3. THE LAUSANNE PEACE TREATY AND EXCHANGE OF POPULATIONS BETWEEN GREECE AND TU

3. THE LAUSANNE PEACE TREATY AND EXCHANGE OF POPULATIONS BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY

The Greek-Turkish War (1920-1922) was the last historical attempt by the small but ambitious Greek kingdom to impose itself on Turkey in order to expand its territory and create a Greater Greece. Because Turkey, led by Kemal Mustafa, refused to accept the provisions derived from the Sevres Peace Agreement, Greece in 1920 sought to impose its will on Turkey through war. Kemal Mustafa, however, came out victorious after the Greeks lost the battle at the Sakaria River and Turkey put a permanent end to these grand-Greek ambitions.

After the Greeks were defeated at the Sakaria River, the Greek state, on October 11, 1922, was forced to accept a truce which was concluded in Moudania. The two countries resolved their disputes with talks that took place in 1923 in Lausanne (Switzerland). Apart from territorial issues, and the issue of prisoners of war, the two states also discussed the status of minorities and what to do with them. Signing the Treaty of Lausanne had special significance for Greece and Turkey and for the wider international community. The Lausanne Peace Accord was the first revision to the recently signed Paris Peace Accord.

During the talks in Lausanne, the generally recognized European principles for respecting minority rights within Greece and Turkey were found to be unacceptable and were rejected. Instead, the two states opted for compulsory eviction of minorities, i.e. the expulsion of Muslims from Greece and the expulsion of Christians from Turkey. “We prefer to be injured 30% or 50% if necessary,” said a Turkish representative in Lausanne, “than to have foreigners and enemies among us…” (Grigori Dafni, Elas metaxi dio polemon, 1923-1940, Athina, 1955, volume 1, p. 34). And thus, “based on a compulsory and total population exchange” a process of eviction was initiated. (Societé, de Nations, Conseilet etats members, dc 736-m. 477, Genéve.) Greece began to evict all Muslims by religion, all ethnic Macedonians and Muslims by faith, all Albanians by ethnicity and Muslims by faith, all Jews by ethnicity and Muslims by faith. While Turkey, on the other hand, began to evict all Christians by religion including Armenian Christians and the Karamanli Turks who were Muslims by faith.

By virtue of the Treaty of Lausanne, 350,000 Muslims were evicted from Greek occupied Macedonia despite their origin, language and cultural tradition. This mandatory population exchange excluded the Turkish population that lived in Western Thrace and the so-called Greek population that lived in Istanbul before October 1918. Outside of the Turkish population evicted from Greek occupied Macedonia, 40,802 Macedonian Muslims, 6,014 Albanian Muslims and a small number of Muslim Jews were also evicted.

The Greek state began to immediately replace the Muslim population it had evicted from Greek occupied Macedonia with Christians from Asia Minor and from other parts of the world. With a great desire to Hellenize Greek occupied Macedonia, the Greek state began to develop “broad political activities” to return the so-called “Greeks” to their homeland. A number of so-called Greeks, based on the right of “ius sanquinis” (being of Greek origin), returned to Greece. On that basis, 1,159,311 people came to Greece. Subsequent Greek governments, with the financial generosity and moral support of the League of Nations, began to settle this vast number of settlers and colonist all throughout the territory of Greece.

Places where settlers and colonists were deposited in Greece (1923-1928)

(Statistika Apotelezmata..., Athina, 1935)

Place

Greek occupied Macedonia Sterea Elada and Eubea Western Thrace Aegean Islands Thessaly Peloponnesus Crete Cyprus Kiklades Ionian Islands

Total

Number %

565,143 48.75 317,188 27.36 100,485 8.67 51,550 4.45 36,427 3.14 32,873 2.84 32,411 2.80 10,348 0.89 6,697 0.58 6,189 0.53

1,159,311 100

The colonization was more massive in the new territories, particularly in Greek occupied Macedonia and Western Thrace, and less significant in the southern part of Greece where, in some regions, no colonization took place. In fact, many of the places in Greece that were not colonized served as an inexhaustible source of Greek migration to Greek occupied Macedonia and to Western Thrace. In other words, Greece moved so-called Greeks from its southern regions to its newly acquired territories in Greek occupied Macedonia and in Western Thrace. In total, 565,143 people or 48.75% of the total colonist population was moved to Greek occupied Macedonia, with 210,425 originating from Europe. This population came from European countries or regions such as Eastern Thrace 140,915, Bulgaria 29,439, Istanbul 14,138, Yugoslavia 13,038, Albania 5,168, Russia 5,083, Romania 1,077, Italy 438, Germany 298, France 293, Austria 133, England 109, Czechoslovakia 63, Switzerland 44, Hungary 44, Belgium 40, Poland 34, Estonia 3, Lithuania 3, Latvia 2, Norway 2, Netherlands 2, Finland 2 and Ireland 1. Another part totaling 353,652 people, came from Asia from countries and regions such as Asia Minor

