of the Greek Orthodox priest

And all his acolytes.

The next day a Turk

Has 'died of his wounds'

(to the neck)

Outside a Byzantine merchant's house.

The Sultan orders the immediate execution

Of the merchant, his family and all his servants.

So, this pattern continues for 500 years

Until in March 1985,

Long after Constantinople has become Instanbul

To all except a few antiquarian scholars and fanatics,

All the Greeks in Constantinople

Have either been killed or have fled

And in a quiet village cemetery

In Holy Transylvania the graves are disturbed

One coal-black night,

Count Dracula's mission of wild delight

Has been accomplished.