The Establishment of Greek Administration in İzmir

Greece entered World War I in 1917 under the leadership of then Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. After the war, Greece participated in the Paris Peace Conference. At this conference, Venizelos made great efforts to get the victorious states to accept a large region including the western coast of Anatolia and Thrace, with Izmir being the center, as a Greek occupation zone. With the support of Britain and France, Venizelos had a large area in Western Anatolia accepted as an occupation zone. Especially with the support of British Prime Minister Lloyd George and Foreign Minister Lord Curzon, Greece landed occupation troops in Izmir on May 15, 1919, and captured cities and towns such as Aydın, Ödemiş, Ayvalık and Manisa in a short time with the forward operation it launched after the invasion. The Greek invasion of Anatolia between May 15, 1919 and September 9, 1922 was openly supported by the British rulers with the aim of creating a Greece that Britain could use and keep under control in accordance with its policies in the Eastern Mediterranean and its islands, North Africa and even the Black Sea. Greece did not only remain as an occupier in the west of Anatolia, but also tried to build an administrative system in the cities and towns it occupied in a short time. With this administrative system, Greece aimed to maintain order in the occupied regions through violence and intimidation policies and also took steps to change the demographic structure in the region. For this purpose, Greece undertook administrative organization, education, settlement-public works and press-publication activities in the occupied regions.

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