The Balkans, 1804–2012: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers by Glenny Misha

Author:Glenny, Misha [Glenny, Misha]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781847087713
Publisher: Granta
Published: 2012-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

Time and again since the Greco-Turkish war, military expediency has been used as a justification for the perpetration of atrocities. As the Commission was watching the razing of Muslim villages on the Izmit peninsula, Kemalists on the Black Sea were unleashing their fury on the Pontic Greeks.

The Greek Anatolian expedition had to succeed during the summer offensive in 1921. At first the Greeks registered some impressive military successes. But as Kemal lured his enemy into the Anatolian interior, the Greek army begin to tire. All supplies, even water, had to be brought up to the front line by soldiers in trucks which were for ever breaking down on rocky tracks. The further east the army progressed, the colder it became at night, the hotter during the day. The Greeks soon controlled large tracts of territory but they had no means of delivering the fatal blow to Kemal. By October, the two sides were digging in for the winter.

That same month, the government in Paris struck a deal with Kemal whereby the French would withdraw their occupation force in Cicilia, south-east Anatolia. This would release many thousands of Turkish soldiers to fight the Greeks. But the political message was still more grim for Athens – there was no longer any coherent Allied policy in the Near East. Britain still supported Greece verbally, although it refused both military and financial assistance. France and Italy were now inclined to favour Turkey. As 1922 dawned, disaster loomed for Greece. As Kemal prepared for his summer offensive, ‘the Greek army was like an apple eaten out inside by insects or disease, superficially whole and apparently firm, but ready to disintegrate at the first sharp blow. Not even the enemy knew how near it had come to dissolution.’98 Kemal’s rejuvenated army attacked on 26 August 1922. Within two days, 50,000 Greeks, a quarter of the occupation forces, had surrendered to the Turkish army while the Greek supply lines were cut like ribbon. Several divisions evaporated. The commanders did not need to give the order to retreat – the Greeks dropped everything and ran. Across 650 kilometres, the retreating soldiers razed every village to the ground in order to slow the Turkish army’s pursuit: a final outburst of barbarism.

On 9 September, the inhabitants of Smyrna woke to the news that the Greek army was streaming towards the coast and that Kemalist forces were bearing down on the port at great speed.

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