Customer Reviews

Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919-1922

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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.

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.

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?

This book tells a rarely told story about one of the greatest human catastrophes of the 20th century - the destruction in 1922 of the Greek Community in Asia Minor by the Ottoman Turks. The story of the destruction of a community which had lived in the West Coast of today's Turkey since before the time of Homer. I say, "rarely told" because it is story that is indeed "rarely told" to anyone who is not Greek or Turkish. The author, Michael Llewellyn Smith, does an extraordinary and, I might add, well- balanced job in telling this fascinating story to the English-speaking world.

In a gripping narrative, coupled with unequalled scholarship and detail, this book tells the tragic story of Greece's ill-fated dream for a "Greater Greece" - the Greek Irredentist Passion of the early twentieth century - and the fascinating characters, English, Greek and Turkish (among others) who played profound roles in shaping of this story. The dream of a joint Anglo-Greek Entente in the eastern Mediterranean - a dream shared by Prime Minister Lloyd George of England and Eleftherios Venizelos of Greece, which ended on the bloody and burnt quays of Smyrna in 1922 and haunts the psyche of every Greek to this very day.

To all readers who are interested in the history of 20th-century Greece, this book ,along with Mark Mazower's "Inside Hitler's Greece", is required reading.

As an aside, in the paperback edition, on page 31, there is a description of some "ethnic cleansing" committed by the Turks on "Old Phocea" - "a seaside town of about 9000 inhabitants, in June 1914". As I read the description, my heart began to beat rapidly. My father - aged seven months at the time - was one of those who survived. I suppose I am here to write these few words, all these many years later, because he did, in fact, survive.

Lovers of well written and accurate history will love this book!

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 Philhellenes, particularly in Britain.

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.

The history of many nations, small and large, is formed by great national disasters, often the result of collective folly. Greece is one such nation.

Greece's greatest disaster was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, still remembered in song, much like the commemoration of the fall of Jerusalem in the Jewish tradition; the medieval battle of Kosova Polje to the Serbs: and the nakbeh, the defeat of the Palestians in 1948 and the resultant exile of hundreds of thousands. A more recent national disaster was the expulsion of the Greek population from Smyrna (now Izmir) and the rest of Asia Minor. This expulsion was the result of Greece's occupation of Smyrna and attacks upon the Turkish nationalist armies led by Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Ataturk). In this effort, Greece was led at first by the liberal nationalist Eleftherios Venizelos, and encouraged, but not supported economically or militarily, by the Western Allies, especially England under the leadership of Lloyd George.

The result was the destruction of Smyrna and other Hellenic communities in Asia Minor, and the exchange of innocent civilian Greek populations resident in Asia Minor and Turkish populations in Greece.

Michael Llewelyn Smith, a British historian and diplomat provides us with a competent diplomatic-military history of these events and their background. The book is traditional diplomatic history -- it describes with precision and detail demarches, meetings, treaties, and the fall of cabinets and kings. Smith is admirably detached and dispassionate about the role of Britain, which encouraged Greece out of a mixture of romanticism and imperialist calculation, and as a result of the same calculation, failed to carry through in supporting what it had encouraged.

Smith did not write the next sort of books one would want to read about this disaster -- a cultural and human account of the disaster, and its effects on the further development of Greece and Turkey -- and a work placing these events in the context of modern history.

One cultural product which may be of interest as to the first, are the Greek musical film Rembetiko, which describes the nationalist fervor of the beginning of the campaign and the human suffering of the exile, and the music it produced, rembetiko, a kind of Greek blues with Middle Eastern overtones. George Dalaras2, Greece's premier singer, has also made an album of songs about the tragedy, Mikra Asia [Asia Minor].

These events are examples of a process that continues today. Until this century, there were several empires whose populations included many ethnic groups -- the Austro-Hungarian, British India, and the Ottoman. With the spread of West European nationalism to these areas, and the gradual destruction of these empires by internal decay, poor leadership, and West European pressure, inter-ethnic violence became frequent. The result has been the exchange of populations, frequently driven by warfare and rioting. Formerly poly-ethnic areas have become more homogeneous. Examples are the Greek-Turkish exchange discussed above, the expulsion of Palestians and Arabic-speaking Jews from their homes that occurred with the foundation of the modern state of Israel; the population exchange between Pakistan and India; and the recent "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosova. Of these events, we need a comparative history.

Michael Llewellyn Smith is an outstanding sholar on the subject. Very engrossing reading,compares very well in readability to books written by Stavrianos.(The Balkans Since 1453). I have reshaped my consept of the events of the period covered in the book. For example,the role of the Allies, the efforts of Venizelos (not all good for Greece) and realization that John Metaxas perceived the perilous situation early on.( I knew this last fact but details were sketchy in my mind). Now that Dr Smith is retiring from his post as an ambassador to Greece I expect him to continue his sholarship and challenge him to come up with a history of the events in the Balkans prior to and after the 2nd WW. Every Greek MUST read this scholarly work which is definetely not biased in any way..The value of this book to studends of history is high. For Greeks, I say this one and another book written by Mark Mazower "Inside Hitler's Greece" should be STUDIED in detail. A job well done!!! Costas Spalaris

In-depth history concerning greece and the near east in the years after WW1. Very relevant to the situation to current Yugoslavia.

but somewhat anticlimactic. The Christian populace of Smyrna is last left standing along the Quay. What happened to them? Are we to understand they met their end in the sea? Is that the historical record?

(Yes, some of us need things to be spelled out.)