Who won in the Greco-Turkish war?
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 was fought between Greece and the Turkish National Movement during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I between May 1919 and October 1922. It is known as the Western Front (, ) of the Turkish War of Independence in Turkey and the Asia Minor Campaign () or the Asia Minor Catastrophe () in Greece.
Ottoman wars in Europe
The Great Turkish War started in 1683, with a grand invasion force of 140,000 men marching on Vienna, supported by Protestant Hungarian noblemen rebelling against Habsburg rule. To stop the invasion, another Holy League was formed, composed of Austria and Poland (notably in the Battle of Vienna), Venetians and the Russian Empire. After winning the Battle of Vienna, the Holy League gained the upper hand and reconquered Hungary (Buda and Pest were retaken in 1686, the former under the command of a Swiss-born convert to Islam). At the same time, the Venetians launched an expedition into Greece, which conquered the Peloponnese. During the 1687 Venetian attack on the city of Athens (conquered by the Ottomans), the Ottomans turned the ancient Parthenon into an ammunitions storehouse. A Venetian mortar hit the Parthenon, detonating the Ottoman gunpowder stored inside and partially destroying it.
Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718)
The Austro-Turkish War was fought between Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) was not an acceptable long-standing agreement for the Ottoman Empire. Twelve years after Karlowitz, the Turks began the long prospect of taking revenge for their defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. First, the Turkish Grand Vizier Baltacı Mehmet's army defeated Peter the Great's Russian Army in the Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711). Thereafter, in the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718), the new Grand Vizier Damat Ali re-conquered Morea from the Venetians in 1715. As a reaction, Austria, as the guarantor of the Treaty of Karlowitz, threatened the Ottoman Empire, but in response the Ottoman Empire declared war against Austria.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
One of the main motivations for initiating the war was to realize the Megali (Great) Idea, a core concept of Greek nationalism. The Megali Idea was an irredentist vision of a restoration of a Greater Greece on both sides of the Aegean that would incorporate territories with Greek populations outside the borders of the Kingdom of Greece, which was initially very small — roughly half the size of the present-day Republic of Greece. From the time of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, the Megali Idea had played a major role in Greek politics. Greek politicians, since the independence of the Greek state, had made several speeches on the issue of the "historic inevitability of the expansion of the Greek Kingdom." For instance, Greek politician Ioannis Kolettis voiced this conviction in the assembly in 1844: "There are two great centres of Hellenism. Athens is the capital of the Kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital, the City, the dream and hope of all Greeks."
Battle of Bergama
The Battle of Bergama was fought at and near Bergama (ancient Pergamon, now a district center of İzmir Province, Turkey) between the Greek army and forces of the nascent Turkish National Movement (Kuva-yi Milliye) during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. The Turkish forces pushed the Greek army from Bergama on 15 June, but the town was recaptured on 22 June.
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.
Ottoman–Egyptian invasion of Mani
In 1827, the combined fleets of France, England and Russia defeated the combined Ottoman–Egyptian fleet in the Battle of Navarino. In 1828, under the terms of the Treaty of Constantinople, Greece became an independent state which was recognized by the Ottomans in 1829. When Ioannis Capodistrias was made president of Greece, he had Petros Mavromachalis imprisoned. The Mavromichalis' reacted by assassinating Capodistrias in Nauplion as he went to church. The Maniots continued causing trouble and defeated two Bavarian armies King Otto sent against them before they were subdued only after some of the leaders were bribed. This ended the Maniots' independence and they were forced to pay taxes.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
After a series of battles during the Greco-Turkish war, the Greek army advanced as far as the Sakarya River, just eighty kilometers west of the GNA. On 5 August 1921, Atatürk was promoted to Commander in chief of the forces by the GNA. The ensuing Battle of Sakarya was fought from 23 August to 13 September 1921 and ended with the defeat of the Greeks. After this victory, Atatürk was given the rank of Mareşal and the title of Gazi by the Grand National Assembly on 19 September 1921. The Allies, ignoring the extent of Atatürk's successes, hoped to impose a modified version of the Treaty of Sèvres as a peace settlement on Ankara, but the proposal was rejected. In August 1922, Atatürk launched an all-out attack on the Greek lines at Afyonkarahisar in the Battle of Dumlupınar and Turkish forces regained control of Smyrna on 9 September 1922. On 10 September 1922, Atatürk sent a telegram to the League of Nations saying that the Turkish population was so worked up that the Ankara Government would not be responsible for massacres.
Hellenic Army
As a winner of the war, Greece annexed Western Thrace and landed units in 1919 at Asia Minor, starting so the Greco-Turkish War (1919-22), but was defeated in 1922.
Greco-Turkish War (1897)
Despite the end of the war, the uprising on Crete continued – although with no further organized combat – until November 1898, when the Great Powers evicted Ottoman forces from the island to make way for an autonomous Cretan State under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Officially founded in December 1898 when Prince George of Greece and Denmark arrived on Crete to take up his duties as High Commissioner, the Cretan State survived until 1913, when Greece formally annexed the island.
Long Turkish War
In the series of Ottoman wars in Europe it was the major test of force between the Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–73) and the Cretan War (1645–69). The next of the major Ottoman-Habsburg wars was the Great Turkish War of 1683-99. Overall, the conflict consisted in a great number of costly battles and sieges, but with very little result for either side.
Georgios Leonardopoulos
Georgios Leonardopoulos (; 1867–1936) was a Greek army major general who fought in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, the Balkan Wars, World War I, and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and leader of a failed coup attempt in 1923.
Scorched earth
During the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), the retreating Greek army carried out a scorched-earth policy while fleeing from Anatolia during the final phase of the war. Historian of the Middle East, Sydney Nettleton Fisher wrote that: "The Greek army in retreat pursued a burned-earth policy and committed every known outrage against defenceless Turkish villagers in its path." Norman M. Naimark noted that "the Greek retreat was even more devastating for the local population than the occupation".
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
Rudolph J. Rummel estimare that from 1900 to 1923, various Turkish regimes killed from 3,500,000 to over 4,300,000 Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. Rummel estimates that 440,000 Armenian civilians and 264,000 Greek civilians were killed by Turkish forces during the Turkish War of Independence between 1919 and 1922. However, he also gives the figures in his study between 1.428 to 4.388 million dead of whom 2.781 millions were Armenian, Greek, Nestorians, Turks, Circassians and other, line 488. British historian and journalist Arnold J. Toynbee stated that when he toured the region he saw numerous Greek villages that had been burned to the ground. Toynbee also stated that the Turkish troops had clearly, individually and deliberately burned down each house in these villages, pouring petrol on them and taking care to ensure that they were totally destroyed. There were massacres throughout 1920–23, the period of the Turkish War of Independence, especially of Armenians in the East and the South, and against the Greeks in the Black Sea Region. There was also significant continuity between the organizers of the Armenian and Greek Genocides between 1915 and 1918 and 1919–1921.
Battle of Aydın
The city of Aydın remained in ruins until it was re-captured by the Turkish army on 7 September 1922, at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).
Yörük Ali Efe
On 15 May 1919, Greek forces captured İzmir and immediately set out to occupy a larger territory in Turkey's Aegean Region. Yöruk Ali organized meetings with the cooperation of other Efes in the region such as "" and grouped most zeybeks of Aydın region under his command. On 16 June 1919 he made a surprise attack on a Greek garrison based in Malgaç train station. The garrison was completely destroyed and great amount of ammunition and supplies were captured. This was the first victory for the Turkish side in Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).
Egyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833)
The First Egyptian-Ottoman War, First Turco-Egyptian War or First Syrian War (1831–1833) was a military conflict between the Ottoman Empire and Egypt brought about by Muhammad Ali Pasha's demand to the Sublime Porte for control of Greater Syria, as reward for aiding the Sultan during the Greek War of Independence. As a result, Muhammad Ali's forces temporarily gained control of Syria, advancing as far north as Kütahya.
Muhammad Ali Pasha is recorded as planning to extend his rule to the Ottoman Empire’s Syrian provinces as early as 1812, secretly telling the British consul of his designs on the territory that year. This desire was left on hold however as he consolidated his rule over Egypt, modernizing its government administration, public services, and armed forces, and suppressing various rebellions –– including Mameluk and Wahhabi uprisings –– on behalf of Sultan Mahmud II.
History of Greece
Greek troops occupied Smyrna in 1919, and in 1920 the Treaty of Sèvres was signed by the Ottoman government; the treaty stipulated that in five years time a plebiscite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece. However, Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, overthrew the Ottoman government and organised a military campaign against the Greek troops, resulting in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). A major Greek offensive ground to a halt in 1921, and by 1922 Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna on 9 September 1922, and setting the city ablaze and killing many Greeks and Armenians.
Enosis
Thessaly remained under Ottoman control after the formation of the Kingdom of Greece. Although parts of the territory had participated in the initial uprisings in the Greek War of Independence in 1821, the revolts had been swiftly crushed. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 Greece remained neutral, as a result of assurances by the Great Powers that her territorial claims on the Ottoman Empire would be considered after the war. In 1881 Greece and the Ottoman Empire signed the Convention of Constantinople which created a new Greco-Turkish border, incorporating most of Thessaly into Greece.
You Can't Win 'Em All
The setting is the time of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), and the end of the Ottoman Empire. Two American soldiers of fortune - Adam (Curtis) and Josh (Bronson) - team up in 1922 Turkey with separate missions. Josh is interested in profiting from the turmoil prevailing as the Ottoman Empire collapses. Adam, the surviving heir to a shipping company, hopes to reclaim a ship seized by the Germans during World War I and interned in a Turkish Port. Before they can achieve their goals, they are captured by the forces of Osman Bey, an Ottoman governor. Bey is impressed by the Americans' firepower - which includes Thompson submachine guns - and enlists them in a mission to escort his daughters, seemingly to Mecca, but really to Cairo. Because of the war. Turkish ports are blockaded by the British. Knowing that an American ship is not subject to the blockade, Adam suggests using the one held by the Turks, once they have returned it to him.
Maritime history
The Greek War of Independence was a successful war waged by the Greeks to win independence for Greece from the Ottoman Empire. Success at sea was vital for the Greeks. If they failed to counter the Ottoman Navy, it would be able to resupply the isolated Ottoman garrisons and land reinforcements from the Ottoman Empire's Asian provinces at will, crushing the rebellion. The Greeks decided to use fireships and found an effective weapon against the Ottoman vessels. Conventional naval actions were also fought, at which naval commanders like Andreas Miaoulis, Nikolis Apostolis, Iakovos Tombazis and Antonios Kriezis distinguished themselves. The early successes of the Greek fleet in direct confrontations with the Ottomans at Patras and Spetsai gave the crews confidence, and contributed greatly to the survival and success of the uprising in the Peloponnese. Despite victories at Samos and Gerontas, the Revolution was threatened with collapse until the intervention of the Great Powers in the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The Ottoman fleet was decisively defeated by the combined fleets of the Britain, France and the Russian Empire, effectively securing the independence of Greece.
Battle of Thermopylae
It is sometimes stated that Thermopylae was a Pyrrhic victory for the Persians (i.e., one in which the victor is as damaged by the battle as the defeated party). However, there is no suggestion by Herodotus that the effect on the Persian forces was that. The idea ignores the fact that the Persians would, in the aftermath of Thermopylae, conquer the majority of Greece, and the fact that they were still fighting in Greece a year later. Alternatively, the argument is sometimes advanced that the last stand at Thermopylae was a successful delaying action that gave the Greek navy time to prepare for the Battle of Salamis. However, compared to the probable time (about one month) between Thermopylae and Salamis, the time bought was negligible. Furthermore, this idea also neglects the fact that a Greek navy was fighting at Artemisium during the Battle of Thermopylae, incurring losses in the process. George Cawkwell suggests that the gap between Thermopylae and Salamis was caused by Xerxes' systematically reducing Greek opposition in Phocis and Boeotia, and not as a result of the Battle of Thermopylae; thus, as a delaying action, Thermopylae was insignificant compared to Xerxes' own procrastination. Far from labelling Thermopylae as a Pyrrhic victory, modern academic treatises on the Greco-Persian Wars tend to emphasise the success of Xerxes in breaching the formidable Greek position and the subsequent conquest of the majority of Greece. For instance, Cawkwell states: "he was successful on both land and sea, and the Great Invasion began with a brilliant success.
... Xerxes had every reason to congratulate himself", while Lazenby describes the Greek defeat as "disastrous".
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The state of Turkey was headed by Mustafa Kemal's People's Party, which later became the Republican People's Party. The end of the War of Independence brought new administration to the region, but also brought new problems considering the demographic reconstruction of cities and towns, many of which had been abandoned. The Greco-Turkish War left many of the settlements plundered and in ruins.
After the Balkan Wars, Greece had almost doubled its territory, and the population of the state had risen from approximately 3.7 million to 4.8 million. With this newly annexed population, the proportion of non-Greek minority groups in Greece rose to 13%, and following the end of the First World War, it had increased to 20%. Most of the ethnic populations in these annexed territories were Muslim, but were not necessarily Turkish in ethnicity. This is particularly true in the case of ethnic Albanians who inhabited the Çamëria (Greek: Τσαμουριά) region of Epirus. During the deliberations held at Lausanne, the question of exactly who was Greek, Turkish or Albanian was routinely brought up. Greek and Albanian representatives determined that the Albanians in Greece, who mostly lived in the northwestern part of the state, were not all mixed, and were distinguishable from the Turks. The government in Ankara still expected a thousand "Turkish-speakers" from the Çamëria to arrive in Anatolia for settlement in Erdek, Ayvalık, Menteşe, Antalya, Senkile, Mersin, and Adana. Ultimately, the Greek authorities decided to deport thousands of Muslims from Thesprotia, Larissa, Langadas, Drama, Vodina, Serres, Edessa, Florina, Kilkis, Kavala, and Salonika. Between 1923 and 1930, the infusion of these refugees into Turkey would dramatically alter Anatolian society. By 1927, Turkish officials had settled 32,315 individuals from Greece in the province of Bursa alone.