(Turkey) 201,173, the Pont (Turkey) 122,180, USSR (Caucasus) 29,313, Dodecanese 394, Cyprus 324, Syria 100, Iraq 89, Iran 31, Palestine 29, Yemen (Aden) 10, India 4, Philippines 3 and China 2. Another 567 people came from America from countries such as the United States 537, Argentina 12, Canada 11, Brazil 2, Uruguay 2, Cuba 1, Mexico 1 and Chile 1. Another 486 people came from Africa, from countries such as Egypt 446, Ethiopia 10, South Africa 10, Algeria 5, Tunisia 5, Libya 4, Sudan 3, Tanganyika 2 and Morocco 1. Another 3 came from Australia for a total of 565,143 people. These colonists were settled in various regions in Greek occupied Macedonia.

Regions in Greek occupied Macedonia occupied by colonists and settlers (1923-1928)

(Statistika Apotelezmata..., Athina, 1935)

Region

Solun Seres Kavala Drama Pela Kozhani Lerin Halkidiki Sveta Gora

Total

Number %

234,203 41.44 71,694 12.69 66,299 11.73 66,104 11.70 45,683 8.08 42,504 7.52 19,154 3.39 16,848 2.98 2,654 0.47

565,143 100

The great majority of colonists were deposited throughout the Macedonian villages in Greek occupied Macedonia, creating the so-called village or agricultural colonization. A smaller number of colonists were deposited in the cities, creating the so-called urban colonization.

The village or rural colonization was the most massive which involved mostly Christian colonists. In the period from 1924 to 1918, 116,403 families with 427,297 people colonized the

agricultural sector in Greek occupied Macedonia. (Megali eliniki enikiklopedia (Pirsos), Athina, 1931, volume 16, p. 503.) These people were not only given the most fertile soil, but the Greek government offered them inventory and expert advice for faster economic training in order to colonize and take advantage of the best Macedonian and Turkish villages and to create new rural settlements. According to the Geneva Convention, Greece was obligated to supply the agricultural colonists with 500,000 hectares of land. An agreement between Greece and Bulgaria was signed by Molov from Bulgaria and Kafandaris from Greece in 1927, which called for regulating property issues that arose from the Macedonian population being evicted from Greece and sent to Bulgaria, and the so-called “Greek” population was evicted from Bulgaria and sent to Greece.

The urban colonization of Greek occupied Macedonia was not as drastic as the rural colonization. About 41,296 colonist families with about 152,989 people were sent to colonize Macedonian cities in Greek occupied Macedonia. (Pirsos p. 503.) Macedonian urban regions colonized included the towns in Solun Region occupied with 99,937 colonists, the towns in Kavala Region occupied with 22,446 colonists, the towns in Drama Region occupied with 14,374 colonists, the towns in Seres Region occupied with 7,627 colonists, the towns in Pela Region occupied with 7,556 colonists, the towns in Lerin Region occupied with 1,307 colonists, and the towns in Kozhani Region occupied with 752 colonists.

In the period from 1913 to 1928, through its colonization policy, the Greek state managed to colonize Greek occupied Macedonia with so-called “Greeks from inside and from abroad” who were not exactly Greeks but fit the desired Greek profile suitable for denationalizing and stripping Macedonia of its Macedonian national character.

External and internal colonists deposited in Greek occupied Macedonia by region (1913-1928)

Region

Solun Seres Kavala Drama Pela Kozhani Lerin Chalkidiki Sveta Gora

Total

Colonists from abroad

234,203 71,694 66,199 66,104 45,683 45,504 19,154 16,848 2.654

565,143

Colonists from inside Greece

26,324 4,178 7,610 4,830 1,554 3,877 1,775 1,611 1,245

53,056

Total

260,527 75,872 73,929 70,934 47,237 46,381 20,929 18,459 3,949

618,199

This great Greek colonization of Greek occupied Macedonia created severe ethnic, political and economic consequences for the Macedonian people. The Macedonian people identified the newcomer colonists by the name “Madzhiri” meaning foreigners, strangers or newcomers.