Grandmother: The Root

The Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922 and the destruction of Smyrna uprooted long-established Greek communities in Asia Minor. Refugees fled to Greece, where rebuilding their lives became a defining challenge of the 1920s. Maria’s story belongs to this history of displacement and resettlement. Archival context.

A major event in this refugee crisis was the destruction of the city of Smyrna, which effectively ended the Greco-Turkish War. Before the fire, Smyrna was home to a large Greek community. It was, according to most accounts, a jewel of a city: “Smyrna was a city of a unique cosmopolitan character, full of European travelers and traders, especially during the last decades of the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Turks, Greeks, Jews and Armenians lived together in peace. The Greek community of the city was the largest in population and its members were highly esteemed professionals, working as bankers, traders, lawyers and doctors.”

As Smyrna burned in 1922, Greek and Armenian civilians crowded the waterfront in search of escape. The destruction of homes and communities marked a profound rupture in the city’s life. Estimates of the death toll vary.

Many firsthand accounts of the disaster survive, like this one from Lieutenant A. S. Merrill: “All morning the glow and then the flames of burning Smyrna could be seen. We arrived about an hour before dawn and the scene was indescribable. The entire city was ablaze and the harbor was light as day. Thousands of homeless refugees were surging back and forth on the blistering quay–panic-stricken to the point of insanity. The heartrending shrieks of women and children were painful to hear. In a frenzy they would throw themselves into the water and some would reach the ship. To attempt to land a boat would have been disastrous. Several boats tried and were immediately stopped by the mad rush of a howling mob … The crowds along the quay beyond the fire were so thick and tried so desperately to close abreast the men-of-war anchorage that the masses in the stifling center could not escape except by sea. Fortunately there was a sea breeze and the quay wall never got hot enough to roast these unfortunate people alive, but the heat must have been terrific to have been felt in the ship 200 yards away. To add to the confusion, the packs belonging to these refugees – consisting mostly of carpets and clothing – caught fire, creating a chain of bonfires the length of the street.”

The fire completely destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters of the city, leading to thousands of people fleeing to Greece to seek safety and a new life. People who had enjoyed life in a cosmopolitan city were suddenly displaced. The famed Onassis family were among the refugees as was the family of the artist’s maternal grandmother.

Following the destruction of Smyrna and the end of the Greco-Turkish War, the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations was signed in Lausanne in January 1923, followed by the peace treaty in July. The convention was an attempt at social engineering that required Orthodox Christians to move to Greece and Muslims to move to Turkey, with specified exemptions, regardless of the language they spoke or the length of time they had been in their current country. The convention affected a vast number of people, an estimated 1.3 million immigrants to Greece and as many as 400,000 immigrants to Turkey. Consequently, both sides of this population exchange suffered traumatic effects. Describing the memory of displacement, Professor Ayse Lahur Kirtunc stated in an interview: “Eighty years have passed, and the memories are warring with another, ripe for distortion. But the core of every migrant’s statement remains the same. Birth in one place, growing old in another place. And feeling a stranger in the two places.”

Rebuilding a Life in Greece

Even those migrants from Asia Minor who managed to survive the journey to mainland Greece had a very difficult road ahead of them. Greece was already bearing a massive load of refugees, and the agreed-upon population exchange would further exacerbate issues of resettlement: “The deportations brought significant challenges: social, such as forcibly being removed from one’s place of living, and more practical such as abandoning a well-developed family business … Regardless if they settled in urban or rural areas, the vast majority of the refugees arrived in Greece impoverished and often sickly, placing enormous demands on the Greek health care system.”

American relief organisations, including the American Red Cross and Near East Relief, provided assistance to refugees after the disaster. Historian Antonis Klapsis examines these initiatives and their contribution to saving lives during the first year of the crisis. Read the study

Refugees contributed to rebuilding Greece through agriculture, trade, manufacturing and maritime enterprise. Their skills and work helped shape the country’s economy, even as families continued to face the losses and difficulties of displacement.

Beyond economics, the refugees enriched the cultural landscape of Greece: “New liberal ideas arrived along with the refugees, especially those coming from Smyrna. The influence of the refugees was particularly important in the cultural field.” From the blending of the already existing Greek population with the population of refugees, a new Greek culture was forged, which is still familiar to us today. Important elements of Greek cultural identity like iconic dances (zeibekiko and hasapiko) and a cuisine rich in eggplants, tomatoes and spices have their roots in Asia Minor.

Refugee communities also helped shape Greek football, notably through clubs such as AEK and PAOK. Some football clubs, like Apollon Smyrnis and Panionios (one of Greece’s oldest football clubs) were transplanted directly from their original homes in Asia Minor. Others, like the popular AEK in Athens and PAOK in Thessaloniki were originally founded by former members of Pera in Constantinople.

It must be acknowledged, however, that these contributions emerged from what was undoubtedly a period of extreme hardship for over a million people. Because of the scale of the tragedy many Greek families have some historical connection to what many still call The Catastrophe. The Greek writer Dimitris Pentzopoulos wrote, “It is no exaggeration to call the year 1922 the most calamitous in modern Hellenic history.”