Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey stemmed from the "<a href="/facts/Convention_Concerning_the_Exchange_of_Greek_and_Turkish_Populations/mT0Fl01r">Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations</a>" signed at <a href="/facts/Lausanne/HwlVEYGN">Lausanne</a>, <a href="/facts/Switzerland/LcGuxeTe">Switzerland</a>, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Greece/TJC3Ccpb">Greece</a> and <a href="/facts/Turkey/KIYAWAs0">Turkey</a>. It involved at least 1.6 million people (1,221,489 <a href="/facts/Greeks_in_Turkey/uP3f44eM">Greek Orthodox</a> from <a href="/facts/Asia_Minor/vMkrLrPr">Asia Minor</a>, <a href="/facts/Eastern_Thrace/9tznf4uK">Eastern Thrace</a>, the <a href="/facts/Pontic_Alps/zeNBez4V">Pontic Alps</a> and the <a href="/facts/Caucasus/sE8P8Ejg">Caucasus</a>, and 355,000–400,000 <a href="/facts/Muslims/W2ukq4pg">Muslims</a> from Greece), most of whom were forcibly made refugees and <a href="/facts/De_jure/XLvtHTL3">de jure</a> <a href="/facts/Denaturalization/FBy7CBQ9">denaturalized</a> from their homelands.
On 16 March 1922, <a href="/facts/Minister_of_Foreign_Affairs_(Turkey)/q0VFswDl">Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs</a> <a href="/facts/Yusuf_Kemal_Bey/jRANj3NJ">Yusuf Kemal Tengrişenk</a> stated that "[t]he Ankara Government was strongly in favour of a solution that would satisfy world opinion and ensure tranquillity in its own country", and that "[i]t was ready to accept the idea of an exchange of populations between the <a href="/facts/Greeks/wXwd2xlb">Greeks</a> in Asia Minor and the Muslims in Greece". Eventually, the initial request for an exchange of population came from <a href="/facts/Eleftherios_Venizelos/dSFGyNa7">Eleftherios Venizelos</a> in a letter he submitted to the <a href="/facts/League_of_Nations/PQlcKzXs">League of Nations</a> on 16 October 1922, following Greece's defeat in the <a href="/facts/Greco-Turkish_War_(1919%E2%80%931922)/rrXBjRo7">Greco-Turkish War</a> and two days after their accession of the <a href="/facts/Armistice_of_Mudanya/9b8ujfnb">Armistice of Mudanya</a>. The request intended to normalize relations de jure, since the majority of surviving Greek inhabitants of Turkey had fled from <a href="/facts/Greek_genocide/BhTKfBBw">recent massacres</a> to Greece by that time. Venizelos proposed a "compulsory exchange of Greek and Turkish populations," and asked <a href="/facts/Fridtjof_Nansen/If4Nnhak">Fridtjof Nansen</a> to make the necessary arrangements. The new state of Turkey also envisioned the population exchange as a way to formalize and make permanent the flight of its native <a href="/facts/Greek_Orthodox/TDYMI9eg">Greek Orthodox</a> peoples while initiating a new exodus of a smaller number (400,000) of Muslims from Greece as a way to provide settlers for the newly depopulated Orthodox villages of Turkey. <a href="/facts/Norman_M._Naimark/3sQzfT9l">Norman M. Naimark</a> claimed that this treaty was the last part of an <a href="/facts/Ethnic_cleansing/N8zf9Y0K">ethnic cleansing</a> campaign to create an ethnically pure homeland for the Turks. Historian Dinah Shelton similarly wrote that "the Lausanne Treaty completed the forcible transfer of the country's Greeks."[better source needed]
This major compulsory <a href="/facts/Population_transfer/JTSYub3c">population exchange</a>, or agreed mutual expulsion, was based mainly upon religious identity, and involved nearly all the indigenous <a href="/facts/Ecumenical_Patriarchate_of_Constantinople/mq0vBDKl">Greek Orthodox Christian</a> peoples of Turkey (the <a href="/facts/R%C3%BBm/a146KQB5">Rûm</a> "<a href="/facts/Byzantine_Greeks/QWe9G3mS">Roman/Byzantine</a>" <a href="/facts/Rum_Millet/FsmNGS7E">millet</a>), including <a href="/facts/Hayhurum/BvMFg6JT">Armenian</a> and 100,000 <a href="/facts/Karamanlides/0tbGHGjd">Karamanlides</a>, who were a Turkish-speaking <a href="/facts/Ecumenical_Patriarchate_of_Constantinople/mq0vBDKl">Greek Orthodox Christian</a> population. On the other side, most of the native <a href="/facts/Muslim/W2ukq4pg">Muslim</a> populations of Greece, including <a href="/facts/Greek_Muslim/fkG84MxL">Greek-speaking Muslims</a> such as <a href="/facts/Vallahades/CEJzSMIt">Vallahades</a> and <a href="/facts/Cretan_Turks/leE2RXoU">Cretan Turks</a>, as well as <a href="/facts/Muslim_Roma/EgkYX7UQ">Muslim Roma</a> groups like <a href="/facts/Sepe%C4%8Dides_Romani/yYzKpdCx">Sepečides</a>, were distinct from the Greek Orthodox Christian populations involved in the exchange. Each group comprised native peoples, citizens, and in cases even veterans of the state which expelled them, and none had representation in the state purporting to speak for them in the exchange treaty.
Some scholars have criticized the exchange, describing it as a legalized form of mutual <a href="/facts/Ethnic_cleansing/N8zf9Y0K">ethnic cleansing</a>, while others have defended it, stating that despite its negative aspects, the exchange had an overall positive outcome since it successfully prevented another potential genocide of <a href="/facts/Greek_Orthodox_Church/TDYMI9eg">Greek Orthodox Christians</a> in <a href="/facts/Turkey/KIYAWAs0">Turkey</a>.

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey open-in-new

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey