What was the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey?

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was a formal, compulsory transfer of roughly 1.6 million people based primarily on religious identity. Stemming from the Lausanne Convention, it displaced over 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians from Asia Minor and Thrace to Greece, and between 355,000 and 400,000 Muslims from Greece to Turkey. The agreement aimed to normalize relations and formalize de facto refugee movements following the Greco-Turkish War.

What we know

• The population exchange was established by the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, signed in Lausanne on January 30, 1923. [2, 3]
• The forced transfers involved approximately 1,221,489 Greek Orthodox Christians moving from Turkey to Greece and roughly 355,000 to 400,000 Muslims moving from Greece to Turkey. [2, 3]
• Eleftherios Venizelos initially proposed the compulsory exchange to the League of Nations in October 1922 following Greece's defeat in the Greco-Turkish War. [2]
• Most of the Greeks covered by the agreement had already fled Turkey as refugees before the formal signing, whereas the transfer of Muslims from Greece largely occurred in 1923 and 1924. [2]

Still open

• Some scholars criticize the treaty as legalized mutual ethnic cleansing, while others defend it as a measure that successfully prevented a potential genocide of remaining Greek Orthodox Christians.

Where to go next

• what caused itHow did the Greco-Turkish War lead to the Lausanne Convention?
• the bigger pictureWhat were the complete terms of the Treaty of Lausanne?
• a case in pointHow did the village of Sille experience the 1923 population exchange?
• whoWhat role did Fridtjof Nansen play in organizing the population transfers?
• how it workedHow were religious identity and millet classifications used to determine who was displaced?
• an unexpected connectionWhy did a Sufi mystic protect a Christian village for centuries?The village of Sille maintained peaceful coexistence and preserved its Greek language for over eight centuries because Jalal al-Din Rumi commanded local Turks to protect it before it was ultimately emptied by the 1923 exchange.

Sources

• [1]population exchange between Greece and Turkey (Wikidata Q131017) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Population exchange between Greece and Turkey · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Sille, Konya · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Treaty of Lausanne · CC BY-SA 4.0