ASIANOVERLAND.NET KATHMANDU TO LONDON  DAY 153/65: ISTANBUL TO KAVALA, GREECE

 21 November, 1980

Today we drive From Istanbu to Greece,  through Thrace, one of the most war-stricken, fought-over regions of the world, Thrace, being the eastern most region of Eurpoe, and the border between Europe and Asia.

The historical boundaries of Thrace have varied. The ancient Greeks employed the term "Thrace" to refer to all of the territory which lay north of Thessaly inhabited by the Thracians, a region which "had no definite boundaries" and to which other regions (like Macedonia and even Scythia) were added. In one ancient Greek source, the Earth is divided into "Asia, Libya, Europa and Thracia". As the Greeks gained knowledge of world geography, "Thrace" came to designate the area bordered by the Danube on the north, by the Euxine Sea (Black Sea) on the east, by northern Macedonia in the south and by Illyria to the west.

After the Macedonian conquest, this region's former border with Macedonia was shifted east until the Roman conquest, when Thrace referred only to the tract of land largely covering the same extent of space as the modern geographical region (map pictured).

In more recent times, after the end of WW1, all of Turkey and the former Ottoman Empire, was in turmoil when the allies carved up the Ottoman Empire as agreed in the Sykes-Picot Agreement (pictured), and the British occupied Constantinople and controlled the Sultan. Nearly all of the east coast of Turkey, including Thrace, would be Greek, and not Turkish (pictured). But Attaturk did not accept defeat, did not accept the authority of the Sultan, the Ottoman Empire, the British or other Allies, and did not accept the carve up.

Attaturk's Government responded to the Treaty of Sèvres by promulgating a new constitution in January 1921, which enunciated the principle of popular sovereignty. Authority was not derived from the unelected Ottoman Sultan, but from the Turkish people who elect government representatives. This new Consitution became the legal basis for the war of independence, as the Sultan's signature of the Treaty of Sèvres would be unconstitutional as his position was not elected.

The British had promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire if Greece entered the war on the Allied side. These included parts of Greec’s ancestral homeland, Eastern Thrace, the islands of Imbros, and parts of Western Anatolia around the city of Smyrna (Izmir). Greece also wanted Constantinople, but Allies did not agree.

Faced with Italian annexation of parts of southern Turkey with a significant ethnic Greek population, Greek troops wanted to land in Smyrna, ostensibly in order to protect the civilian Greek population from turmoil:

"Greece is not making war against Islam, but against the anachronistic Ottoman Government, and its corrupt, ignominious, and bloody administration, with a view to the expelling it from those territories where the majority of the population consists of Greeks."

On 28 May, 1921, the Greeks landed near Smyrna (Izmir), but the Muslim inhabitants were determined to fight against Greece as there was no other place that they could retreat to. Mustafa Kemal  helped in coordinating units of Circassian origiand managed to link disparate groups to cut the Greek logistic support lines.

As soon as Greek forces landed in Smyrna, the Turkish nationalists opened fire prompting brutal reprisals. Greek forces used Smyrna as a base for launching attacks deeper into Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal refused to accept even a temporary Greek presence in Smyrna.

Eventually, the Turkish nationalists with the aid of the Kemalist armed forces, defeated the Greek troops, and pushed them out of Smyrna and the rest of Anatolia.

With new Turkish borders secured with treaties and agreements in the east and south, Mustafa Kemal was now in a commanding position. The Nationalists were then able to demand on 5 September 1922 that the Greek army evacuate East Thrace, Imbros, and Tenedos as well as Asia Minor.

The Maritsa River would again become the western border of Turkey, as it was before 1914. The British were prepared to defend the “neutral zone of Constantinople and the Straits” and the French asked Kemal to respect it, to which he agreed on 28 September, 1921.

France, Italy and Britain called on Mustafa Kemal to enter into cease-fire negotiations. The armistice then made it possible for the allies to recognise the Turkish claim to East Thrace, which was agreed to at the Lausanne Conference on 20 November 1922, where Turkey was officially created and acknowledged by the Allies.

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