Morean War
The Morean War () is the better-known name for the Sixth Ottoman–Venetian War. The war was fought between 1684–1699, as part of the wider conflict known as the "Great Turkish War", between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Military operations ranged from Dalmatia to the Aegean Sea, but the war's major campaign was the Venetian conquest of the Morea (Peloponnese) peninsula in southern Greece. On the Venetian side, the war was fought to avenge the loss of Crete in the Cretan War (1645–1669), while the Ottomans were entangled in their northern frontier against the Habsburgs and were unable to concentrate their forces against the Republic. As such, the Morean War holds the distinction of being the only Ottoman–Venetian conflict from which Venice emerged victorious, gaining significant territory. Venice's expansionist revival would be short-lived however, as its gains would be reversed by the Ottomans in 1718.
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 (, named for the year 1293 in the Islamic calendar; , "Russian-Turkish Liberation war") was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox coalition led by the Russian Empire and composed of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Fought in the Balkans and in the Caucasus, it originated in emerging 19th-century Balkan nationalism. Additional factors combined Russian goals of recovering territorial losses endured during the Crimean War, re-establishing itself in the Black Sea and supporting the political movement attempting to free Balkan nations from the Ottoman Empire.
History of Iran
In 499 BC, Athens lent support to a revolt in Miletus, which resulted in the sacking of Sardis. This led to an Achaemenid campaign against mainland Greece known as the Greco-Persian Wars, which lasted the first half of the 5th century BC, and is known as one of the most important wars in European history. In the First Persian invasion of Greece, the Persian general Mardonius resubjugated Thrace and made Macedon a full part of Persia. The war eventually turned out in defeat however. Darius' successor Xerxes I launched the Second Persian invasion of Greece. At a crucial moment in the war, about half of mainland Greece was overrun by the Persians, including all territories to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth, however, this was also turned out in a Greek victory, following the battles of Plataea and Salamis, by which Persia lost its footholds in Europe, and eventually withdrew from it. During the Greco-Persian wars Persia gained major territorial advantages capture and razed Athens in 480 BC. However, after a string of Greek victories the Persians were forced to withdraw thus losing control of Macedonia, Thrace and Ionia. Fighting continued for several decades after the successful Greek repelling of the Second Invasion with numerous Greek city states under the latters' newly formed Delian League, which eventually ended with the peace of Callias in 449 BC, ending the Greco-Persian Wars. In 404 BC, following the death of Darius II, Egypt rebelled under Amyrtaeus. Later pharaohs successfully resisted Persian attempts to reconquer Egypt until 343 BC, when Egypt was reconquered by Artaxerxes III.
Diplomatic history of World War I
Repeatedly, both sides violated Greek neutrality. Venizelos allowed the Allies the use of Salonika as a port to attack Bulgaria, but at this point Greece did not join the Allies. The Allied armies failed to advance beyond Salonika. In summer of 1916, the Athens government under King Constantine handed over Fort Roupel to the Germans, calling it a neutral act; it was denounced as a betrayal by the Venizelists. Allied forces fought the war from the Salonika base, engaging Bulgarian forces when they invaded Greece in August 1916 in the Battle of Struma. British and French troops landed in Athens in December 1916, hoping to overthrow the king, but failed and were forced to withdraw. The Allies then blockaded Greek areas supporting the king and finally forced his abdication in June 1917. His son became king and supported Venizelos. At long last Greece declared war on the Central Powers on 30 June 1917. There was little movement on the front until the spring of 1918 and the Greek victory at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen, followed by the Allied offensive in autumn 1918 that broke German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian lines. After the Allies were victorious, Greece expected a large slice of Turkey in the spoils, but was defeated militarily in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). Britain kept Cyprus, and Greece wound up with only Western Thrace. Its most grievous legacy was profound political and social turmoil known as the "National Schism" that polarized Greece into two hostile political camps for generations.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
In March 1922, the Allies proposed an armistice. Feeling that he now held the strategic advantage, Mustafa Kemal declined any settlement while the Greeks remained in Anatolia and intensified his efforts to re-organise the Turkish military for the final offensive against the Greeks. At the same time, the Greeks strengthened their defensive positions, but were increasingly demoralised by the inactivity of remaining on the defensive and the prolongation of the war. The Greek government was desperate to get some military support by the British or at least secure a loan, so it developed an ill-thought plan to force the British diplomatically, by threatening their positions in Constantinople, but this never materialised. The occupation of Constantinople would have been an easy task at this time because the Allied troops garrisoned there were much fewer than the Greek forces in Thrace (two divisions). The end result though was instead to weaken the Greek defences in Smyrna by withdrawing troops. The Turkish forces, on the other hand, were recipients of significant assistance from Soviet Russia. On 29 April, the Soviet authorities supplied the Turkish consul critical quantities of arms and ammunition, sufficient for three Turkish divisions. On 3 May, the Soviet government handed over 33,500,000 gold rubles to Turkey—the balance of the credit of 10,000,000 gold rubles.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The military aspect of the war began with the Armistice of Mudros. The military operations of the Greco-Turkish war can be roughly divided into three main phases: the first phase, spanning the period from May 1919 to October 1920, encompassed the Greek Landings in Asia Minor and their consolidation along the Aegean Coast. The second phase lasted from October 1920 to August 1921, and was characterised by Greek offensive operations. The third and final phase lasted until August 1922, when the strategic initiative was held by the Turkish Army.
Battle of Domokos
The Battle of Domokos () was a battle between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece. This battle was a part of the Greco-Turkish War (1897).
Alexander of Greece
Under the restored King Constantine I, whose return was endorsed overwhelmingly in a referendum, Greece went on to lose the Greco–Turkish War with heavy military and civilian casualties. The territory gained on the Turkish mainland during Alexander's reign was lost. Alexander's death in the midst of an election campaign helped destabilize the Venizelos regime, and the resultant loss of Allied support contributed to the failure of Greece's territorial ambitions. Winston Churchill wrote, "it is perhaps no exaggeration to remark that a quarter of a million persons died of this monkey's bite."
International relations (1919–1939)
Greek troops seized Smyrna and a large sector of western Anatonia in 1919. They had British support. In 1920 the Ottoman government agreed to the Treaty of Sèvres; it stipulated that in five years time a plebiscite would be held in Smyrna on whether the region would join Greece. However, Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, overthrew the Ottoman government and organised tried to expel the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). A major Greek offensive ground to a halt in 1921, and by 1922 Greek troops were in retreat. The Turkish forces recaptured Smyrna and drove out all the Greek forces. The war with Turkey ended with an agreement to stage massive ethnic exchange, with 1.1 million ethnic Greek Christians who had lived in what was now Turkey (and perhaps could not speak Greek) moving back to Greece, and 380,000 Muslims moving to Turkey.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
Following the retreat of the Turkish troops under Ismet Inönü in the battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir the Greek Army advanced afresh to the Sakarya River (Sangarios in Greek), less than west of Ankara. Constantine's battle cry was "to Angira" and the British officers were invited, in anticipation, to a victory dinner in the city of Kemal. It was envisaged that the Turkish Revolutionaries, who had consistently avoided encirclement would be drawn into battle in defence of their capital and destroyed in a battle of attrition.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The Turks finally launched a counter-attack on August 26, what has come to be known to the Turks as the "Great Offensive" ("Büyük Taarruz"). The major Greek defense positions were overrun on August 26, and Afyon fell next day. On August 30, the Greek army was defeated decisively at the Battle of Dumlupınar, with half of its soldiers captured or slain and its equipment entirely lost. This date is celebrated as Victory Day, a national holiday in Turkey and salvage day of Kütahya. During the battle, Greek General Nikolaos Trikoupis and General Dionis were captured by the Turkish forces. General Trikoupis learned only after his capture that he had been recently appointed Commander-in-Chief in General Hatzianestis' place. On September 1, Mustafa Kemal issued his famous order to the Turkish army: "Armies, your first goal is the Mediterranean, Forward!"
