The Greek landing at Smyrna (Greek: Ελληνική απόβαση στη Σμύρνη; Turkish: Yunanların İzmir'e çıkışı), also known as the Liberation of Smyrna, was a military operation by Greek forces starting on May 15, 1919 which involved landing troops in the city of Smyrna and surrounding areas.
The landing was sanctioned by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who argued that: "[a] massacre is taking place over there and there is nobody to protect the Greek population". The Allied powers oversaw the planning of the operation and assisted by directing their forces to take over some key locations and moving warships to the Smyrna harbor. During the landing, a shot was fired on the Greek 1/38 Evzone Regiment and significant violence ensued between both communities, however it was unsystematic and the Greek command tried to thwart it. The event became important for creating the three-year-long Greek Occupation of Smyrna and was a major spark for the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).
Prelude
At the end of World War I (1914–1918) and with the Armistice of Mudros that ended the Ottoman front of World War I, the allies began a series of peace talks focused on the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. During Paris Peace Conference, 1919 the Italians landed and took over Antalya and began showing signs of moving troops towards Smyrna. When the Italians left the meeting in protest over other issues, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos pushed a concocted report in the peace negotiations alleging that the Christian populations were under direct threat to convince France and the U.S. to support a Greek takeover of the Aidin Vilayet centered in Smyrna. Borders and terms of the Greek occupation were not decided but in early May 1919, the Allied powers supported Greek troops landing in Smyrna and moved a number of battleships into the area to prepare for the landing.
While negotiations were still in progress, Venizelos informed Clemenceau of the deterioration of the situation in Aidin Vilayet, where the local governor, Nureddin Pasha, was ordering Muslim groups to commit excesses against the Greek population. The British intelligence was also informed of the deterioration of law and order in the area and the Italian role in provoking this situation. In early May, Venizelos reported instances of Italian–Turkish cooperation to the Supreme Allied Council and requested that Allied vessels should be sent to Smyrna. This request, although initially accepted by the council, was not carried out immediately. Under this context, the British Prime Minister and the Foreign Office were the main supporters of the Greek landing, with the purpose "to restore public order and forestall the massacres".
Turkish reactions
The Society for the Defense of Ottoman Rights in Smyrna (İzmir Müdafaa-i Hukuk-ı Osmaniye Cemiyeti) was organized to prepare for the arrival of Greek troops. Nur-ud Din Pasha was appointed governor of the Aidin Vilayet and Aidin Area Command (Aydın Bölge Komutanlığı), and supported activities of the Society for the Defense of Ottoman Rights in İzmir. But he resigned under pressure of the Allied Powers. "Kambur" Kurd Ahmed Izzet Pasha was appointed as new governor on March 11, and retired general Ali Nadir Pasha was appointed to the post of military commander on March 22, 1919.
Allied fleet
In the early weeks of May 1919, Allied warships entered the area to prepare for the operation. British Admiral Somerset Gough-Calthorpe was the primary commander for the operation involving British, U.S., French, Italian, and Greek forces. On May 11, 1919, Rear Admiral Mark L. Bristol, the Commander of US Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters), came to İzmir from Istanbul on a battleship. The British forces later occupied Karaburun and Uzunada, French forces occupied Urla and Foça, Greek forces occupied Yenikale fortress.
The Greek landing
On the afternoon of May 11, 1919, the Commander of the 1st Infantry Division of the Hellenic Army, positioned in Kavala, Colonel Nikolaos Zafeiriou, received orders for the operation. The next morning, the landing force, consisting of 13,000 soldiers, as well as auxiliary personnel, 14 transport ships and escorted by 3 British and 4 Greek destroyers, headed to Smyrna. Zafeiriou's order to his soldiers, who learned about their destination only after the departure, was the following:
Wherever we may go, we must know that we are going to liberate our brethren under alien rule. The enthusiasm filling our hearts is fully justified but any improper manifestation of this enthusiasm will be entirely out of place. We must not forget that when we reach our destination we shall meet Turks, Jews and Europeans of other denominations. Everybody should be treated in the same way. In a little while they will become our brothers as if they were true Greeks.
On May 14, 1919, the Greek mission in Smyrna read a statement announcing that Greek troops would be arriving the next day in the city. Smith reports that this news was "received with great emotion" by the Greek population of the city while thousands of Turkish residents gathered in the hill that night lighting fires and beating drums in protest. Later, translations of proclamations issued by the Turks during this occasion, showed that the intention was not purely pacific resistance. The same night, several hundred prisoners, mostly Turks, were released from a prison, with the complicity of the Ottoman authorities and Italian major in charge of the prison. Some of them armed themselves with purchased arms from a depot near the barracks.
