Occupation of Smyrna

according to the Treaty of Sèvres At the end of World War I (1914–1918), attention of the Allied Powers (Entente Powers) focused on the partition of the territory of the Ottoman Empire. As part of the Treaty of London (1915), by which Italy left the Triple Alliance (with Germany and Austria-Hungary) and joined France, Great Britain and Russia in the Triple Entente, Italy was promised the Dodecanese and, if the partition of the Ottoman Empire were to occur, land in Anatolia including Antalya and surrounding provinces presumably including Smyrna. But in later 1915, as an inducement to enter the war, British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey in private discussion with Eleftherios Venizelos, the Greek Prime Minister at the time, promised large parts of the Anatolian coast to Greece, including Smyrna. On 30 October 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Entente powers and the Ottoman Empire ending the Ottoman front of World War I. Great Britain, Greece, Italy, France, and the United States began discussing what the treaty provisions regarding the partition of Ottoman territory would be, negotiations which resulted in the Treaty of Sèvres. These negotiations began in February 1919 and each country had distinct negotiating preferences about Smyrna. The French, who had large investments in the region, took a position for territorial integrity of a Turkish state that would include the zone of Smyrna. The British were at a loggerhead over the issue with the War Office and India Office promoting the territorial integrity idea and Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the Foreign Office, headed by Lord Curzon, opposed this suggestion and wanting Smyrna to be under separate administration. The Italian position was that Smyrna was rightfully their possession and so the diplomats would refuse to make any comments when Greek control over the area was discussed. The Greek government, pursuing Venizelos' support for the Megali Idea (to bring areas with a majority Greek population or with historical or religious ties to Greece under control of the Greek state) and supported by Lloyd George, began a large propaganda effort to promote their claim to Smyrna including establishing a mission under the foreign minister in the city. In negotiations, despite French and Italian objections, by the middle of February 1919 Lloyd George shifted the discussion to how Greek administration would work and not whether Greek administration would happen. To further this aim, he brought in a set of experts, including Arnold J. Toynbee, to discuss how the zone of Smyrna would operate and what its impacts would be on the population. Following this discussion, in late February 1919, Venizelos appointed Aristeidis Stergiadis, a close political ally, the High Commissioner of Smyrna (appointed over political riser Themistoklis Sofoulis). In April 1919, the Italians landed and took over Antalya and began showing signs of moving troops towards Smyrna. During the negotiations at about the same time, the Italian delegation walked out when it became clear that Fiume (Rijeka) would not be given to them in the peace outcome. Lloyd George saw an opportunity to break the impasse over Smyrna with the absence of the Italian delegation and, according to Jensen, he "concocted a report that an armed uprising of Turkish guerrillas in the Smyrna area was seriously endangering the Greek and other Christian minorities." Both to protect local Christians and also to limit increasing Italian action in Anatolia, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson supported a Greek military occupation of Smyrna. Although Smyrna would be occupied by Greek troops, authorized by the Allies, the Allies did not agree that Greece would take sovereignty over the territory until further negotiations settled this issue. The Italian delegation acquiesced to this outcome and the Greek occupation was authorized. == Greek landing at Smyrna ==

