In some cases the violent anti-Greek campaigns were directly coordinated with the landing of Muslim refugees, who were tasked with driving out the Greek population and taking over their properties.[31] Tens of thousands of Greeks escaped to the nearby Aegean islands, often in the same boats that had brought Muslim refugees.[32] For the most part the Greeks did not engage in armed resistance, but in Saraköy some Greeks defended themselves until they ran out of ammunition and were killed; only a few were able to escape to nearby Menemen, too large of a town for the irregulars to attack.[33][12] The later Turkish president Celal Bayar coordinated the expulsion.[18] The local economy and standard of living declined significantly, as most of the immigrants were peasants who lacked the skills to cultivate local crops and much property was looted or destroyed by them.[32]