SMYRNA LANDING 1919

The regional tension in the wake of the Ottoman defeat broke out into a fresh conflict as Greek forces seized the coastal city and surrounding areas

On 30 October 1918 representatives of the Allies and the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros aboard HMS Agamemnon in Mudros harbour, ending hostilities between the two sides. Before the ink was dry, the Allies commenced talks on partitioning the Ottoman Empire and a series of agreements led to the Middle East becoming dominated by the Western Powers.

During early 1919 the British were keen to see Greece take control of the Vilayet of Aidin, an Ottoman province in Anatolia. Both the British and the Greeks argued that local Christian populations in the province were under threat from the Turks and sought the backing of the US and France for Greek troops to land and take control of Smyrna (Izmir). By May, Western warships began moving to support a Greek military landing.

The Greek Prime Minister Eleuthérios Venizélos, an ardent Nationalist and fierce proponent of the ‘Great Idea’ (a revival of the Greek Empire), stoked the situation by telling the Western Powers that the local Ottoman governor of Smyrna, Nureddin Pasha, had been carrying out excesses against non-Muslim inhabitants of the province. According to the minutes of the Allied Supreme Council meetings, the British and Greeks agreed to act to “restore public order and forestall the massacres”.