Commander-in-Chief National Historic Park
The Commander-in-Chief National Historic Park () is a historic site of national historic significance associated with the Turkish War of Independence () comprising the battleground of the last battle (, literally "Field Battle of the Commander-in-Chief") in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22).
Greco-Turkish War (1897)
Officially, war was declared on 18 April when the Ottoman ambassador in Athens, Asim Bey, met with the Greek foreign minister announcing the cutting of diplomatic ties. Heavy fighting occurred between 21–22 April outside the town of Tyrnavos but when the overwhelming Ottoman forces aligned and pushed together, the Greek general staff ordered withdrawal, spreading panic among soldiers and civilians alike. Larissa fell on 27 April, while the Greek front was reorganized behind the strategic lines of Velestino, in Farsala. Nevertheless, a division was ordered to head for Velestino, thus cutting Greek forces in two, 60 km apart. Between 27–30 April, under the command of Col. Konstantinos Smolenskis, Greek forces checked and halted the Ottoman advance.
Pan-Turkism
The agents of the Armenian genocide during the First World War advocated pan-Turkism, and Enver Pasha was a key player in the attempt to remove non-Muslim minorities from the Ottoman Empire in order to build a new pan-Turkic state. The Greek genocide refers to the fate of the Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I and the ensuing 1919–22 Greco-Turkish War. Like the Armenians and Assyrians, the Greeks were massacred, expelled, and marched to death by the Ottoman government. George W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office and other diplomats noted the massacres and deportations of Greeks after the armistice. Hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Greeks are estimated to have died during this period. A population exchange between Greece and Turkey occurred in 1923 after the Greco-Turkish War. Most of the exchange was disorganized, with Turks and Greeks fleeing from each other's countries. Many people were unaccounted for, causing some scholars to suspect a more-brutal, ideologically motivated expulsion of Greeks from Turkey. The Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides took place under the Three Pashas of the Ottoman Empire. A 1922 memorandum from the Assyro-Chaldean National Council estimated that about 275,000 Assyrians were killed.
Battle of Aydın
The Battle of Aydın (Modern Turkish: "Aydın Savunması", literally: "The defence of Aydın", 27 June 1919 to 4 July 1919), was a series of wide-scale armed conflicts during the initial stage of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) in and around the city of Aydın in western Turkey. The battle resulted in the burning of several quarters of the city (primarily Turkish, but also Greek) and massacres which resulted in the deaths of several thousand Turkish and Greek soldiers and civilians.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
As a result, the Greek government accepted the demands of the Turkish national movement and returned to its pre-war borders, thus leaving East Thrace and Western Anatolia to Turkey. The Allies abandoned the Treaty of Sèvres to negotiate a new treaty at Lausanne with the Turkish National Movement. The Treaty of Lausanne recognized the independence of the Republic of Turkey and its sovereignty over Asia Minor, Istanbul, and Eastern Thrace. Greek and Turkish governments agreed to engage in a population exchange.
Ahmed Hifzi Pasha
Ahmed Hifzi Pasha (; 1832 – 1900) was an Ottoman field marshal, who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman Army that successfully defeated the Greeks on the Epirus front in the Greco-Turkish War (1897).
Greco-Turkish War
There have been several Greco-Turkish Wars:
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
This was the major decision that sealed the fate of the Greek campaign in Anatolia. The state and Army leadership, including King Constantine, Prime Minister Dimitrios Gounaris, and General Anastasios Papoulas, met at Kütahya where they debated the future of the campaign. The Greeks, with their faltering morale rejuvenated, failed to appraise the strategic situation that favoured the defending side; instead, pressed for a 'final solution', the leadership was polarised into the risky decision to pursue the Turks and attack their last line of defence close to Ankara. The military leadership was cautious and requested for more reinforcements and time to prepare, but did not go against the politicians. Only a few voices supported a defensive stance, including Ioannis Metaxas. Constantine by this time had little actual power and did not argue either way. After a delay of almost a month that gave time to the Turks to organise their defence, seven of the Greek divisions crossed east of the Sakarya River.
The Surrender of Tournavos
On 20–23 April 1897, in an early fight in the Greco–Turkish War of 1897, Greek and Turkish forces battled in the town of Tyrnavos (also spelled Turnavos or Tournavos) on the plain of Larissa. The Greeks were defeated and left the town. Méliès's film is a staged reconstruction of a scene in the battle.
Kuva-yi Milliye
In the Armistice of Mudros, Ottoman Empire was divided between the Allies, where the Greeks occupied the west, the British occupied the capital and southeast, and the Italians and the French occupied the south of the country. The "Kuva-yi Milliye" were the first armed groups to defend the Ottomans' rights in Anatolia and Rumelia. The "Kuva-yi Milliye" consisted of deserted Ottoman army officers and militias. The "Kuva-yi Milliye" became active when the Greeks landed at Symrna (İzmir). People who opposed the partitioning of Anatolia by the unratified Treaty of Sèvres joined the resistance. The Franco-Turkish War was almost exclusively conducted by Kuva-yi Milliye units on the Turkish side. In western Anatolia, the "Kuva-yi Milliye" fought against the Greek Army by hit-and-run tactics until a regular army was set up. The resistance of the "Kuva-yi Milliye" slowed down the Greek advance in Anatolia.
Classical Anatolia
For the next 200 years, all of Anatolia came under Achaemenid Persian rule. Their system of local government divided in satrapies in Anatolia allowed many port cities to grow and to become wealthy. Their governors revolted periodically but did not pose a serious threat. In the aftermath of the Greco-Persian Wars, all of Anatolia still remained under Persian control. The Greek Alexander the Great finally wrested control of the whole region from Persia in successive battles, proving victorious over the Persian Darius III. After Alexander's death, his conquests were split amongst several of his trusted generals, but were under constant threat of invasion from both the Gauls and other powerful rulers in Pergamon, Pontus, and Egypt. The Seleucid Empire, the largest of Alexander's territories, and which included Anatolia, became involved in a disastrous war with Rome culminating in the battles of Thermopylae and Magnesia. The resulting Treaty of Apamea in (188 BC) saw the Seleucids retreat from Anatolia. The Kingdom of Pergamum and the Republic of Rhodes, Rome's allies in the war, were granted the former Seleucid lands in Anatolia. Anatolia subsequently became contested between the neighboring rivalling Romans and the Parthian Empire, which frequently culminated in the Roman-Parthian Wars
Borazan İsmail Çavuş
Borazan İsmail Çavuş (1893–1972) was a Turkish war hero from Balıkesir. He is known for playing the Bugle which played a part when he, as a volunteer, defended the city of Burhaniye against Greek forces on the western front of the Turkish War of Independence, also known as the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). He played an instrumental part in the defense of the coastal town against a large retreating Greek occupational force that was burning and destroying as they retreated.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
Turkey was furthermore forced to transfer to Greece "the exercise of her rights of sovereignty" over Smyrna in addition to "a considerable Hinterland, merely retaining a 'flag over an outer fort'." Though Greece administered the Smyrna enclave, its sovereignty remained, nominally, with the Sultan. According to the provisions of the Treaty, Smyrna was to maintain a local parliament and, if within five years time she asked to be incorporated within the Kingdom of Greece, the provision was made that the League of Nations would hold a plebiscite to decide on such matters.
