September 14: Remembering the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor and the Burning of Smyrna

Every September 14, Greek communities around the world commemorate the Greeks of Asia Minor who were killed during the systematic persecution and genocide carried out by the Ottoman authorities, the Young Turks and, later, the forces of Mustafa Kemal Pasha.

The day forms part of the broader commemoration of the Greek Genocide, which targeted Greek populations across Asia Minor, Pontus and Eastern Thrace during the final years of the Ottoman Empire and the aftermath of the First World War.

The destruction of Asia Minor Hellenism unfolded over centuries. A pivotal moment came in 1071, when Byzantine forces were defeated by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert, opening much of Asia Minor to Turkish conquest.

In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos led the city’s defenders against the vastly larger Ottoman army. The fall of Constantinople, followed in 1461 by the fall of the Empire of Trebizond, marked another devastating chapter in the history of Hellenism in the region.

Under Ottoman rule, Christian populations faced massacres, enslavement, forced conversions, political discrimination and economic pressure. The devshirme system also saw Christian boys taken from their families and recruited into the Ottoman military and administrative system.

For centuries, these policies contributed to the erosion of Greek communities across territories where Hellenism had flourished for generations.

The Greek Genocide

During the First World War, persecution intensified.

Beginning in 1914, the Young Turk government pursued policies against the Greek population of the Ottoman Empire as part of a broader campaign targeting Christian communities, including Armenians and Assyrians.

Deportations, forced marches, massacres, labour battalions and other forms of persecution devastated Greek communities throughout Asia Minor and Pontus.

In May 1919, Greek forces landed in Smyrna, providing temporary hope to the city’s large Greek population and other Christian communities.

That hope was short lived.

In September 1922, Kemalist forces entered Smyrna. The city was subsequently devastated by fire, while thousands of Greeks and Armenians were killed or displaced.

The catastrophe marked the destruction of centuries old Greek communities across Asia Minor.

The wider period of persecution and mass violence resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians, while more than one million Greeks were ultimately forced from their ancestral homes through expulsion and the compulsory population exchange that followed the Greco Turkish War.

For Greek communities around the world, September 14 remains a day of remembrance for those who lost their lives and for the millions whose homes, communities and way of life were destroyed.

Their memory continues to live on through the descendants of Asia Minor Greeks who rebuilt their lives across Greece and throughout the global Greek diaspora.

September 14 is the official Day of National Remembrance for the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor, established to honour the victims of the Greco Turkish conflict and the Burning of Smyrna.

Lest we forget.

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