Smyrna Catastrophe

Turkish nationalist forces entered Smyrna in September 1922 after the collapse of the Greek campaign in Anatolia. Tens of thousands of Greek and Armenian civilians, together with retreating soldiers and refugees from the interior, gathered in the city and along its waterfront.

A vast fire beginning on 13 September destroyed much of the Greek and Armenian quarters. Civilians faced killing, detention, deportation and desperate attempts to reach ships in the harbour. The precise responsibility for starting the fire remains disputed, but its destruction and the scale of displacement are firmly documented.

Evacuation efforts eventually removed large numbers of survivors, including an operation organised by Asa Jennings. The catastrophe marked the end of Smyrna’s long-established Greek and Armenian communities and became a defining episode in the population upheavals that accompanied the creation of modern Greece and Turkey.