The Greek occupation of Smyrna started the following day, where thousands were gathered on the seafront, waving Greek flags on the docks where the Greek troops were expected to arrive. The Metropolitan of Smyrna, Chrysostomos of Smyrna blessed the first troops as they arrived at 08:00. A colonel, who had neither the will nor the prestige to force himself relentlessly on his men, was in charge of the operation and neither the appointed High Commissioner nor high-ranking military individuals were there for the landing, resulting in miscommunication and a breakdown of discipline. Most significantly, this resulted in the 1/38 Evzone Regiment landing north of where they were to take up their post. As a result, they had to march south passing a large part of the Greek crowds celebrating the landing and also the Ottoman government Konak and the barracks of Ottoman troops. Someone other than the Greek soldiers fired a shot (Smith states that no one knows who despite multiple investigations) and chaos resulted with the Greek troops firing multiple shots into the Konak and the barracks. The Ottoman troops surrendered and the Greek regiment begun marching them up the coast to a ship to serve as a temporary prison. Allied officers in the harbor reported seeing Greek troops bayoneting multiple Turkish prisoners during the march and then saw them thrown into the sea. Prisoners were forced to shout "Long live Venizelos!" and "Long live Greece!". Donald Whittall, a British citizen and one of the few neutral observers during the landing, remarked about the treatment of Turkish prisoners, "They were made to go through no humiliation and received a good deal". But Whittall estimated that thirty unarmed prisoners were slaughtered. The captain of HMS Adventure reported that a Turkish officer, marching with his hands up, veered out of line. He was hit by a Greek soldier's rifle butt on the back of his head. When he tried to stand up he was hit again and bayoneted, before the top of his head was blown off.
Violence and disorder followed the landing and Greek troops and Greek citizens of Smyrna participated in these actions. Some shops belonging to Jews were also plundered by Greek soldiers. For the days following the landing, Greek troops arbitrarily detained around 2,500 people. Looting of Turkish houses in the city and in the surrounding areas began on the night of May 15 and continued for many days after that. The Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry reported that:
Admiral Calthorpe left the area on May 21 and on May 23, the Greek commander in the area went against orders issued by the Allies and Venizelos by ordering the expansion of military operations in Aydın and Şuhut. These operations initially did not face significant resistance, but ethnic violence erupted along the way leading to significant violence and chaos; particularly in the Battle of Aydın from May 27 until June 27, 1919. In many areas, Greek forces demobilized the Ottoman police and then were forced to leave the area resulting in Turkish mobs, who escaped from jail, looting Greek property and killing Greek citizens. The nationalist group led by Yörük Ali also committed multiple massacres, rapes and other crimes against Greek civilians.
Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry
As a response to the claims of violence, the French Prime Minister Clemenceau suggested an Interallied Commission of Inquiry to Smyrna: the commission was made up of Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol for the United States, General Bunoust for France, General Hare for England, General Dall'olio for Italy and, as a non-voting observer, Colonel Mazarakis for Greece. It began work in August 1919 and interviewed 175 witnesses and visited multiple sites of alleged atrocities. The decision reached was that when a Greek witness and Turkish witness disagreed, a European witness would be used to provide the conclusions for the report. This system was dismissed by Venizelos because he claimed that the Europeans living in Smyrna benefited from privileges given to them under the Ottoman rule and were thus opposed to Greek rule. The report was released to negotiators in October and generally found Greeks responsible for the bloodshed related to the landing and the violence throughout the Smyrna zone after the landing. In addition, the conclusions questioned the fundamental justification for the Greek occupation and suggested Greek troops be replaced by an allied force. According to the report, 300–400 Turkish civilians were killed or wounded. The U.S. Naval Officer of the USS Arizona, which was berthed at Smyrna harbor, initially estimated 100 Turks killed, but later revised it to 300–500 Turks killed with a total of 700–1000 casualties. Reverend Alexander MacLachlan, a Canadian in charge of the international college at Smyrna, reported to Mark L. Bristol a rough estimate of 300–500 Turks killed, later revising it to 400–600. The Ottoman government of the time estimated that 675 Turks were killed. On the other hand, according to the report of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry, the Greek casualties were as follows: Greek army (2 killed, 6 wounded); 100 Greek civilians (20 killed, 20 drowned, 60 wounded). The U.S. Naval Officer of the USS Arizona estimated 2 killed and 15–20 wounded Greek soldiers, 20–30 killed and 40–50 wounded Greek civilians.
After the report's release, Venizelos accused the Commission of bias and of condemning Greece without giving them an opportunity to defend themselves. Nevertheless, Venizelos made sure to punish Greek soldiers who were found guilty of atrocities. Court martial on August 15, 1919 led by the Greek High Commissioner for the violence on May 15 and May 16 pronounced 74 convictions (including 48 Greeks, 13 Turks, 12 Armenians and one Jew). The Greek observer, Colonel Alexandros Mazarakis-Ainian, later wrote his own separate report on the massacres, including witnesses who were refused a hearing by the Commission. Eyre Crowe, a main British diplomat, dismissed the larger conclusion by saying the commission had overstepped its mandate.
Greek claims of bias have been mostly corroborated by modern research. The report's conclusions are, indeed, considered unreliable firstly because the commission was headed by pro-Turkish rear admiral Mark L. Bristol, who "had already reached his conclusion months before the investigation", and secondly because "the Turks went to great lengths to document Greek atrocities and sanitize reports of their own". There is also evidence that Bristol's intelligence officer, Robert Steed Dunn, had skewed the report against Greece. Harry Dwight Chamberlin found Dunn untrustworthy and Robert Woods Bliss sent a telegram to Warren Delano Robbins for Dunn to be sent away for this reason. Robbins proceeded to fire Dunn in 1922. It was later assessed by historian Peter M. Buzanski that Dunn's reports were "the result more of barroom gossip than of serious intelligence gathering".
In addition, according to historians Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi: "[t]he commission made no mention of some 3,000 Aydın Greeks—men, women, and children—who were murdered, nor of 800 women and children deported inland" during the Battle of Aydın. In the city, irregular Turks had "torched the Greek quarter and massacred the remaining inhabitants". They note: