The end of the First World War finds our homeland with the victors of the war. Greece also participates in the Paris Peace Conference. By agreement between the English and the French, the 1η A Greek division lands in Smyrna under the command of Colonel Zafiriou. Its mission is to protect the Greek population and other non-Muslim ethnicities from the actions of Turkish irregulars and from the arbitrariness of the Ottoman administration. Since 1914, the Turks had begun the process of ethnic cleansing. The inhabitants of Smyrna welcomed the Greek army with joy and enthusiasm. In the following months, a military division was formed based in Smyrna. This development did not please the Turkish guerrillas who began a guerrilla war. This resulted in the landing of the troops turning into a long-term campaign.
After pressure from Greece, the allies agree to advance the Greek army into the interior of Asia Minor. Meanwhile, the fate of the territories of the collapsing Ottoman Empire is discussed at the Paris Conference. In August 1920, the Treaty of Sevres is signed. According to this treaty, all of Thrace (up to Constantinople) is definitively ceded to Greece. The administration of the Smyrna region is ceded for 5 years, and then the inhabitants decide by referendum which country they will belong to. The Aegean islands that we occupied from the Balkan Wars are annexed to Greece.
At the same time, within Turkey, we have a conflict of political and military power with the revolutionary Kemal Ataturk swearing in his own government and moving the capital from Constantinople to Ankara. He then organizes a counterattack against the Greeks and Armenians. He secretly signs agreements with the Soviet Union and later with Italy and France and strengthens his position.
1920 is a decisive year for the Asia Minor campaign. Prime Minister El. Venizelos calls elections which are won by the united opposition of Dimitrios Gounaris. King Alexander dies from an orangutan bite. In December of the same year, following a referendum, King Constantine I returns to the country, who is disliked by the Entente powers who found an opportunity to disengage themselves (especially France and Italy) from their support for Greece, whose government had been warned of the consequences that would arise if the referendum was in favor of Constantine's return. Only England continued to support Greece only at the diplomatic level.
In the spring of 1921, the Greek army decided to advance towards Ankara and occupied the important points of Eskişehir and Afyon Karaşehir, without having eliminated the Turkish threat. Kemal, as commander-in-chief of the Turkish army, annulled the Treaty of Sèvres with the French, and at the same time the French abandoned Cilicia, leaving plenty of war material in the hands of the Turks. The advance of the Greek army towards Ankara was halted in the battle of the Sangarion River in August 1921. The stagnation for a year weakened the morale of the army and at the same time gave Kemal time to organize. With the situation as it was shaped by the existing conditions, the Greek government in collaboration with the High Commissioner of Smyrna Stergiadis Aristides decided on the military evacuation of Asia Minor, as early as April 1922. In May 1922, the Gounaris government resigned and the Petros Protopapadakis government took over. Lieutenant General Anastasios Papoulas disagreed with the government and resigned and Georgios Hatzianestis took over. The diplomatic efforts made between the Turks and the Greeks did not result in an agreement. The economic situation of the country was bad and the daily cost amounted to 8.000.000 drachmas. The rivalry between the government and the opposition continued and intensified, as can be seen from the press reports.
the 6η August 1922 at 4.30 in the morning the Turkish army launches an attack against the Greek army which defends itself and is forced to retreat. Other units retreating marched towards the coast to leave and others surrendered. The last units of the 5rd army corps abandoned the small island on the XNUMXthη September 1922. The Protopapadakis government resigns and N. Triantafyllakos takes over as prime minister. On 8η On September 13, the first Turkish soldier enters Smyrna and on the 18th of the month the destruction of the city begins. The fire started in the Armenian settlement and spread to burn down the Greek and European settlements. The Chetniks, uncontrollably, indulged in looting, rape and murder. The kidnapping of girls from the American college is also reported. On the same day, the last units of the army are fortified on the Eritrean peninsula and the organized repatriation begins. From September 1922, XNUMX, refugees begin to arrive in Athens by the thousands.
The result was over 25.000 dead and wounded on the Greek side and more than 1.500.000 Greeks were forced to abandon their ancestral homes after 2500 years, leaving behind over 600.000 dead. According to the data submitted by Venizelos at the Paris Peace Conference, 1.694.000 lived in Asia Minor, 731.000 in Thrace and the Constantinople region, 350.000 in the Trebizond region and 70.000 in Adana. In total, the Greeks were 2.845.000, constituting 20% of the population that dominated economically and maintained its cultural identity in a hostile environment. having 2.177 schools with 177.505 students and 4.596 teachers, as well as 2.232 churches.
