|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Occupation of Smyrna[1] (Izmir) occurred from 15 May 1919 to 8 September 1922 by Greek forces under the High Commissioner Aristidis Stergiadis in the Smyrna district, aligned with the Allied partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. There were no military hostilities between Greece and the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Greek occupation became very controversial, since the main intention of the Allies of World War I was to balance the Italian expansion in Anatolia. The Italian and Anglo-French Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne (26 April 1917) was partially repudiated by the Greek occupation, as Smyrna was part of the territory previously promised to Italy. The occupation was one of the catalysts for the establishment of the Turkish national movement and the alignment between Italy and Grand National Assembly of Turkey.[2]
Contents |
Following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I, the victorious allies had gathered in Paris Peace Conference, 1919 to decide on the partition of the remaining territories of the Empire. Before the opening of the Conference, the British had already occupied Constantinople, the French had marched into Cilicia, and the Italians landed in Antalya on the southern coast as well as being promised parts on the western coasts including İzmir.
The Italians were unaware that Britain promised Greece large tracts of Asia Minor for its support during the war. The Italian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, angry about the possibility of a Greek occupation of Western Anatolia, left the conference and did not return to Paris until 5 May. The absence of the Italian delegation from the Conference ended up facilitating Lloyd George's efforts to persuade France and the United States to favor Greece in order to prevent Italian operations in Western Anatolia.
The Armistice of Moudros in the article 7 stated that the Allies "to occupy any strategic points in the event of any situation arising which threatens the security of Allies."[3]
The chief proponent of the Greek occupation on the side of allies was the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, despite strong opposition from his own foreign office. The British foreign office argued Greece had already proved incapable of keeping order in Salonika, and could not be trusted to administer large tracts of Asia Minor.[4] Lloyd George had thus concocted a report according to which Turkish guerrillas had threatened the Greek community of Smyrna.[5] This report gained the sympathy of President Woodrow Wilson, whilst Georges Clemenceau approved the landing with the hope of limiting further Italian gains.[5]
A military administration was formed by the Greek premier Eleftherios Venizelos shortly after the initial landings. Venizelos had plans to annex Smyrna that he succeeded in realizing his objective in Treaty of Sèvres August 10, 1920.,[6] He had immediately agreed to send Greek troops to Smyrna after Italian troops had landed in Antalya.
On May 15, 1919, twenty thousand[7] Greek soldiers landed in Smyrna and took control of the city and its surroundings under cover of the Greek, French, American (U. S.),[8] and British navies, and were greeted by the Greek inhabitants as liberators. A Turkish journalist Hasan Tahsin and and some friends decided to resist the Greek army. Tahsin fired the first shot of the Turkish War of Independence. He attempted to assassinate Greek commander. Instead he killed a Greek vexillary and continued to fire shots at the Greek army. The Greek army reacted and captured Hasan Tahsin and his friends, and executed them.[9] Today, there is a first shot of the Turkish War of Independence monument in Izmir.
|
|||||
The landings proved to be chaotic and one of the examples of atrocities, which would continue during the rest of the conflict, occurred in that very day. Von Mikusch notes: “The Christian crowd rages and yells… Many fall under the bayonet thrusts. The men are forced to tear the fezes from their heads and trample them underfoot – the worst outrage for a Muslim – all who refuse are cut down with the sword. The veils are torn from the women's faces. The mob begins to plunder the house of the Muslim”.[10]
There were several Westerner eye-witnesses to the events that took place in Izmir. In such a report, Commanding Officer of the USS Arizona wrote:
Old men, unarmed, and other unoffending civilian Turks were knocked down by the Greeks, killed by stabbing with knives or bayonets, and then afterwards, having their valuables and clothes stripped off their bodies, were thrown into the sea...Specific instances are cited by these same eyewitnesses where Turkish soldiers and officers were bayoneted from behind by their Greek guards, while the rabble rifled their pockets and then threw their bodies into the sea. Many of the worst instances of inhuman treatment of the Turks were while they were under arrest and on open sea front at noonday.[11][12]
Donald Whitall, British resident of İzmir stated that:
From the custom-house up to the Kramer Palace Hotel I was the unwilling witness of the massacre of some thirty unarmed men, who were being marched with hands up. This butchery was committed by Greek soldiers entirely...Close to the landing place of the Cordelio boats I saw a lot more shot down.[11][13]
