The Explorers' Club, № MXVII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
25 March 1924: The Hellenic State was proclaimed, soon renamed the Hellenic Republic; King George II had left the country after a failed royalist coup (22 October 1923); a plebescite abolished the monarchy by 69.9% to 30.1% (13 April); the politics of the republic were dominated by the liberal "ethnarch," Eleftherios Venizelos, including coups & counter-coups by different Venizelist factions.

Commwentary: This period is remembered as the Second Hellenic Republic, to differentiate it from the revolutionary government during the Greek War for Independence (First) & the debt-ridden modern bureaucratic state (Third).

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № CMLXXVIII

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—The Greco-Turkish War, Part IV
13-22 September 1922: The Burning of Smyrna—After the flight of the Greek army (8 September) & the arrival of the Turkish army (9 September), a fire destroyed the city's Greek & Armenian quarters, but left the Turkish quarter untouched; Greek & Armenian women were raped en masse, with an Allied fleet at anchor in the harbor; as many as 125,000 Greeks & Armenians died by fire or violence.

Commentary: There is much disagreement about the precise ethnic composition of Smyrna (now İzmir) before what the Greeks mourn as the "Smyrna Catastrophe" & the Turks minimize as the "1922 İzmir Fire"—whether the city was majority Greek, equally Greek & Turkish, or majority Turkish—but there is no dispute that the city had an ancient & substantial Greek population. The Ottomans referred to the city as "gâvur İzmir" ("infidel Smyrna"). Not so after the fire. The Greek Orthodox metropolitan, Chrysostomos Kalafatis (today, Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna), was hacked to death by a Turkish mob in front of French troops, who were ordered not to intervene. What few non-Turks remained after the fire were expelled during the 1923 "population exchange" (ethnic cleansing by any other name is just as vile) in which Christians were forced out of Anatolia & Muslims were forced out of Greece, with the approval & complicity of the victorious Allied Powers & their farcical League of Nations.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)
№ DCLXXXIX: Greek landing at Smryna (Part I)
№ DCXC: The Turkish National Movement (Part II)
№ DCCLXI: The Greek Summer Offensive (Part III)
№ CMLXVI: The Treaty of Lausanne (Epilogue)

Commentary: We deeply regret the very incomplete job done of covering the Greco-Turkish War, including missing the Burning of Smyrna by an entire year. We had hoped to explore the war in greater detail, but were distracted by other topics & outside events. As ever, "The Explorers' Club" is not meant to be the final word on any subject, but an invitation to the reader to commence & expand her own explorations.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № CMLXVI

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars
24 July 1923: The Treaty of Lausanne—Replacing the Treaty of Sèvres, the Allied Powers & Atatürk's National Movement agreed the borders of Greece, Bulgaria, & Turkey; formalized forced Greek & Turkish population exchanges; abolished the Ottoman sultanate; guaranteed unrestricted navigation of the Straits; & declared an amnesty for the Armenian, Assyrian, & Greek genocides' perpetrators.

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAugust

Ska Cubano, "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" from ¡Ay Caramba! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № DCCLXII

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Paris Peace Conference, Part XII
10 August 1920: The Treaty of Sèvres was signed—As with the the other Central Powers, terms were imposed not negotiated; the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into League Mandates & Anatolia was to be partitioned into French, Italian, & Greek zones of influence & an international Zone of the Straits, leaving only a Turkish rump state; Atatürk's National Movement rejected Sèvres, as did the Greeks.

Lest we forget.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Paris Peace Conference
№ DCLXVIII: The Paris Peace Conference began (Part I).
№ DCLXXIII: The draft Covenant of the League of Nations (Part II).
№ DCLXXXII: The Racial Equality Clause of the Covenant (Part III).
№ DCLXXXIV: The Italian walkout from the Peace Conference (Part IV).
№ DCXCVI: The Treaty of Versailles: Germany (Part V).
№ DCCVII: The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Austria (Part VI).
№ DCCXIII: The Lodge Reservations to the Covenant (Part VII).
№ DCCXXI: The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine: Bulgaria (Part VIII).
№ DCCXXVII: The League of Nations was established (Part IX).
№ DCCXXX: The Free City of Danzig (Part X).
№ DCCLIV: The Treaty of Trianon: Hungary (Part XI).

Bonus! Song o' the Treaty of Sèvres
Les Italiens, "Ottomania" from Les Italiens (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № DCCLXI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Greco-Turkish War, Part III
22 June-September 1920: The Greek Summer Offensive—The British & Greeks launched a series of coordinated attacks & amphibious landings throughout the lands south of the Sea of Marmara & the Aegean Region, advancing over 125 miles out from Smyrna; the captive Ottoman government in Constantinople countered Atatürk's nationalists by invoking the sultan's authority as Islamic caliph.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCXC

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Greco-Turkish War, Part II
19 May 1919: Mustafa Kemal landed at Samsun—Ordered there by the sultan's government to oversee the disarming & dismantling of the Ottoman Army, Kemal & his handpicked officers organized the Turkish National Movement, aiming to prevent the Entente's partition of Anatolia & repel/expel the Greek army from Smyrna; the Turks launched a genocide against the local Pontic Greek population.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCLXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Greco-Turkish War, Part I
15 May 1919: Greek troops landed at Smyrna—Ostensibly to protect the local Greek population & "prevent massacres," the Greek aim was actually to annex that section of the Anatolian coast; during the war, the Entente had promised overlapping portions of the Anatolian coast to both Italy & Greece; after the Italians walked out of the Peace Conference, Britain & France gave Greece a free hand.

Lest we forget.