's coastal street, May 1919. On 14 May 1919, the Greek mission in Smyrna read a statement announcing that Greek troops would be arriving the next day in the city. Smith reports that this news was "received with great emotion" by the Greek population of the city while thousands of Turkish residents gathered in the hill that night lighting fires and beating drums in protest. In Great Britain and France, the reports of violence increased opposition in the governments to a permanent Greek control over the area. As a response to the claims of violence, the French Prime Minister Clemenceau suggested an Interallied Commission of Inquiry to Smyrna: the commission was made up of Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol for the United States, General Bunoust for France, General Hare for England, General Dall'olio for Italy and, as a non-voting observer, Colonel Mazarakis for Greece. It began work in August 1919 and interviewed 175 witnesses and visited multiple sites of alleged atrocities. The decision reached was that when a Greek witness and Turkish witness disagreed, a European witness would be used to provide the conclusions for the report. This system was dismissed by Venizelos because he claimed that the Europeans living in Smyrna benefited from privileges given to them under the Ottoman rule and were thus opposed to Greek rule. The report was released to negotiators in October and generally found Greeks responsible for the bloodshed related to the landing and the violence throughout the Smyrna zone after the landing. In addition, the conclusions questioned the fundamental justification for the Greek occupation and suggested Greek troops be replaced by an allied force. Eyre Crowe, a main British diplomat, dismissed the larger conclusion by saying the commission had overstepped its mandate. In the negotiations after the report, Clemenceau reminded Venizelos that the occupation of Smyrna was not permanent and merely a political solution. Venizelos responded angrily and the negotiators moved on. At about the same time, British Field Marshal George Milne was tasked by the allies with devising a solution to Italian and Greek tension in the Menderes River Valley. Milne warned in his report that Turkish guerrilla action would continue as long as the Greeks continued to occupy Smyrna and questioned the justification for Greek occupation. Most importantly, his report developed a border that would separate the Smyrna zone from the rest of Anatolia. The council of Great Britain, France, U.S. and Italy approved the Milne line beyond which Greek troops were not to cross, except to pursue attackers but not more than 3 km beyond the line. == Administration of the Smyrna Zone (1919–1922) ==

, Lt. Gen. Leonidas Paraskevopoulos and his chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Theodoros Pangalos High commissioner Aristeidis Stergiadis was appointed the high commissioner of Smyrna in February and arrived in the city four days after the 15 May landing. Stergiadis immediately went to work in setting up an administration, easing ethnic violence, and making way for permanent annexation of Smyrna. Stergiadis immediately punished the Greek soldiers responsible for violence on 15–16 May with court martial and created a commission to decide on payment for victims (made up of representatives from Great Britain, France, Italy and other allies). or whether it was an attempt to present a positive vision of the occupation to the allies. A significant obstacle during the first period of the Greek administration was the absence of a clear definition of the Greek mandate. In this context the coexistence of interallied authorities whose functions often overlapped with that of the Greek authorities resulted in a series of misunderstandings and friction between the two sides. This situation resulted after a decision by the Supreme Allied Council that all movements of the Greek army had to be approved by Field Marshal George Milne. The administration of the Smyrna zone was organized in units largely based on the former Ottoman system. Apart from the kaza of Smyrna and the adjacent area of Ayasoluk which were under the direct control of the Smyrna High Commission, the remaining zone was divided into one province ( Nomarchia): that of Manisa, as well as the following counties ( Ypodioikiseis): Ödemiş, Tire (Thira), Bayındır (Vaindirion), Nympheon, Krini, Karaburna, Sivrihisar, Vryula, Palea Phocaea, Menemen, Kasaba, Bergama and Ayvali. Repatriation of refugees The repatriation of the Asia Minor Greeks who had sought refuge in the Greek Kingdom as a result of the deportations and persecutions by the Ottoman authorities, assumed top priority, already from May 1919. The Greek authorities wanted to avoid a situation where refugees would return without the necessary supervision and planning. For this purpose, a special department was created within the High Commission. A survey conducted by the refugees department indicated that more than 150 towns and villages along the coastal area (from Edremit to Söke) had been destroyed during World War I. Especially from the 45,000 households belonging to local Greeks, 18,000 were partially damaged, while 23,000 completely destroyed. In general the period of the Greek administration experienced a continuous movement of refugee populations aided by charitable institutions such as the Red Cross and the Greek "Patriotic Institution" (). In total, 100,000 Greeks who had lost their land during World War I, many a result of Ottoman discrimination, were resettled under Stergiadis, given generous credit, and access to farm tools. Under this context a special polytechnic school was established in Smyrna which soon operated with 210 Muslim students and with costs covered by the Greek administration. However, nationalist sentiments and suspicion continued to limit the impacts of Stergiadis' administration. The resettlement of Greeks and harsh treatment by the army and local Greek population led many Turkish residents to leave which created a refugee problem. Discrimination by junior Greek administrators and military members further contributed to Turkish hostility in the Smyrna zone. The most important excavations were conducted during 1921–1922, when important findings were unearthed in the Ionian sites of Klazomenai, Ephesus and Nysa. In the summer of 1922, its facilities were completed at a cost of 110,000 Turkish liras. The latter included 70 lecture rooms, a large amphitheatre, a number of laboratories and separate smaller structures for the university personnel. Its various schools and departments of the university were to start operating gradually. Moreover, a microbiology laboratory, the local Pasteur institute and the department of health became the first fields of instruction at the new university. == Developments in the Greco-Turkish War==