Hellenistic Greece
During the reign of Philip V of Macedon (r. 221-179 BC), the Macedonians not only lost the Cretan War (205-200 BC) to an alliance led by Rhodes, but their erstwhile alliance with Hannibal of Carthage also entangled them in the First and Second Macedonian War with ancient Rome. The perceived weakness of Macedonia in the aftermath of these conflicts encouraged Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire to invade mainland Greece, yet his defeat by the Romans at Thermopylae in 191 BC and Magnesia in 190 BC secured Rome's position as the leading military power in the region. Within roughly two decades after conquering Macedonia in 168 BC and Epirus in 167 BC, the Romans would eventually control the whole of Greece.
Greece during World War I
As Greece emerged victorious from World War I, it was rewarded with territorial acquisitions, specifically Western Thrace (Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine) and Eastern Thrace and the Smyrna area (Treaty of Sèvres). Greek gains were largely undone by the subsequent Greco-Turkish War of 1919 to 1922.
Soviet Union–Turkey relations
The Soviet supply of gold and armaments to the Kemalists in 1920–1922 was a key factor in the latter's successful grab of power in an Ottoman Empire defeated by the Triple Entente and their victory in the Armenian campaign and the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).
Second Battle of İnönü
The Second Battle of İnönü () was a battle fought between March 23 and April 1, 1921 near İnönü in present-day Eskişehir Province, Turkey during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), also known as the western front of the larger Turkish War of Independence. It marked a turning point in the Greco-Turkish War and the Turkish War of Independence of which it was a part, as Greek forces had previously been victorious over mostly irregular Turkish forces.
History of Greece
The war was concluded by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), according to which there was to be a population exchange between Greece and Turkey on the basis of religion. Over one million Orthodox Christians left Turkey in exchange for 400,000 Muslims from Greece. The events of 1919–1922 are regarded in Greece as a particularly calamitous period of history. Between 1914 and 1923, an estimated 750,000 to 900,000 Greeks died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, in what many scholars have termed a genocide.
Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made a decisive contribution to the Allied efforts in World War II. At the start of the war, Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands. Italy invaded Greece by way of Albania on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
According to some historians, it was the Greek occupation of Smyrna that created the Turkish National movement. Arnold J. Toynbee argues: "The war between Turkey and Greece which burst out at this time was a defensive war for safeguarding of the Turkish homelands in Anatolia. It was a result of the Allied policy of imperialism operating in a foreign state, the military resources and powers of which were seriously under-estimated; it was provoked by the unwarranted invasion of a Greek army of occupation." According to others, the landing of the Greek troops in Smyrna was part of Eleftherios Venizelos's plan, inspired by the Megali Idea, to liberate the large Greek populations in the Asia Minor. Smyrna up to the Great Fire of Smyrna had a bigger Greek population than the Greek capital, Athens. Athens, before the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey, had a population of 473,000, while Smyrna, according to Ottoman sources, in 1910, had a Greek population exceeding 629,000.
Turkey
All of modern-day Turkey was conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire during the 6th century BC. The Greco-Persian Wars started when the Greek city states on the coast of Anatolia rebelled against Persian rule in 499 BC. The territory of Turkey later fell to Alexander the Great in 334 BC, which led to increasing cultural homogeneity and Hellenization in the area.
Battle of Andros (1790)
The Battle of Andros was fought on 17–18 May 1790, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792, between Cape Kafireas and the island of Andros, between the ships of Lambros Katsonis, a Greek privateer in Imperial Russian service, and an Ottoman–Algerian fleet of 30–32 vessels. The battle was a major victory for the Ottomans, as Katsonis lost five ships and his flotilla ceased to exist as an operational unit. On the other hand, the Ottomans suffered heavy casualties as well, and Katsonis was able to escape and reconstitute his forces, remaining active until the end of the war.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
A British military attaché, who inspected the Greek Army in June 1921, was quoted as saying, "more efficient fighting machine than I have ever seen it." Later he wrote: "The Greek Army of Asia Minor, which now stood ready and eager to advance, was the most formidable force the nation had ever put into field. Its morale was high. Judged by Balkan standards, its staff was capable, its discipline and organization good." Turkish troops had a determined and competent strategic and tactical command, manned by World War I veterans. The Turkish army enjoyed the advantage of being in defence, executed in the new form of 'area defence'.
Megali Idea
The military defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish war cost it small territorial losses along the border line in northern Thessaly, and a large sum of financial reparations that wrecked Greece's economy for years, while giving no lasting solution to the Cretan Question. The Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia, and Italy) in order to prevent future clashes and trying to avoid the creation of a revanchist climate in Greece, imposed what they thought of as the final solution on the Cretan Question: Crete was proclaimed an autonomous "Cretan State". The four Great Powers assumed the administration of Crete; and, in a decisive diplomatic victory for Greece, Prince George of Greece (second son of King George I) became High Commissioner.
Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)
Austro-Turkish War, was fought in 1788–91 between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, concurrently with the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792). It is sometimes referred to as the Habsburg–Ottoman War or the Austro-Ottoman War.
Greco-Persian Wars
Darius then began to plan to completely conquer Greece, but died in 486 BC and responsibility for the conquest passed to his son Xerxes. In 480 BC, Xerxes personally led the second Persian invasion of Greece with one of the largest ancient armies ever assembled. Victory over the allied Greek states at the famous Battle of Thermopylae allowed the Persians to torch an evacuated Athens and overrun most of Greece. However, while seeking to destroy the combined Greek fleet, the Persians suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Salamis. The following year, the confederated Greeks went on the offensive, decisively defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea, and ending the invasion of Greece by the Achaemenid Empire.
Edirne
It was occupied by the Greeks between the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 and their defeat at the end of the Greco-Turkish War, also known as the Western Front of the larger Turkish War of Independence, in 1922.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
Although some agreements were reached with Italy, France and Britain, the decisions were not agreed to by the Greek government, who believed that they still retained the strategic advantage and could yet negotiate from a stronger position. The Greeks initiated another attack on March 27, the Second Battle of İnönü, where the Turkish troops fiercely resisted and finally defeated the Greeks on March 30. The British favoured a Greek territorial expansion but refused to offer any military assistance in order to avoid provoking the French. The Turkish forces received arms assistance from Soviet Russia.
International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)
The Powers agreed, by the Treaty of London (1827), to force the Ottoman government to grant the Greeks autonomy within the empire and despatched naval squadrons to Greece to enforce their policy. The decisive Allied naval victory at the Battle of Navarino broke the military power of the Ottomans and their Egyptian allies. Victory saved the fledgling Greek Republic from collapse. But it required two more military interventions, by Russia in the form of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–9 and by a French expeditionary force to the Peloponnese to force the withdrawal of Ottoman forces from central and southern Greece and to finally secure Greek independence.
