THE MIRACLE A True Story attacked the Turks without mercy. From then on, right up until the debacle of 1922, no Turk ever set foot in the area again.    "After that General Kondylis was called to take command of the division that would seize Eastern Thrace, and so he led his troops north to Raidestos, where they joined forces in fighting alongside those of King Alexandros. The Greeks occupied Eastern Thrace as far as Catalca and took 20,000 Turks prisoner. They remained there until 1920 when they moved on to retake Constantinople.    "It was then that the French allies used tanks to prevent the Greek army from entering the city. I actually saw this happen with my own eyes.    "We were living near the French embassy in Pera at the time and were friendly with the children of French people working at the embassy. On 14th July, 1920, a big reception was held at the embassy. This was followed by a meeting at which Franchet d'Espirey, a French official, stated quite categorically that the French would never allow the Greeks to stay on in Constantinople and Asia Minor. These, my child, were our 'allies'...    "Now we come to 10th August, 1920, and the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres which gave the Armenians their independence and the Kurds and all the other peoples living along the shores of Asia Minor and in Eastern Thrace the right to self-determination. For the first time in five hundred years, Greece could see her dreams about to become reality. I regret to have to tell you, however, that the dissension which has always been the curse of the Greek race, together with the betrayal by our so-called allies, deprived Greeks of the joy of seeing their dreams come true.    "Two categories of events contributed to what has become known as the Asia Minor disaster. The first was of a totally Greek nature. In the summer of 1920 paid assassins and traitors tried unsuccessfully to kill Eleftherios Venizelos in Lyons. The Allies demanded that Venizelos hold elections because he was not an elected leader. The King and Gounaris, who had promised demobilisation, were opposed to Venizelos because they said he had kept the army at the front, fighting a war for eight consecutive years. Venizelos lost the election and Hellenism its dreams. Instead of demilitarisation, the winners of the election -the King and Gounaris - declared a general mobilisation and escalated the war; by July, 1921 the Greek army had reached Polatli, only 20 kilometres away from Ankara.    "The sharing-out of defeated Turkey caused considerable conflict amongst the Allies. Under the terms of a secret agreement reached in 1917, the French would be given Syria and Cilicia, Britain would get Mesopotamia and the Arab Protectorate, south-western Anatolia along with Aydin, Smyrna and the whole of the prefecture of Iconium would go to the Italians, while the Russians would control Constantinople, the Caucasus, Armenia and part of the Black Sea coast.    "However, this division contained the seeds of major disagreement amongst the Allies. Indeed, when the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia soon after, there was no way the secret agreement could be kept. So in 1919 Greece was given the go-ahead to land in Smyrna. Later, though, the Allies did not trust the leadership duo of King Constantinos and Gounaris, both of whom they considered to be pro-German, and were clearly reluctant to provide any support in the way of weapons and munitions -that is, the necessary supplies for war.    "The French were at that time in Antioch. There they made an agreement with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk who had by then undertaken the undisputed leadership of the 87 and 88 Leonidas Koumakis THE MIRACLE A True Story If you prefer a hard copy of the book, please send an email to HEC-Books@hec.greece.org Previous Page | Initial Page | Site Map | Next Page (89th of 204) © For Internet 2001 HEC and Leonidas Koumakis. Updated on 19 June 2001.