The Turks wanted to eliminate anything reminiscent of Greek identity by committing unspeakable crimes, according to eyewitnesses, mass arson of people and buildings, murders, rapes and torture. According to testimonies of Americans, children were burned in schools, Christians were burned along with churches, and a well-known American doctor at the time, MC Elliott, treated many Greek rape victims, while no rapes of Turkish women were recorded. The victims of the Christians included the Metropolitan of Smyrna Chrysostomos, who was arrested, tortured, blinded and dismembered by the Turkish mob, dying a martyr's death. Along with the Metropolitan, two select members of the Asia Minor Defense were also murdered, the elder Klimanoglou who was hanged and the eminent lawyer Nikolaos Tsourouktsoglou who was tied by the legs behind a car and dragged through the streets of the city. The climax, we would say, was the burning of the Armenian and Greek quarters where the Greeks and Armenians hiding in them were forced to come out so as not to burn and fell into the hands of the Turks who were waiting. Before executing them, they were subjected to horrific torture. The murders, rapes and generally inhumane behavior of the enraged Turks forced the American consul in Smyrna, George Horton, to write "One of the strongest feelings I took with me from Smyrna was the feeling of shame, because I belonged to the human race."
The consequences
After the collapse of the front, Venizelos officers with the Movement of the 11th in Athensth In September 1922, they demanded the removal of King Constantine, whom they considered to be primarily responsible, and the swearing in of a new government that would be acceptable to the Entente powers. The king went abroad and the government resigned. An extraordinary military court was set up, which, through summary proceedings, sentenced six people to death: Dimitrios Gounaris, Nikolaos Theotokis, Georgios Hatzanestis, Petros Protopapadakis, Georgios Baltatzis and Nikolaos Stratos, on November 28, 1922, a decision that was considered by many to be predetermined, for which reason it was called the "trial of the six". The decision was carried out on the same day in Goudi, and the condemned were shot. The execution of the six caused reactions both at home and abroad. In 2010, the Supreme Court, the country's highest court, overturned the conviction and acquitted the six of the charges.
The arrival of so many thousands of Greeks uprooted from their ancestral lands influenced the social development of the place. Political and cultural. They were carriers of a different way of life, with different habits and a different culture. The locals, many times, treat them with caution. They came poor and impoverished since all their existing assets remained in Turkey. They brought with them few family heirlooms, icons and a soul and heart full of Greece and Orthodoxy. These were able to carry them through those difficult moments. The Turk could not seize these, they were deeply rooted in the subconscious. With roots that were lost in the depths of the centuries. Asia Minor is the birthplace of saints with a rich contribution to Orthodoxy and the Greek spirit, that is, to Greek Christianity. Many families were scattered and one member was looking for the other. The poor and war-torn Greece had to accept and provide the necessary and essentials, as the mother, to the numerous refugees. To the refugee children, who had no destiny in the sun and whose heads were closed. A problem of life and death. Suddenly from a householder in the place and a master to be at the five winds, in a country the metropolis of Hellenism, but in a state of poverty. They productively grafted their own ideas with those of the locals and everyone came out victorious. After all, they all had the same mother, Greece. They had the same religion, Orthodoxy. They believed in the same God and placed their hopes. With the exchange of populations, our homeland became more homogeneous religiously and nationally. The Muslims of Greece are Greek citizens. There are no Turks in Greece based on the treaties that Turkey has also signed. What is written or said to the contrary lacks any legal or scientific basis. They express the secret desires of a group of ethnonihilists, I will not say traitors, who are pouring grist into the mill of anomaly. They must realize that they are not providing good services to their homeland, Greece, and that they support the ahistorical appetites of the sultans of the region and despise historical truth.
We do not write them to create enmity and rivalry with our neighbors. We will not forget and we will not falsify the historical truth. For thousands of years the Greek spirit lived and worked wonders on the coasts of Pontus and Asia Minor, creating a culture and monuments that, today, are advertised to the entire world to go and admire. The creations of the Greeks. It is wrong to say that the hope "again ours will die" was buried in the ruins of the Asia Minor disaster.
We do not give anything away. We defend the sacred lands of our homeland and the sacred things of Hellenism. We have proven it many times. In the past and recently. We want to believe that it will not be necessary. Hellenism hides patriotism, Christianity, heroism and self-denial.
Let those who dream of greatness and glory of their hearts think about the blue borders. History says otherwise. Let them read it and study it. They will benefit manifold.
Photo Mustafa Kemal at the end of the First Battle of İnönü; Greek soldiers retreat during the last stages? Turkish infantry in trenches? Greek infantry charge in river Gediz., by Crazyyy, under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki
