Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
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The Greco-Turkish War occurred after World War I , when the Greeks attempted to extend their territory beyond eastern Thrace (in Europe) and the district of Smyrna (Izmir; in Anatolia). These territories had been assigned to them by the Treaty of Sèvres , August 10, 1920, which was imposed upon the weak Ottoman government. In January 1921 the Greek army, despite its lack of equipment and its unprotected supply lines, launched an offensive in Anatolia against the nationalist Turks, who had defied the Ottoman government and would not recognize its treaty. Although repulsed in April, the Greeks renewed their attack in July and advanced beyond the Afyonkarahisar-Eskisehir railway line toward Ankara. The Turks, however, commanded by the nationalist leader Mustafa Kemal , defeated them at the Sakarya River (August 24-September 16, 1921). A year later the Turks assumed control of Smyrna (September 1922) and drove the Greeks out of Anatolia. In Greece the war was followed by a successful military coup against the monarchy .
In the second Greco-Turkish War (known to the Turks as the War of Turkish Independence, to the Greeks as the Catastrophe of Asia Minor and to the rest of the world as the War of Asia Minor, see Greco-Turkish War), the Greeks were unable to defend the front in Anatolia when the Turks reorganised under Kemal Atatürk, who founded a Turkish national army based at Ankara and had secured considerable foreign assistance from the Soviet Union.
The Treaty of Lausanne.
The Treaty of Lausanne, concluded on July 24, 1923, obliged Greece to return eastern Thrace and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos to Turkey, as well as to give up its claim to Smyrna. The two belligerents also agreed to exchange their Greek and Turkish minority populations. Treaty of Lausanne, (1923), final treaty concluding World War I. It was signed by representatives of Turkey (successor to the Ottoman Empire) on one side and by Britain , France , Italy , Japan , Greece , Romania , and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) on the other. The treaty was signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 24, 1923, after a seven-month conference.
The treaty recognized the boundaries of the modern state of Turkey . Turkey made no claim to its former Arab provinces and recognized British possession of Cyprus and Italian possession of the Dodecanese. The Allies dropped their demands of autonomy for Turkish Kurdistan and Turkish cession of territory to Armenia, abandoned claims to spheres of influence in Turkey, and imposed no controls over Turkey's finances or armed forces. The Turkish straits between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea were declared open to all shipping.
The Treaty of Lausanne of July 1923 provided for an exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. About a million Greeks left Turkey for Greece and about half a million Turks left Greece for Turkey. The exceptions to the population exchange were Constantinople, where the Greek minority (including the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church) was allowed to stay, and the eastern part of Greek Thrace, whose Turkish minority was also allowed to stay. Vast fortunes, mainly of Greeks from Asia Minor since most Turks in Greece belonged to the working class and thus were relatively poor, were lost in this transition and the entire incident only created the basis for future conflicts.bg:Гръцко-турска война (1919-1922) de:Griechisch-Türkischer Krieg eo:Greka-turka milito (1919-1922) nl:Grieks-Turkse oorlog