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.
Alaşehir
The Greek army occupied the city during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). There is dissent about who burned Philadelphia in 1922. American consul George Horton wrote in his memoirs about the Turkish army tactics of burning every Greek city they entered culminating with the great fire of Smyrna. Other accounts put the blame on the other side. The retreating Greek army carried out a scorched-earth policy while it was retreating from Anatolia during the final phase of the war, which included the Fire of Alaşehir. According to Park, 70% of the buildings of Alaşehir were destroyed by fire, and Kinross wrote, "Alaşehir was no more than a dark scorched cavity, defacing the hillside. Village after village had been reduced to an ash-heap." It is estimated some 3,000 lives had been lost in the burning of Alaşehir.