Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The Greek campaign was launched primarily because the western Allies, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, had promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, recently defeated in World War I. The armed conflict started when the Greek forces landed in Smyrna (now Izmir), on 15 May 1919. They advanced inland and took control of the western and northwestern part of Anatolia, including the cities of Manisa, Balıkesir, Aydın, Kütahya, Bursa and Eskişehir. Their advance was checked at the Battle of Sakarya in 1921 by forces of the Turkish national movement. The Greek front collapsed with the Turkish counter-attack in August 1922, and the war effectively ended with the recapture of Smyrna by the Turkish forces and the Great Fire of Smyrna.
International Financial Control
The situation changed when Greece clashed with Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Greece was in a difficult position, with its armed forces unable to stop the advance of the Turkish army, which had captured Thessaly and part of Central Greece. The country was forced to accept defeat on 4 December 1897, with the Treaty of Constantinople. The treaty put forward the condition that Greece had to pay Turkey the sum of 4,000,000 Ottoman liras, as immediate war reparation. The government of Alexandros Zaimis was forced to negotiate additional loans with the country's creditors, with the disadvantageous precedent of bankruptcy.