Turkey’s Relations with Greece in the 1920s: The Pangalos Factor

Abstract

Based mainly on Turkish archival material and newspapers, this article argues that the short dictatorship of General Pangalos (1925–1926) in Greece not only stalled the solution of problems remaining from the Lausanne negotiations, but also heightened Turkish concerns over Greek expansionist ambitions towards Turkey in a way unlike any other period in early Turkish-Greek relations. Despite the General’s popularity among the migrants from Anatolia, the Turkish press and authorities were aware of the lack of general popular support behind Pangalos. Pangalos’s attempts to create alliances particularly with Britain and Italy and the increasing possibility of such a coalition against Turkey led the Turkish authorities and the press to watch developments in Greece very closely.