Occupation of Smyrna - Greco-Turkish War and The End of The Occupation

Greco-Turkish War and The End of The Occupation

In 1920, the Smyrna zone became a key base for the Greek summer offensive in the Greco-Turkish War. In early July 1920, the allies approved operations by the Greeks to take over Eastern Thrace and territory around Smyrna as part of ongoing hostilities with the Turkish Nationalist movement. On July 22, 1920, Greek military divisions crossed the Milne line around the Smyrna zone and began military operations in the rest of Anatolia.

International negotiations between the allies and the Ottoman administration largely ignored the increasing conflict. In early 1920, Lloyd George was able to convince the new French Prime Minister, Alexandre Millerand to accept Greek control over Smyrna, but under Turkish suzerainty. Negotiations were further refined in April 1920 meeting of the parties in Sanremo which was designed to discuss mostly issues of Germany, but because of increasing power of the nationalist forces under Kemal, the discussion shifted to focus on Smyrna. French pressure and divisions within the British government resulted in Lloyd George accepting a time frame of 5 years for Greek control over Smyrna with the issue to be decided by the League of Nations at that point. These decisions (Greek administration but with limited Turkish sovereignty and a 5 year limit) were included in the text of the Treaty of Sevres agreed to on August 10, 1920. Because the treaty largely ignored the rise of nationalist forces and the ethnic tension in the Smyrna zone, Montgomery has described the Treaty of Sevres as "stillborn". However, with the signing of the Treaty of Sevres, the Ottoman Vali Izzet Bey handed over authority over Smyrna to Steriadis.

In October 1920, Venizelos lost his position as Prime Minister of Greece. French and Italians used this opportunity to remove their support and financial obligations to the Smyrna occupation and this left the British as the only force supporting the Greek occupation. Smyrna remained a key base of operations for the ongoing war through the rest of 1920 and 1921, particularly under General Georgios Hatzianestis.

A significant loss at the Battle of Sakarya in September 1921 resulted in a retreat of Greek forces to the 1920 lines. The ensuing retreat resulted in massive civilian casualties and atrocities committed by Greek and Turkish troops. Jensen summarizes the violence writing that "The Turkish population was subjected to horrible atrocities by the retreating troops and accompanying civilian Christian mobs. The pursuing Turkish cavalry did not hesitate in kind on the Christian populace; the road from Uşak to Smyrna lay littered with corpses."

Greek troops evacuated Smyrna on September 9, 1922 and a small allied force of British entered Smyrna to prevent looting and violence. The next day, Kemal leading a number of troops entered the city and were greeted with enthusiastic Turkish crowds.