page_title: Persecution of Muslims during Ottoman contraction
section_title: Greco–Turkish War
hierarchical_section_title: Persecution of Muslims during Ottoman contraction / World War I and the Turkish War of Independence / Greco–Turkish War
caption_attribution_description: English: Date: 1921.
context_page_description: Persecution of Ottoman Muslims during the Ottoman Contraction refers to the persecution, massacre, genocide, or ethnic cleansing of Muslims by non-Muslims during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The 19th century saw the rise of nationalism in the Balkans coincident with the decline of Ottoman power, which resulted in the establishment of an independent Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria. At the same time, the Russian Empire expanded into previously Ottoman-ruled or Ottoman-allied regions of the Caucasus and the Black Sea region. Muslims in these countries suffered, with many dying during the conflicts or becoming refugees. The persecution of Muslims was continued during World War I by the invading Russian troops in the east and during the Turkish War of Independence in the west, east, and south of Anatolia. After the Greco-Turkish War, a population exchange between Greece and Turkey took place, and most Greek Muslims left. During these times many Muslim refugees, called Muhacir, settled in Turkey.
context_section_description: After the Greek landing and the following occupation of Western Anatolia after World War I during the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) the Turkish resistance activity was answered with terror against the local Muslims. Killings, rapes, and village burnings took place as the Greek Army advanced. Historian Taner Akçam noted that a British officer reported as follows:
  The National forces were established solely for the purpose of fighting the Greeks..,. The Turks are willing to remain under the control of any other state.,.. There was not even an organized resistance at the time of the Greek occupation. Yet the Greeks are persisting in their oppression, and they have continued to burn villages, kill Turks and rape and kill women and young girls and throttle to death children.
  During the Greek occupation, Greek troops and local Greeks, Armenian, and Circassian groups committed the Yalova Peninsula Massacres in early 1921 against the local Muslim population. These resulted, according to some sources, in the deaths of c. 300 of the local Muslim populace, as well c. 27 villages. Precise number of casualties is not exactly known. Statements gathered by Ottoman official, reveal a relatevely low number of casualties: based on the Ottoman enquiry to which 177 survivors responded, only 35 were reported as killed, wounded or beaten or missing. This is also in accordance with Toynbee's accounts that one to two murders were enough to drive out the population. Another source estimates that barely 1.500 Muslims out of 7,000 survived in the environment of Yalova.
  The Greeks advanced all the way to Central Anatolia. After the Turkish attack in 1922 the Greeks retreated and Norman M. Naimark notes that "the Greek retreat was even more devastating for the local population than the occupation". During the retreat, towns and villages were burned as part of a scorched earth policy, accompanied with massacres and rapes. During this war, a part of Western Anatolia was destroyed, large towns such as Manisa, Salihli together with many villages being burned. The Inter-Allied commission, consisting of British, French, American and Italian officers found that "there is a systematic plan of destruction of Turkish villages and extinction of the Muslim population."
  The peace after the Greco–Turkish War resulted in a mutual population exchange between Greece and Turkey, between the two countries. As a result, the Muslim population of Greece, with the exception of Western Thrace, was relocated to Turkey.
caption: Greek Captain Papa Grigoriou – perpetrator of Muslim massacres during the Greco-Turkish War.[77]
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