HISTORY
Smyrna
(Vladimír Šulc)
On her second transatlantic voyage, the Arizona left Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on April 9, 1919 via Hampton Roads in Virginia,
from where she sailed on April 12. She reached the French port
of Brest on April 21 and continued on to Smyrna (today Izmir) in
Turkey. She docked there on May 11. She was quite literally at
the right place at the right time. Smyrna was occupied by Greek
forces on May 15, and formed a beachhead from which to enter
Asia Minor. A US Marine unit from the Arizona protected American personnel, including those of the US Consulate, against the
Greek forces that were behaving violently to the local population.
The American population in Smyrna at the time totaled some 400,
many of which found refuge on the ship at the time of heightening
tensions and violence. The Arizona was anchored in Smyrna until
June 9, when she left for Constantinople (now Istanbul), with the
American Consul Leland E. Morris on board. She stayed in Constantinople until June 15th, when she raised anchor and sailed
through Gibraltar back to New York, reaching the city on June
30. She was subsequently put through a general overhaul, during which six 5-inch (127mm) guns were removed and her aiming
system was modernized.
lation and prisoners of war. The war ended in fatal defeat and
the evacuation for the Greek Army, and in victory for the Turkish
army under General Mustafa Kemal, a Turkish hero from Gallipoli.
Under Kemal, Turkey became the only defeated central power to
successfully reject the treaty terms of a victorious government.
The Turkish parliament refused to ratify the humiliating Sevresa Agreement, and thanks to a successful armed resistance and
a victorious war for independence, Turkey was able to sue for
more favorable peace conditions, guaranteeing Turkey‘s sovereignty over Asia Minor and East Thrace. This was confirmed by the
Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923. The Turkish Republic was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923, the first president elected
was Mustafa Kemal, known since 1934 as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,
Father of the Turks. The great fire of Smyrna, which followed the
occupation of the city by the Turks, brought enormous casualties
to the Greek and Armenian civilians. The US Navy again took part
in the evacuation of refugees from Smyrna. American destroyers
Lawrence, Edsall and Simpson operated in the port, and later
another destroyer joined in. Several American civilian ships also
took part in the evacuation. The Great Fire of Smyrna has been
described in a number of literary works, and the events have
The landing of Greek forces in Smyrna began a long and bloobeen thoroughly covered. Ernest Hemingway, who worked as
dy Greek-Turkish war, which lasted until the autumn of 1922 and
a
reporter for the Canadian Toronto Star newspaper, was one of
was accompanied by mutual violence against the civilian poputhe American reporters in Smyrna in the fall of 1922. Among the
city‘s refugees was one of the world‘s richest
men, billionaire and Jacqueline Kennedy‘s future husband, Aristotle Onassis, whose extended
family was severely affected by the events in
Smyrna. The Louisiana Agreement resulted in
an extensive population exchange agreed upon
by the Greek and Turkish governments. The criteria for resettlement lay in the religion of the
inhabitants. The result was the relocation of
more than 1.5 million Orthodox Christians from
Asia Minor and East Thrace to Greece, while
some 500,000 Greek Muslims were relocated
in the opposite direction. In addition to bringing
further immense suffering and injustice to the
affected population, the Lausanne Agreement
marked a fundamental change in attitudes towards national minorities in Europe. In contrast
to the previous emphasis on guaranteeing the
rights of national minorities within individual
states, the pressure on the national homogeneity of nation states prevailed. This led to Nazi
Germany‘s demands for a revision of Europe‘s
borders in the 1930s, which were the main cause of World War II. On the other hand, the same
Protests against Istanbul occupation held in the Sultan Ahmed square on May 23, 1919.
principles were used after the war to expel German, Hungarian and other ethnic minorities
from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern
European countries. Today, Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey with a population of almost
4.5 million.
References:
- Robert Gerwath: Poražení: Světová válka byla jen
jedna, ISBN 978-80-7432-895-4, Nakladatelství
Paseka, 2018. Z anglického originálu The Vanquished:
Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923,
Penguin Random House UK, 2016.
-www.wikipedia.com
- www.history.navy.mil
Greek infantry assault at the river Ermos
during the Greco-Turkish War 1919–1922.
12
INFO Eduard
March 2022