Occupation of Izmir

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Greek soldiers take up their posts in Izmir in 1919.
Greek soldiers and civilians at the Izmir clock tower in the summer of 1920.

With the occupation of Izmir on May 15, 1919, the Greek armed forces took over the administration of the culturally and strategically important port city of Izmir and the surrounding areas ( Ionia ). The occupation was regulated in the Treaty of Sèvres (Section 4). It ended on September 9, 1922 when the Turkish army invaded Izmir .

By the Allies of World War I took place Occupation of Constantinople , the Ottoman capital, led to the signing of the Treaty of Sevres by the Ottoman government. In the course of this treaty, the Ottoman government authorized the occupation of Izmir and the establishment of the zone of Smyrna ( Greek Ζώνη Σμύρνης ), even during the negotiations on the division of the Ottoman Empire to protect the Greek population who lived in and around the city.

The Greek landing near Izmir on May 15, 1919 was initially celebrated by the local population, but quickly led to ethnic violence in the area. Izmir was the main base for operations by Greek forces in Anatolia during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922.

The Greek occupation of Izmir ended on September 9, 1922, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk entered the city while taking Izmir . After the Turkish invasion of Izmir, a mob of Muslims hanged the Orthodox Bishop Chrysostomos Kalafatis , the Archbishop of Smyrna. Just a few days later, arsonists started several fires in the Christian quarters of the city, including the Armenian quarters, but mostly in the Greek areas. With the end of the occupation of Izmir, the main battles between Greek and Turkish units ended, and on July 24, 1923, both parties signed the Treaty of Lausanne , which ended the Turkish Liberation War.

End and aftermath

Immediately after the city was taken over by the Kuvayı Milliye , a wave of violence against the Greek population began. The act most seriously damaging to the Greco-Christian minority of Asia Minor was the lynching of Archbishop Chrysostomos Kalafatis. As a result of this act of violence, the centuries-old Metropolitan Office of Smyrna ended within a few weeks. And just a few days later, a great fire destroyed more than half of the city and most of the Christian neighborhoods. From a Turkish perspective, all ethnic groups are to blame and clear accusations are difficult to pin down.

The evacuation of Izmir by the Greek soldiers ended most of the major fighting in the Greco-Turkish War, which formally ended with a ceasefire and a final treaty sealed by the Treaty of Lausanne. According to the treaty, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey was agreed upon in which the Greeks from Izmir, who had lived in the area for thousands of years, were also expelled to Greece and the diaspora in 1923.

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Commons : Occupation of Izmir  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Peter Kincaid Jensen: The Greco-Turkish War, 1920-1922 . In: International Journal of Middle East Studies . 10, No. 4, 1979, pp. 553-565.
  2. ^ A b c Michael Llewellyn Smith: Ionian vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919–1922. new edition. tape 2 .. C. Hurst, London 1999, ISBN 978-1-85065-368-4 , pp. 92 ( online in Google Book Search).