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis marked the turning point in the Greco-Persian wars. After Salamis, the Peloponnese, and by extension Greece as an entity, was safe from conquest; and the Persians suffered a major blow to their prestige and morale (as well as severe material losses). At the following battles of Plataea and Mycale, the threat of conquest was removed, and the Allies were able to go on the counter-offensive. The Greek victory allowed Macedon to revolt against Persian rule; and over the next 30 years, Thrace, the Aegean Islands and finally Ionia would be removed from Persian control by the Allies, or by the Athenian-dominated successor, the Delian League. Salamis started a decisive swing in the balance of power toward the Greeks, which would culminate in an eventual Greek victory, severely reducing Persian power in the Aegean.
Like the Battles of Marathon and Thermopylae, Salamis has gained something of a 'legendary' status (unlike, for instance, the more decisive Battle of Plataea), perhaps because of the desperate circumstances and the unlikely odds. A significant number of historians have stated that Salamis is one of the most significant battles in human history (though the same is often stated of Marathon). In a more extreme form of this argument, some historians argue that if the Greeks had lost at Salamis, the ensuing conquest of Greece by the Persians would have effectively stifled the growth of Western Civilization as we know it. This view is based on the premise that much of modern Western society, such as philosophy, science, personal freedom and democracy are rooted in the legacy of Ancient Greece. Thus, this school of thought argues that, given the domination of much of modern history by Western Civilization, Persian domination of Greece might have changed the whole trajectory of human history. It is also worth mentioning that the celebrated blossoming of hugely influential Athenian culture occurred only "after" the Persian wars were won.
Greek–Turkish relations
The post-war leaders of Turkey and Greece, Kemal Atatürk and Eleftherios Venizelos respectively, were determined to establish normal relations between the two states. After years of negotiations, a treaty was concluded in 1930, and Venizelos made a successful visit to Istanbul and Ankara. Greece renounced all its claims over Turkish territory. This was followed by the Balkan Pact of 1934, in which Greece and Turkey joined Yugoslavia and Romania in a treaty of mutual assistance and settled outstanding issues (Bulgaria refused to join). Both leaders recognising the need for peace resulted in more friendly relations, with Venizelos even nominating Atatürk for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
On September 2, Eskişehir was captured and the Greek government asked Britain to arrange a truce that would at least preserve its rule in Smyrna. Balıkesir and Bilecik were taken on September 6, and Aydın the next day. Manisa was taken on September 8. The government in Athens resigned. Turkish cavalry entered Smyrna on September 9. Gemlik and Mudanya fell on September 11, with an entire Greek division surrendering. The expulsion of the Greek Army from Anatolia was completed on September 18. As historian George Lenczowski has put it: "Once started, the offensive was a dazzling success. Within two weeks the Turks drove the Greek army back to the Mediterranean Sea."
Velestino
The Battle of Velestino was fought here during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.
Fridtjof Nansen
After the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, Nansen travelled to Istanbul to negotiate the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of refugees, mainly ethnic Greeks who had fled from Turkey after the defeat of the Greek Army. The impoverished Greek state was unable to take them in, and so Nansen devised a scheme for a population exchange whereby half a million Turks in Greece were returned to Turkey, with full financial compensation, while further loans facilitated the absorption of the refugee Greeks into their homeland. Despite some controversy over the principle of a population exchange, the plan was implemented successfully over a period of several years.
Sophia of Prussia
The Greco-Turkish War continued until the Greek defeat of Sakarya in August–September 1921, and the siege and burning of Smyrna (now İzmir) by the Turks in September 1922. After these events, the country plunged into a deep political and moral crisis. While Mustafa Kemal and his armies gradually reconquered Anatolia and east Thrace, thousands of Greeks were murdered and others fled from Asia Minor to find refuge in Greece. This was called the "Great Disaster", which was definitive a few months later with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923).
International Squadron (Cretan intervention, 1897–1898)
Meanwhile, the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also known as the Thirty Days War, had broken out on the mainland of Europe, with Greek forces crossing the border into Ottoman Macedonia on 24 March 1897, followed by an official declaration of war on 20 April. As the Great Powers had expected, the war ended quickly in a disastrous Greek defeat, and a ceasefire went into effect on 20 May 1897. Stymied by the International Squadron's actions and unable to advance beyond Fort Soubashi to threaten Canea or to receive reinforcements or supplies in the face of the blockade, Vassos, who had achieved little since February, accomplished nothing further during the war and left Crete on 9 May 1897. With the ceasefire agreement that ended hostilities on the European mainland requiring all Greek forces to leave Crete, his expeditionary force boarded the British protected cruiser at Platanias on 23 May 1897 and withdrew from the island. On 20 September 1897, Greece and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Constantinople, formally ending their war.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The western Allies, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, had promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire if Greece entered the war on the Allied side. These included Eastern Thrace, the islands of Imbros (İmroz, since 29 July 1979 Gökçeada) and Tenedos (Bozcaada), and parts of western Anatolia around the city of Smyrna, which contained sizable ethnic Greek populations.
Battle of Aspindza
The Battle of Aspindza () was fought on 20 April 1770 between the Georgians, led by king of Kartli-Kakheti Erekle II, and the Ottoman Empire. The Georgians won a victory over the Turks. The Georgian king asked Russian general Totleben for aid in the battle of Aspindza; in return Erekle would do his best to cultivate good relations with Russia. General Totleben agreed to help. As soon as the small army of Erekle and large army of Totleben were about to meet and merge, Totleben and his army changed course and returned to Russia. Totleben's plan was to let the Ottoman Empire completely destroy the Kartli-Kakhetian army along with the king. Russia, then, could easily incorporate the kingdom into the country. Erekle, along with his outnumbered army, was devastated. Nevertheless, the morale of the Georgians managed to override the Ottoman Turks, and the battle ended with a Georgian victory.
Battle of Dumlupınar
The end of the battle of Dumlupınar spelt the beginning of the end for the Greek presence in Anatolia. Trikoupis Group, with some 34 infantry battalions and 130 artillery pieces was destroyed as an effective fighting force. The remaining Frangou Group was too weak to hold against the Turkish onslaught. Greek losses were heavy; by 7 September, the Greek Army had suffered 50,000 casualties (35,000 killed and wounded and 15,000 captured). Greek material losses were heavy too. Turkish losses were lower. Between 26 August and 9 September, the Turkish army sustained 13,476 casualties (2,318 killed, 9,360 wounded, 1,697 missing and 101 captured). In two weeks (26 August 1922 - 9 September 1922) the Turkish army re-captured all the territories which the Greek army invaded since May 1919. The Turks chased the fleeing Greeks to Smyrna, which was later abandoned by the Greek soldiers. During this period the Greek Army numbered 300,000 men with an additional 100,000 in reserve. According to the Greek Directorate of Army History, during the Greco-Turkish War, the Greek army suffered ~101,000 casualties (24,240 killed 48,880 wounded, 18,095 missing and 10,000 captured) out of a 200,000–250,000-men-strong army stationed in Anatolia. Other sources put the total number of casualties even higher at 120,000–130,000. By 1921 the war in Anatolia had cost Greece a sum equivalent to $100,000,000 at the rate of exchange in 1921. Turkish casualties numbered 13,000 killed (additionally about 24,000 died of disease during and after the war) and 35,000 wounded for the whole Turkish War of Independence. The last Greek troops left Anatolia on 18 September. The Armistice of Mudanya was signed by Turkey, Italy, France and Great Britain on 11 October 1922. Greece was forced to accede to it on 14 October.
