Constantin Carathéodory’s correspondence with Henry Morgenthau, Sr. on the integration of Greek refugees after the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922

Abstract

The defeat of the Greek Army in 1922 by nationalist Turkish forces in theGreco-Turkish War in 1919-1922 caused an initial forced migration ofGreeksfleeing from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace. The Treaty of Lausanne in1923 specified the first compulsory exchange of populations ratified by aninternational organisation. It was a special Convention between Venizelosand Mustafa ismet Pasha (inönü), signed on 30 January 1923, concerningthe Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations. This "compulsory exchangeof Turkish nationals of the Greek Orthodox religion established in Turkishterritory, and of Greek nationals of the Moslem religion established in Greekterritory" was to take place as from the 1st May 1923 (Article l). The Greekinhabitants of Constantinople and the Moslem inhabitants of Western Thracewere exempted (Article 2) (Die Lausanner-Vereinbarung). However thisConvention only put the formal seal of approval on what had already been'accomplished' by the demographics ofwar. A total ofabout I .2 million Greeksleft Asia Minor between 1920 and 1923, and 355,000 Muslims migrated toTurkey in the exchange. Greece had less than five million inhabitants at thetime. Macedonia and Thrace absorbed the vast majority of the refugees: morethan 650,000 people of which 150,000 were settled in towns. Thessalonikiwas from the very start the main pole of attraction for the urban refugees.(Hastaoglou 1997:498).