Colonizing New Lands: Rural Settlement of Refugees in Northern Greece (1922–40)
Journal: CLARA
Year: 2024

The Lausanne Peace Treaty (1923) imposed a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, causing a massive refugee crisis in demographically unstable regions such as Northern Greece, which had been liberated from Ottoman rule only in 1912. The majority of the over 1.2&#160;million Orthodox leaving Turkey resettled in Northern Greece, with support from the League of Nations. Greece established over 1,700 rural colonies, reallocated land, and undertook major reclamation works: an approach to nati