, summer 1920. In 1920, the Smyrna zone became a key base for the Greek summer offensive in the Greco-Turkish War. Early in July 1920, the allies approved operations by the Greeks to take over Eastern Thrace and territory around Smyrna as part of ongoing hostilities with the Turkish Nationalist movement. On 22 July 1920, Greek military divisions crossed the Milne line around the Smyrna zone and began military operations in the rest of Anatolia. International negotiations between the allies and the Ottoman administration largely ignored the increasing conflict. In early 1920, Lloyd George was able to convince the new French Prime Minister, Alexandre Millerand to accept Greek control of Smyrna, but under Turkish suzerainty. Negotiations were further refined in April 1920 at a meeting of the parties in Sanremo which was designed to discuss mostly issues of Germany, but because of increasing power of the nationalist forces under Kemal, the discussion shifted to focus on Smyrna. French pressure and divisions within the British government resulted in Lloyd George accepting a time frame of 5 years for Greek control over Smyrna with the issue to be decided by the League of Nations at that point. These decisions, i.e. regarding a Greek administration but with limited Turkish sovereignty and a 5-year limit, were included in the text of the Treaty of Sèvres agreed to on 10 August 1920. Because the treaty largely ignored the rise of nationalist forces and the ethnic tension in the Smyrna zone, Montgomery has described the Treaty of Sèvres as "stillborn". However, with the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres, the Ottoman Vali Izzet Bey handed over authority over Smyrna to Stergiadis. In October 1920, Venizelos lost his position as Prime Minister of Greece. French and Italians used this opportunity to remove their support and financial obligations to the Smyrna occupation and this left the British as the only force supporting the Greek occupation. Smyrna remained a key base of operations for the ongoing war through the rest of 1920 and 1921, particularly under General Georgios Hatzianestis. A significant loss at the Battle of Sakarya in September 1921 resulted in a retreat of Greek forces to the 1920 lines. The ensuing retreat resulted in massive civilian casualties and atrocities committed by Greek and Turkish troops. Jensen summarizes the violence writing that "The Turkish population was subjected to horrible atrocities by the retreating troops and accompanying civilian Christian mobs. The pursuing Turkish cavalry did not hesitate in kind on the Christian populace; the road from Uşak to Smyrna lay littered with corpses." == Aftermath ==

(1922) Greek troops evacuated Smyrna on 9 September 1922 and a small allied force of British entered the city to prevent looting and violence. The next day, Mustafa Kemal, leading a number of troops, entered the city and was greeted by enthusiastic Turkish crowds. Most notably, Chrysostomos, the Orthodox Bishop, was lynched by a mob of Turkish citizens. A few days afterward, a fire destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters of the city, while the Turkish and Jewish quarters remained undamaged. On the Turkish side, the events are known as the Liberation of İzmir, while on the Greek side, they are known as the Catastrophe of Smyrna. The evacuation of Smyrna by Greek troops ended most of the large scale fighting in the Greco-Turkish war which was formally ended with an Armistice and a final treaty on 24 July 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne. Much of the Greek population was included in the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey resulting in migration to Greece and elsewhere. ==See also==