In the summer of 1920, Greek troops in Asia Minor had some major successes advancing to the east and north of the front with the capture of Philadelphia, Panormos, and Prousa in June 1920 and the capture of Eastern Thrace in July of the same year. Soon after the triumph of Greek arms, Greece scored another triumph, this time in the diplomatic stage. It was the Treaty of Sèvres, which was signed in the namesake suburb of Paris on 28 July 1920 between the winners of World War I and the defeated Ottoman Empire.

The Treaty of Sèvres was the official affirmation of Greek claims on sovereign rights of the Sublime Porte. The most important benefits for Greece were the expansion of the state’s land borders to Çatalca, with the annexation of Eastern Thrace, and domination over the Northeastern Aegean with the incorporation of the islands of Imvros and Tenedos. Furthermore, the Smyrna region, although under the suzerainty of the Sultan, was placed under Greek administration (with the option of annexation after a period of five years).

In 1921, the inability to enforce the treaty through diplomacy compelled Greece to resort to arms, this time without support from its previous allies. The tragic outcome of the Asia Minor Campaign in August 1922 rendered the “fragile” treaty definitively defunct and the sacred vision of the Great Greece of the Two Continents and the Five Seas unfulfilled.

#ΕλληνικόςΣτρατός, #HellenicArmy