THE GRECO-TURKISH WAR (1919-22)

Prince Philip’s early life was largely influenced by a disastrous conflict between Greece and Turkey in the aftermath of World War I

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of WWI, Greece moved troops into western Turkey to protect the large Greek population and to assert its historical claim over the region. The Greeks and Turks had long been traditional enemies and the Greek invasion was largely informed by a nationalist dream to create a ‘Greater Greece’ based on the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its seat of government.

On 15 May 1919 Greek troops landed at Smyrna and occupied the city under the cover of the Allied navies. They already occupied Eastern Thrace and went on to create a

Greek zone of occupation that covered most of western Asia Minor. At this stage King Constantine took personal command of the army. The western Allies formally partitioned Turkey at the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, giving Greece Smyrna and Eastern Thrace as a reward for their contribution in World War I.

The local Greek Christian population welcomed the invaders as liberators but the Muslim

Turks saw them as occupiers. The Turkish revolutionary leader Mustafa Kemal rejected Sèvres and launched a national war against the Greeks.

Kemal halted the Greek advance at the First and Second Battles of Inonu in early 1921 and the tide began to turn. The British refused to militarily assist the Greeks but the Turks received substantial help from the Soviet Union. The advancing Greeks met fierce resistance at the Battle of Sakarya, which was fought over 21 days between August-september 1921. Both sides became exhausted and contemplated withdrawal but the Greeks withdrew first. This near-stalemate definitively turned the course of the war and the Greeks advanced no further as they were hampered by a poor economy and lack of strategic and operational planning.

An armistice was signed after a decisive Turkish victory at Dumlupinar in August 1922 and the Greeks left Turkey. The resulting Treaty of Lausanne saw an exchange of populations between the two countries. 500,000 Turks left Greece but almost all of the 1.5 million Greeks living in Turkish Anatolia and Thrace were expelled. Greece had huge problems trying to cater for the refugees in a ruined economy and became internationally isolated and internally divided. The monarchy, which was largely blamed for the defeat, was abolished and the war became known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

ABOVE: A Greek interpreter talks to Turkish prisoners. The Turks would eventually expel the Greek population from Turkey after the war BELOW: The Greek 9th Division marching through central Anatolia in August 1921. The Greeks were initially successful in the war but were hindered by poor leadership and planning, and a lack of international support