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{{POV|date=December 2007}}
{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Occupation of İzmir
|partof=[[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)]] <br> campaign of [[Turkish War of Independence]]
|image=[[Image:Izmir15Mayis1919.jpg|280px]]
|caption=Greek Soldiers taking their posts
|date=[[21 May]] [[1919]] – [[8 Sep]] [[1922]]   
|place=İzmir district [[occupied]] by [[Greece]]
|casus=[[Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire]]
|territory=Greece declares a protectorate on [[30 Jul]] [[1922]] from [[Ottoman Empire]] and restores it after defeat on [[9 Sep]] [[1922]] to [[Republic of Turkey]]
|result=[[Population exchange between Greece and Turkey|Population exchange]]; Provisions of [[Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne]] overturned
|combatant1=[[Image:Flag of Greece (1828-1978).svg|25px]][[Greece]]
(contracted; show full)athered in [[Paris]] in [[1919]] to decide on the partition of the remaining territories of the Empire. The [[United Kingdom|British]] had already occupied [[Istanbul]] ([[Constantinople]]), the [[France|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 [[Italy|Italians]] were unaware however, that Britain had promised Greece large tracts of Asia Minor for its support during the war.
  

===Legality of the occupation===
{{Seealso|Armistice of Mudros}}
Legal justifications for the landings was found in the article 7 of the [[Armistice of Mudros|Armistice of Moudros]], which allowed the Allies "to occupy any strategic points in the event of any situation arising which threatens the security of Allies."<ref> Stanford J.Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Cambridge University Press 1977 p. 342 </ref> 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. British foreign office argued Greece had already proved incapable of keeping order in [[Thessaloniki|Salonika]], and could not be trusted to administer large tracts of Asia Minor.<ref name="one-five-three">Lord Kinross, Atatürk. p.153.</ref>  

Lloyd George had thus concocted a report according to which Turkish guerrillas had threatened the Greek minorities in İzmir<ref name="five-five-four">Peter Kincaid Jensen, 1979. International Journal of Middle East Studies. Vol.10, No.4, (Nov.1979), p.554</ref>, providing a pretext for a Greek incursion into Asia Minor. The reports had gained the sympathy of President  [[Woodrow Wilson]], whilst [[Georges Clemenceau]] approved the landing with the hope of limiting further Italian gains.<ref name="five-five-four"/>  

The occupation also changed its status on [[30 Jul]] [[1922]] by Greece declaring the "Protectorate on İzmir" province.

==Military administration==
A military administration was formed by the Greek premier [[Eleftherios Venizelos]] shortly after the initial landings. Venizelos had plans to annex [[İzmir]] that he succeeded in realizing his objective in [[Treaty of Sèvres]] [[August 10]] [[1920]].  <ref name="two-one-seven"> Andrew Mango, Atatürk. p217.</ref>, He had immediately agreed to send Greek troops to İzmir after Italian troops had landed in [[Antalya]].

===Landings, 15 May 1919===
On [[May 15]] [[1919]], twenty thousand<ref> Lord Kinross, Atatürk. p.154</ref> Greek soldiers landed in İzmir and took control of the city and its surroundings under cover of the Greek, French, and British navies. Greeks of İzmir and other Christians, who formed the minority according to Ottoman sources and a majority according to Greek sources  <ref>Hellenic Army General Staff, 1957, Ο Ελληνικός Στρατός εις την Σμύρνην (''O Ellenikos Stratos eis ten Smirnev''), p.56 </ref>, greeted the Greek troops as liberators.  According some other sources, Christian population was "''perhaps a bare majority, more likely a large minority in the Smyrna Vilayet, which lay in an overwhelmingly Turkish Anatolia.''"<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=DEYNKvzs14IC&pg=PA367&dq=genocide+%2Bgreek&sig=jAXMOzBgnb1O21nfnPoVnlNOWsA#PPA367,M1</ref>

===First Day of the Occupation===
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 [[fez]]es from their heads and trample them underfoot – the worst outrage for a Mohammedan – 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 Mohammedan”<ref>Von Mikusch, Mustafa Kemal, pp192–193.</ref>.  

There were several Westerner eye-witnesses to the events that took place in Izmir. In such a report, Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Arizona wrote:   

<blockquote>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.  <ref>F. O. 371-4218, no. 91491, Mallet (for Balfour) to Curzon, Paris, 1919, enclosure no. 9 " Commanding Officer U.S.S. Arizona to Senior Naval Officer, Constantinople", Smyrna 18 May 1919.  </ref> </blockquote>

Donald Whitall, [[United Kingdom|British]] resident of İzmir stated that:
(contracted; show full)humiliation for many of the Turkish and Muslim inhabitants. Whilst the Turkish army was ordered not to open fire, a Turkish nationalist ([[Hasan Tahsin]]) among the crowd fired a shot and killed the Greek standard bearer<ref> Andrew Mango, ''Atatürk'', p.217</ref>. Greek soldiers then opened fire on the Turkish barracks as well as the government building. Between 300 to 400 Turks and 100 Greeks were killed on the first day.<ref> Andrew Mango, Atatürk. p.217</ref>
  

The Greek landings had served to trigger the [[Turkish War of Independence]], marked by the landing of [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|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.
(contracted; show full)
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 İzmir 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"
  <ref name="three-four-three">Andrew Mango, Atatürk. p343.</ref>. The Turkish pursuit left little room to fulfill this prophecy, but a [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)#Greek scorched earth policy|scorched earth policy]] had left wide tracts of the surrounding land in ruins, leaving the population of İzmir close to starvation.<ref name="one-five-three"/><ref name="three-four-three"/> It is estimated some 3,000 lives had been lost in the burning of [[Alaşehi(contracted; show full)/sampapers/GREEKOCCUPATIONOFIZMIR.pdf Report of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry (May – September 1919)]|556&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 569431 bytes -->}} on the Greek occupation in Western Anatolia, by the Members of the Commission; [[Mark Lambert Bristol|Adm. Bristol]], the US Delegate; Gen. Hare, the British Delegate; Gen. Bunoust, the French Delegate; Gen. Dall'Olio, the Italian Delegate. The statements in defense of the Greek government presented by Col. Mazarakis.
  
{{refend}}

{{War of Turkish War of Independence}}

[[Category:Aftermath of World War I]]
[[Category:Turkish War of Independence]]
[[Category:Wars involving Greece]]

[[tr:İzmir'in İşgali]]