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In-Depth Information
on, the Allies (Britain, France and Russia) put increasing pressure on Greece to join
forces with them against Germany and Turkey, promising concessions in Asia Minor in
return. Prime Minister Venizelos favoured the Allied cause, placing him at loggerheads
with the king. The king left Greece in June 1917, replaced by his second-born son, Alex-
ander, who was more amenable to the Allies.
Greek troops served with distinction on the Allied side, but when the war ended in
1918 the promised land in Asia Minor was not forthcoming. Venizelos then led a diplo-
matic campaign to further the case and, with Allied acquiescence, landed troops in
Smyrna (present-day İzmir in Turkey) in May 1919, under the guise of protecting the
half a million Greeks living in the city. (However, the occupation of Smyrna stirred in-
ternal resentments and helped spark a series of sanguinary reprisals against its local
Muslim population.) With a seemingly viable hold in Asia Minor, Venizelos ordered his
troops to march ahead, and by September 1921 they'd advanced as far as Ankara. But by
this stage foreign support for Venizelos had ebbed and Turkish forces, commanded by
Mustafa Kemal (later to become Atatürk), halted the offensive. The Greek army retreated
but Smyrna fell in 1922, and tens of thousands of its Greek inhabitants were killed.
The outcome of these hostilities was the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, whereby
Turkey recovered eastern Thrace and the islands of Imvros and Tenedos, while Italy kept
the Dodecanese (which it had temporarily acquired in 1912 and would hold until 1947).
The treaty also called for a population exchange between Greece and Turkey to pre-
vent any future disputes. Almost 1.5 million Greeks left Turkey and almost 400,000
Turks left Greece. The exchange put a tremendous strain on the Greek economy and
caused great bitterness and hardship for the individuals concerned. Many Greeks aban-
doned a privileged life in Asia Minor for one of extreme poverty in emerging urban
shanty towns in Athens and Thessaloniki.
The Republic of 1924-35
The arrival of the Greek refugees from Turkey coincided with, and compounded, a peri-
od of political instability unprecedented even by Greek standards. In October 1920 King
Alexander died from a monkey bite and his father Constantine was restored to the throne.
But the ensuing pol- itical crisis deepened and Constantine abdicated (again) after the fall
of Smyrna. He was replaced by his first son, George II, who was no match for the group
of army officers who seized power after the war. A republic was proclaimed in March
1924 amid a series of coups and counter-coups.
A measure of stability was attained with Venizelos' return to power in 1928. He pur-
sued a policy of economic and educational reform, but progress was inhibited by the
Great Depression. His antiroyalist Liberal Party began to face a growing challenge from
