Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
king,
Constantine I
, who was married to the German Kaiser's sister, imposed neutrality.
Eventually Venizélos set up a revolutionary government in Thessaloníki, polarizing the
country into a state of
civil war
. In 1917 Greek troops entered the war to join the French,
British and Serbians in the Macedonian campaign against Bulgaria and Germany. Upon
the capitulation of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, the Greeks occupied
Thrace
, and
Venizélos presented demands at Versailles for predominantly Greek
Smyrna
(modern
Izmir), on the Asia Minor coast, to become part of the Greek state.
The Catastrophe and its aftermath
The demand for Smyrna triggered one of the most disastrous episodes in modern Greek
history, the so-called
Katastrofí
(Catastrophe). Venizélos was authorized to move forces
into Smyrna in 1919, but a new Turkish nationalist movement was taking power under
Mustafa Kemal, or
Atatürk
. After monarchist factions took over when Venizélos lost
elections in 1920, the Allies withdrew support for the venture. Nevertheless the
monarchists ordered Greek forces to advance upon Ankara, seeking to bring Atatürk to
terms. he Greeks'
Anatolian campaign
ignominiously collapsed in summer 1922 when
Turkish troops forced the Greeks back to the coast. As the Greek army hurriedly
evacuated from
Smyrna
, the Turks moved in and
massacred
much of the
Armenian and
Greek
population before burning most of the city to the ground.
For the Turks, this was the successful conclusion of what they call their War of
Independence. The borders of modern Turkey, as they remain today, were established
by the
1923 Treaty of Lausanne
, which also provided for the
exchange of religious
minorities
in each country - in effect, the first large-scale regulated ethnic cleansing.
Turkey was to accept 390,000 Muslims resident on Greek soil. Greece, with a
population of under five million, was faced with the resettlement of over
1.3 million
Christian refugees
from
Asia Minor
.
The Katastrofí had intense and far-reaching consequences. The bulk of the agricultural
estates of
Thessaly
were finally redistributed, to Greek tenants and refugee farmers, and
huge shanty towns grew into new quarters around
Athens
,
Pireás
and
Thessaloníki
,
spurring the country's then almost non-existent industry. Politically, reaction was even
swifter. By September 1922, a group of Venizelist army officers “invited” King
Constantine to abdicate and executed six of his ministers held most responsible for the
debacle. Democracy was nominally restored with the proclamation of a
republic
, but for
much of the next decade changes in government were brought about by factions within
the armed forces. Meanwhile, among the urban refugee population, unions were being
formed and the
Greek Communist Party
(
KKE
) was established.
The rise of Metaxás
In 1935 a plebiscite restored the king,
George II
, to the throne, and the next year he
appointed
General John Metaxás
as prime minister. Metaxás had opposed the Anatolian
campaign, but had little support in parliament, and when KKE-organized strikes broke
out, the king dissolved parliament without setting a date for new elections. This
blatantly unconstitutional move opened the way for five years of ruthless and at times
absurd
dictatorship
. Metaxás proceeded to set up a state based on the fascist models of
the era. Left-wing and trade-union opponents were imprisoned or forced into exile, a
state youth movement and secret police were set up, and rigid censorship, extending
1912-13
1923
1924
1935
Balkan Wars extend Greece's
borders close to its modern
extent; Crete also becomes
part of the new nation.
Following a disastrous campaign
against Turkey, over one million
Christian refugees are resettled
in Greece.
Plebiscite abolishes
the monarchy
and establishes a
republic.
Monarchy
restored.
