ATHENS – A performance by a British Turkish-Cypriot singer at a festival in northern Greece in which she sang a Turkish patriotic hymn about the invasion of Smyrni in 1922 drew condemnation and charges that she is a propaganda tool for Turkey.

Isin Karaca was on the stage at the Young Academics’ Association (GAT) festival in the northeastern Greek town of Komotini, where she drew some applause, but was denounced also for singing Izmir Marsi.

It refers to the forces of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk going into the then Greek city during the war of 1922 and setting it on fire while slaughtering civilians and priests and committing atrocities while American and international ships watched from the harbor.

In 1919, the Greek Army had taken the city from the Ottoman Empire and the fall of Smyrni saw Greeks forced out and losing their possessions and homes and a population swap and Greece losing its Asia Minor territories.

The Evros News called her performance an “unacceptable provo      cation” and the Komotini Press accused her of “committing an indecency on Greek soil” that insulted Greek co-performers, no word why she was invited to take part.

The event was organized under the auspices of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace regional government and the Komotini media called it a “disgrace” with reports that she did it to retaliate against Greek singer Despina Vandi refusing to take the stage at concert in Izmir because of a Turkish flag and portrait of Ataturk there.

Greece’s major opposition SYRIZA lawmaker Rena Dourou described the concert as “Turkish revisionism in action in Thrace and called on the Foreign Ministry to respond. “Otherwise, silence means acceptance and all that it implies,” she said.

Greece is in a detente with Turkey, which has been returning to provocations despite that but not seeing a response from the government which is adhering to a policy of diplomacy instead of reaction

Using Instagram, Karaca – born to a Turkish-Cypriot family that moved to the United Kingdom – lashed out at her Greek critics and said, “You cannot write with lies and deceit, and hit me below the belt.”

She added: “You cannot criticize the magnificent people who come on stage and sing in Turkish and Greek. You cannot charge anyone for the great love I experienced on stage with the children. We are human beings first and foremost!”