| Summary: | In May 1919, following the Al1ie' victory in the Grea' War, the Supreme Council of the Peace Conference was deliberating in Paris. With ample prompting from the Greek side and in order to avert a similar Italian move, the Council soon decided to request the landing of Greek troops in Asia Minor, to establish law and order and to protect the Christian minorities from excesses on behalf of the Turks. This landing, was followed by the establishment of the Greek High Commission of Smyrna, whose task was to supervise the Turkish administration of the territory occupied by the Greek army u til the peace treaty with Turkey was signed. Further,the 'gh Commission was to be the mediator Iet.ween the occupying forces and the Ottoman civil authorities. After the signature of the Treaty of Sèvres which provided for a substantial part of Asia Minor to be administered by Greece for an initial five-year period, the High Commission assumed the administration of the Greek zone, together with that of the zone occupied de facto by the Greek forces but not included, in the Treaty, and was renamed Greek Administration of Smyrna. The object of this thesis is to examine the conditions under which Greece was called to supervise the Turkish administration, from which she was subsequently to take over, the administrative work carried out during the 1919-1922 period and the inherent contradictions present in Greece's Anatolian venture, which has been described as "the worst day's work for his country which Venizelos ever did". Further, in the light of the archival material examined, an attempt is made to evaluate the feasibility of a Greek Asia Minor based on the principle of peaceful coexistence between Greeks and Turks. On the basis of the extensive primary sources consulted, the thesis also attempts to examine the external forces opposing the scheme and hampering any chances of success it ever had. On the Greek side, the name which stands out throughout the period under examination is that of Aristidis Stergiadis, the controversial High Commissioner of Sinyrna and its omnipotent ruler until the 1922 catastrophe. The thesis examines the Stergiadis administration and attempts to evaluate the work carried out, as well as the outcry that followed the High Commissioner during his long self-exile from Greece, and which persists until today.
|
|---|