The first couple months of the occupation was described to American senate by James Harbord, whose mission was to determine the situation of Armenian Christians in the Ottoman Empire:[14]
The Greek troops and the local Greeks who had joined them in arms started a general massacre of the Mussulmen population in which the officials and Ottoman officers and soldiers as well as the peaceful inhabitants were indiscriminately put to death and subjected to forms of torture and savagery worthy of the Inquisition and constituting in any case a barbarous violation of the laws of humanity. Naturally the outcry was great among the Mussulmen population. The whole nation rose to oppose the barbarously hostile action of the Greeks. Meetings were organized in the towns and even in the villages and telegrams dispatched by the hundred to the Entente Powers and the whole civilized world, tearfully appealing for protection and help.[15]
As Greek troops advanced to the barracks, where the Ottoman commander Ali Nadir Pasha has been ordered to offer no resistance, a Turk in the crowd fired a shot, killing the Greek standard-bearer.[6] Greek troops panicked and started firing both at the barracks and the government building. Between 300 to 400 Turks were killed or wounded, against 100 Greeks, two of whom were soldiers, on the first day.[6]
The Greek landings had served to trigger the Turkish War of Independence, marked by the landing of Mustafa Kemal (later Atatürk) in Samsun on May 19, 1919, four days after the occupation. Kemal formed a nationalist movement with a separate government in Ankara, and no longer recognised the administration in Istanbul, which on August 10, 1920, had signed the Treaty of Sèvres, thus formally ceding the territories to Greece which she presently occupied.
Italy was angry at having lost what was promised and became sympathetic to the nationalist forces. Soon thereafter, France had declared an armistice with Mustafa Kemal. Britain, attempting to defeat Kemal's army, gave permission for Venizelos to invade further into Anatolia and root out the nationalists.
The Greek operation deep in Anatolia proved a disaster and by 1922 the Greek army had been routed with Kemal's forces pursuing them to İzmir. The British representative in Smyrna warned, "The Greeks have realised that they have got to go but they are decided to leave a desert behind them, no matter whose interests may suffer thereby. Everything which they have time and means to move will be carried off to Greece; the Turks will be plundered and burnt out of house and home".[16] The Turkish pursuit left little room to fulfill this prophecy, but a scorched earth policy had left wide tracts of the surrounding land in ruins, leaving the population of İzmir close to starvation.[4][16] It is estimated some 3,000 lives had been lost in the burning of Alaşehir alone.[16]
By 9 September the Turkish army had entered Smyrna, with the Greek authorities having left two days before. Large scale disorder followed, with the Christian population suffering under attacks from soldiers and Turkish inhabitants. The Greek archbishop Chrysostomos had been lynched by a mob which included Turkish soldiers, and on September 13, a fire from the Armenian quarter of the city had engulfed the Christian waterfront of the city, leaving the city devastated. The responsibility for the fire is a controversial issue, some sources blame Turks, and some sources blame Greeks or Armenians. Some 10,000[17] to 100,000[18] Greeks and Armenians were killed in the fire and accompanying massacres.
According to the British estimates of 1919 the Greek element in Izmir Sanjack, the city and the surrounding area, was the most numerous counting 375,000, while Muslims were 325,000.[19] American figures share a similar view about the specific area under question.[20] According to some sources, the suggestion that the Greek element constituted a certain majority in the lands claimed by Greece has been contested.[21]
The ethnic composition of the city of İzmir was contested: according to Ottoman sources Greeks and other Orthodox Christians formed a minority in the city, on the other hand according to Greek sources Greeks formed the majority.[22] It has been recorded, before World War I, that the Greeks alone numbered 130,000 out of a total population of 250,000, while the Ottoman ruling class referred to the city as Infidel Smyrna (Gavur Izmir) due to its strong Greek presence.[23][24]
During the occupation of the city, the Greeks established a number of institutions in the city. For example, the first university in Smyrna, under the name Ionian University, was founded by the Phanariot Greek Mathematician Constantin Carathéodory.[25] Several programs were instituted to better the lives of inhabitants of the city.[25]
The Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne of 26 April 1917, which settled the middle eastern interest of Italy, was overridden with the Greek occupation as Smyrna was part of the agreements promised to Italy. Before the occupation the Italian delegation to Paris Peace Conference, 1919, dissatisfied about the possibility of the Greek occupation of Western Anatolia, left the conference and did not return to Paris until May 5. The absence of the Italian delegation from the Conference facilitated Lloyd George's efforts to persuade France and the United States in Greece’s favor to prevent Italian operations in Western Anatolia.
Occupation of Smyrna was one of the main reasons behind the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||