Battle of Thermopylae
Fearing the Greeks might attack the bridges across the Hellespont and trap his army in Europe, Xerxes now retreated with much of the Persian army back to Asia, though nearly all of them died of starvation and disease on the return voyage. He left a hand-picked force, under Mardonius, to complete the conquest the following year. However, under pressure from the Athenians, the Peloponnesians eventually agreed to try to force Mardonius to battle, and they marched on Attica. Mardonius retreated to Boeotia to lure the Greeks into open terrain, and the two sides eventually met near the city of Plataea. At the Battle of Plataea, the Greek army won a decisive victory, destroying much of the Persian army and ending the invasion of Greece. Meanwhile, at the near-simultaneous naval Battle of Mycale, they also destroyed much of the remaining Persian fleet, thereby reducing the threat of further invasions.
Thermopylae is arguably the most famous battle in European ancient history, repeatedly referenced in ancient, recent, and contemporary culture. In Western culture at least, it is the Greeks who are lauded for their performance in battle. However, within the context of the Persian invasion, Thermopylae was undoubtedly a defeat for the Greeks. It seems clear that the Greek strategy was to hold off the Persians at Thermopylae and Artemisium; whatever they may have intended, it was presumably not their desire to surrender all of Boeotia and Attica to the Persians. The Greek position at Thermopylae, despite being massively outnumbered, was nearly impregnable. If the position had been held for even a little longer, the Persians might have had to retreat for lack of food and water. Thus, despite the heavy losses, forcing the pass was strategically a Persian victory, but the successful retreat of the bulk of the Greek troops was in its own sense a victory as well. The battle itself had showed what a few free men, willing to do anything for victory against the invaders, could accomplish, and the defeat at Thermopylae had turned Leonidas and the men under his command into martyrs. That boosted the morale of all Greek soldiers in the second Persian invasion.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
According to a number of sources, the retreating Greek army carried out a scorched-earth policy while fleeing from Anatolia during the final phase of the war. Historian of the Middle East, Sydney Nettleton Fisher wrote that: "The Greek army in retreat pursued a burned-earth policy and committed every known outrage against defenceless Turkish villagers in its path." Norman M. Naimark noted that "the Greek retreat was even more devastating for the local population than the occupation".
Kingdom of Greece
Greeks in Crete continued to stage regular revolts, and in 1897, the Greek government under Theodoros Deligiannis, bowing to popular pressure, declared war on the Ottomans. In the ensuing Greco-Turkish War of 1897 the badly trained and equipped Greek army was defeated by the Ottomans. Through the intervention of the Great Powers, however, Greece lost only a little territory along the border to Turkey, while Crete was established as an autonomous state with the High Commissioner being Prince George of Greece.
Greek–Turkish relations
In 1897, a new revolt in Crete led to the first Greco-Turkish War. An unprepared Greek army was unable to dislodge the Ottoman troops from their fortifications along the northern border, and with the resulting Ottoman counter-attack, the war had a humiliating end for Greece, also resulting in some minor losses of territory for her.
George I of Greece
The war went badly for the ill-prepared Greeks; the only saving grace was the swiftness with which the Hellenic Army was overrun. By the end of April 1897, the war was lost. The worst consequences of defeat for the Greeks were mitigated by the intervention of the King's relations in Britain and Russia; nevertheless, the Greeks were forced to give up Crete to international administration, and agree to minor territorial concessions in favor of the Turks and an indemnity of 4 million Turkish pounds.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
During October 1920, King Alexander who had been installed on the Greek throne on 11 June 1917 when his father Constantine was pushed into exile by the Venizelists, was bitten by a monkey kept at the Royal Gardens and died within days from sepsis. After King Alexander died without heirs, the general elections scheduled to be held on November 1, 1920, suddenly became the focus of a new conflict between the supporters of Venizelos and the Royalists. The anti-Venizelist faction campaigned on the basis of accusations of internal mismanagement and authoritarian attitudes of the government, which, due to the war, had stayed in power without elections since 1915. At the same time they promoted the idea of disengagement in Asia Minor, without though presenting a clear plan as to how this would happen. On the contrary, Venizelos was identified with the continuation of a war that did not seem to go anywhere. The majority of the Greek people were both war-weary and tired of the almost dictatorial regime of the Venizelists, so opted for change. To the surprise of many, Venizelos won only 118 out of the total 369 seats. The crushing defeat obliged Venizelos and a number of his closest supporters to leave the country. To this day his rationale to call elections at that time is questioned.
Convention of Constantinople (1881)
Greece had remained neutral during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, based on assurances by the other Great Powers that her territorial claims on the Ottoman Empire would be considered after the war. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Greece's claims were considered in the Thirteenth Protocol of 5 July 1878, whereby Greece gained not only Thessaly (the Ottoman Sanjak of Tirhala) but also much of Epirus. The Ottoman government, however, refused to implement the protocol's terms, leading Greece and the Empire to the verge of war. In the end, the Great Powers applied pressure on Greece to reduce her claims.
Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard
Millard was war correspondent for "The New York Herald" during the five-week Greco-Turkish War, which ended with a victory for Turkey on May 21, 1897.
Battle of Dumlupınar
The Battle of Dumlupınar (; or , literally "Field Battle of the Commander-in-Chief") was the last battle in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) (part of the Turkish War of Independence). The battle was fought from 26 to 30 August 1922 near Dumlupınar, Kütahya in Turkey.
History of the Russo-Turkish wars
The Ottoman Empire had maintained military parity with Russia until the second half of the eighteenth century, but by the 1820s the Ottoman armies were unable to put down the Greek War of Independence in southern Greece. The great powers of Europe decided to intervene and assist Greece with its independence. Thus Greece became the first independent country created out of a section of the Ottoman Empire. Russian aspirations for a section of the empire and bases on Russia's southern flank provoked British fears over naval domination of the Mediterranean and control of the land route to the Indian Subcontinent.
İzmir
The Turkish Army retook possession of the city on 9 September 1922, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). Four days later, on 13 September 1922, a great fire broke out in the city, lasting until 22 September. The fire completely destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters, while the Muslim and Jewish quarters escaped damage. Estimated Greek and Armenians deaths resulting from the fire range from 10,000 to 100,000 Approximately 50,000 to 400,000 Greek and Armenian refugees crammed the waterfront to escape from the fire and were forced to remain there under harsh conditions for nearly two weeks. The systematic evacuation of Greeks on the quay started on 24 September when the first Greek ships entered the harbor under the supervision of Allied destroyers. Some 150,000 to 200,000 Greeks were evacuated in total. The remaining Greeks left for Greece in 1923, as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, a stipulation of the Treaty of Lausanne, which formally ended the Greco-Turkish War.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The geopolitical context of this conflict is linked to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire which was a direct consequence of World War I and involvement of the Ottomans in the Middle Eastern theatre. The Greeks received an order to land in Smyrna by the Triple Entente as part of the partition. During this war, the Ottoman government collapsed completely and the Ottoman Empire was divided amongst the victorious Entente powers with the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
After re-capturing Smyrna, Turkish forces headed north for the Bosporus, the sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles where the Allied garrisons were reinforced by British, French and Italian troops from Constantinople. In an interview published in the "Daily Mail", September 15, Mustafa Kemal stated that: ""Our demands remain the same after our recent victory as they were before. We ask for Asia Minor, Thrace up to the river Maritsa and Constantinople... We must have our capital and I should in that case be obliged to march on Constantinople with my army, which will be an affair of only a few days. I must prefer to obtain possession by negotiation though, naturally I cannot wait indefinitely.""
Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774)
On June 20, 1774, the Russian army, under the command of Alexander Suvorov, managed to rout the Ottoman Army near Kozludzha. Russia used the victory to force Turkey to acquiesce to Russia's preferences in the treaty.
Mehmetçik Monument
The Battle of Sakarya was one of the most important milestones in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). During the 22–day battle, the Greek army advanced as far as Kartaltepe hill. But during the counterattack of the Turkish forces, the Greek offence was checked. This was a critical turning point. One year later, the Greek army fell back and last of the Greek forces withdrew from Anatolia. The monument was erected to commemorate the turning point of the Turkish War of Independence at this site.
History of Turkey
The Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 marked the beginning of Ottoman territorial retreat; some territories were lost by the treaty: Austria received all of Hungary and Transylvania except the Banat; Venice obtained most of Dalmatia along with the Morea (the Peloponnesus peninsula in southern Greece); Poland recovered Podolia. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Ottoman Empire continued losing its territories, including Greece, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and the Balkans in the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars. Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century (see Rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). Its inhabitants were of varied ethnicities, including Turks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Greeks, Frenchs, and Italians (particularly from Genoa and Venice). Faced with territorial losses on all sides the Ottoman Empire under the rule of the Three Pashas forged an alliance with Germany who supported it with troops and equipment. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I (1914–1918) on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated. During the war, major atrocities were committed such as Genocide, mass murder and death marches intentionally denying food and water to the deportees by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks causing millions of deaths and resulting in the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Following World War I, the huge conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was divided into several new states.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
Historian Malcolm Yapp wrote that:
First Perso-Turkic War
The First Perso-Turkic War was fought during 588-589 between the Sasanian Empire and Hephthalite principalities and its lord the Göktürks. The conflict started with the invasion of the Sasanian Empire by the Turks and ended with a decisive Sasanian victory and the reconquest of lost lands.
Silvestro Valiero
Venice's war with the Ottoman Empire - the Morean War - was only one part of the Ottoman Empire's struggle against the Holy League of 1684. On 11 September 1697, Ottoman forces were defeated by troops of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Zenta. This decisive battle led to the Ottoman Empire's determination to end the Great Turkish War, and peace negotiations began at Sremski Karlovci. These negotiations eventually produced the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699 and ending the Great Turkish War, including the Morean War. Under the Treaty, Venice received the Morea, Aegina, Lefkada, and Zakynthos. Most Venetians felt they gained far too little territory to compensate for the huge loss of life and expense of the wars with the Ottoman Empire. The Republic was exhausted by the long war and facing economic distress, but little changed for Valiero, and he continued hosting banquets, receptions, and parties at which he entertained persons of rank.
Greek–Turkish relations
During the Crimean War (1854 to 1856), Britain and France restrained Greece from attacking the Ottomans, by occupying Piraeus. Again during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 the Greeks were keen to join in with the objective of territorial expansion, but Greece was unable to take any effective part in the war. Nevertheless, after the Congress of Berlin, in 1881 Greece was given most of Thessaly and part of Epirus. Also, in 1854-1896, there were revolts in the Ottoman Empire by the Greek population in Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
In return for the contribution of the Greek army on the side of the Allies, the Allies supported the assignment of eastern Thrace and the millet of Smyrna to Greece. This treaty ended the First World War in Asia Minor and, at the same time, sealed the fate of the Ottoman Empire. Henceforth, the Ottoman Empire would no longer be a European power.
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey
The Greek–Turkish population exchange was a result of the Turkish War of Independence. After Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's capture of Smyrna followed by the abolition of the Ottoman Empire on November 1, 1922, a formal peace agreement was signed with Greece after months of negotiations in Lausanne on July 24, 1923. Two weeks after the treaty, the Allied Powers turned over Istanbul to the Nationalists, marking the final departure of occupation armies from Anatolia.
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.
Afyonkarahisar
During the 1st World War British prisoners of war who had been captured at Gallipoli were housed here in an empty Armenian church at the foot of the rock. During the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) campaign (part of the Turkish War of Independence) Afyon and the surrounding hills were occupied by Greek forces. However, it was recovered on 27 August 1922, a key moment in the Turkish counter-attack in the Aegean region. After 1923 Afyon became a part of the Republic of Turkey.
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
To an extent, the above danger may have been overstated by Venizelos as a negotiating card on the table of Sèvres, in order to gain the support of the Allied governments. For example, the Young Turks were not in power at the time of the war, which makes such a justification less straightforward. Most of the leaders of that regime had fled the country at the end of World War I and the Ottoman government in Constantinople was already under British control. Furthermore, Venizelos had already revealed his desires for annexation of territories from the Ottoman Empire in the early stages of World War I, before these massacres had taken place. In a letter sent to Greek King Constantine in January 1915, he wrote that: "I have the impression that the concessions to Greece in Asia Minor ... would be so extensive that another equally large and not less rich Greece will be added to the doubled Greece which emerged from the victorious Balkan wars."
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
In October 1920, the Greek army advanced further east into Anatolia, with the encouragement of Lloyd George, who intended to increase pressure on the Turkish and Ottoman governments to sign the Treaty of Sèvres. This advance began under the Liberal government of Eleftherios Venizelos, but soon after the offensive began, Venizelos fell from power and was replaced by Dimitrios Gounaris. The strategic objective of these operations was to defeat the Turkish Nationalists and force Mustafa Kemal into peace negotiations. The advancing Greeks, still holding superiority in numbers and modern equipment at this point, had hoped for an early battle in which they were confident of breaking up ill-equipped Turkish forces. Yet they met with little resistance, as the Turks managed to retreat in an orderly fashion and avoid encirclement. Churchill said: "The Greek columns trailed along the country roads passing safely through many ugly defiles, and at their approach the Turks, under strong and sagacious leadership, vanished into the recesses of Anatolia."
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
The Greek advance was halted for the first time at the First Battle of İnönü on January 11, 1921. Even though this was a minor confrontation involving only one Greek division, it held political significance for the fledging Turkish revolutionaries. This development led to Allied proposals to amend the Treaty of Sèvres at a conference in London where both the Turkish Revolutionary and Ottoman governments were represented.
War reparations
Following the Greco-Turkish War (1897), defeated Greece was forced to pay a large war indemnity to Turkey (£4 million). Greece, which was already in default, was compelled to permit oversight of its public finances by an international financial commission.
Greeks in Turkey
During the Greco-Turkish War, a conflict which followed the Hellenic occupation of Smyrna in May 1919 and continued until the Great Fire of Smyrna in September 1922, atrocities perpetrated by both the Hellenic and Turkish armies. For the massacres that occurred during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, British historian Arnold J. Toynbee wrote that it was the Greek landings that created the Turkish National Movement led by Mustafa Kemal: "The Greeks of 'Pontus' and the Turks of the Greek occupied territories, were in some degree victims of Mr. Venizelos's and Mr. Lloyd George's original miscalculations at Paris."