Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922 [Paperback]

Michael Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1999

The Greek worlds of classical antiquity and Byzantine empire left a legacy of Hellenic culture throughout Asia Minor. During the nineteenth century the Greek nation fostered the idea of a resuscitated empire embracing Constantinople and Ionia, which would reclaim from the Turks what had been lost when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman invaders in 1453. The nineteenth century also saw the establishment and gradual expansion of the independent Greek kingdom, which climaxed with the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 and the incorporation of western Macedonia, Epirus and Crete. The architect of the Balkan Alliance that made these gains possible was the masterful Cretan politician, Eleftherios Venizelos.

Michael Llewellyn Smith's account of the fortunes and ultimate destruction of Venizelos's "Ionian Vision" takes the story from the years of World War I and the torturous negotiations of the Paris Peace Conference through the great battle on the Sakarya river in the summer of 1921, when the Greek will for reunion was finally broken. The book ends with the destruction of Smyrna, the evacuation of Asia Minor, and the trial and execution of the politicians held responsible for the disastrous events.

Ionian Vision chronicles a period of lasting importance in the development of the Greek nation and its view of itself. It will be of absorbing interest to all those with a curiosity about Greece and its history.

". . . an outstanding addition to the growing body of serious academic studies on the modern history of Greece . . . Llewellyn Smith's book is indispensable reading for anyone who would seek to understand the convoluted politics of Greece in the twentieth century."--New Society

Michael Llewellyn Smith is a British diplomat who has served in Moscow, Paris, Warsaw, and Athens. His most recent post is as British Ambassador in Athens. Smith is also the author of The Great Island: A Study of Crete.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: University of Michigan Press (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0472085697
• ISBN-13: 978-0472085699
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,736,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating 20th Century Greek Tragedy, May 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922 (Paperback)

I started reading this book on a lark and quickly became enthralled with it. It explores a subject I have previously only vaguely heard about, the Greek "Asia-Minor catastrophe", which led to the expulsion from Turkey of 1.2 million Greek Christians, many of whose ancestors had lived in Asia Minor for the millenia since the Hellenistic era.

The Greeks, egged on by the British, who had promised them "valuable territorial consideration" for their allegiance to the victorious allies in World War I, occupied - pursuant to the Treaty of Sevres - the region of Asia Minor surrounding the ancient Greek city of Smyrna on the Aegean Sea. The ostensible reason for this occupation was to protect the largely Greek population of Smyrna from the rise of Turkish nationalism associated with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. However, underlying the expansion to Smyrna was the dream of uniting all of the millions of Greeks living under foreign powers (from Cyprus to Rhodes to Smyrna to Constantinople and the Black Sea region of Pontus) into the Greek nation. This idea of a resurrected "Greater Greece" was appealing as well to many European Hellenophiles, particularly the British.

What happened to wreck the dream of a "Greater Greece" - a Greek state incorporating the predominantly Greek regions of the former Ottoman Empire (perhaps even including Constantinople) - is immensely complicated, but an oversimplified explanation is as follows: After the Greek political party which had championed the Smyrna/Greater Greece cause lost the election, and the British (who favored the losing party and were in any event seeking an accomodation with the Turks) withdrew all economic and military support for the operation, the Greek army was gradually forced to abandon Asia Minor, leading to the uprooting of the Greek populations of all parts of Turkey, who were "exchanged" for much of the Turkish populace of Greece, in perhaps the largest internationally-sanctioned "ethnic cleansing" in modern history. The ensuing economic and sociological catastrophe devastated Greece, reducing the country to virtually a Third World status from which it did not emerge for generations, and cast a pall over its politics through the late 20th century. It has also left the Greeks with a profound sense of betrayal by Britain.

Llewellyn Smith, formerly British ambassador to the Hellenic Republic, has written a reasoned and balanced account of the forces underlying the catastrophe. His writing style is entertaining, and he includes fascinating insights into the Byzantine deal-making which occurred behind the scenes, and which involved not only the fascinating post-WWI leaders of Greece and the other allied countries, but also the glamorous Greek international jet-set of the time, whose wealth, influence and entree in British society was ultimately of no avail, but whose occasional appearances lend the story some romantic appeal.

Ionian Vision is a worthwhile book for anyone with an interest in history. The story is particularly relevant in light of the present situation in the Baltic countries, where the Christian versus Muslim ethnic rivalries left over from the Ottoman Empire are still turning neighbor against neighbor and destroying nations.

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Other side of the story, March 29, 2000

By 

Mehmet Ercan (Ankara, Türkiye) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922 (Paperback)

As a Turk if you are interested in the other side of the story this is the perfect book which has most of the missing pieces of the puzzle. You have to consider the fact that the author used to be the British ambassador to Greece and he shares the same prejudices about the Ottoman minorities with the other Western intellectuals. Under these circumstances his work is a really neat and unbiased account of the facts of the era.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The latest Great Greek Tragedy, September 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922 (Hardcover)

For most Hellenes and many Orthodox-Church followers the Asia Minor Catastrophe is only second to the Fall of Constantinople. The description of an event of such an historic dimension is by itself a riveting story even to a party that is rather unfamiliar with the larger episodes that surround it. This by no means reduces the quality of unrivalled research and scholarship displayed by the author. The enthralling text itself is written using a conventional yet fine diplomatic style that is most enjoyable.

This book, together with other historic references to this calamity, clearly shows that the involvement of the Great Powers in Asia Minor was turned out to be of paramount significance in influencing the events of that period. Furthermore, this `involvement', as often it is the case with history, it has continued for many years, indeed up to the modern times, to cast its inexorable shadow to the future of an area that, for millennia, has been an integral part of the cradle of the Western civilisation.

The main criticism is that it is rather surprising that such a detailed, well-presented and balanced piece of work, dedicated in describing the Minor Asia disaster itself, does not include further information pertinent to what it is largely considered to be as the highlight of this affair: the Destruction of Smyrna. Indeed, it feels rather appropriate that a whole chapter should have been dedicated to this particular event not just in order to commemorate the magnitude of human loss and drama that took place but, equally as important, to throw more light as to the reason(s) why such an important and vibrant Mediterranean port should be totally left to the menace of an avenging army.

In the period from mid 1921 to the day when Smyrna was destroyed what was the position of the Americans? Furthermore, was there ever a point during the aforementioned period where the British government, unequivocally, made it `crystal clear' to the Greeks that no aid of any sort will be forthcoming?

Finally, are there any plans for the book to be translated in other languages such as Greek, Turkish, French etc?