The occupation of Constantinople would have been an easy task at this time because the Allied troops garrisoned there were much fewer than the Greek forces in Thrace (two divisions). Soon after his return, the King replaced many of the World War I Venizelist officers and appointed inexperienced monarchist officers to senior positions. Greece has created an alliance with several nations in the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus and Egypt, to contain Turkey, despite Ankara’s warnings to Athens. 29–30. War Between Greece and Turkey Is Now a Real Possibility. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFToynbee1922 (Ραμαζιάν Σ., Ιστορία τών Άρμενο – Έλληνικών στρατιωτικών σχεσεων καί συνεργασίας, Αθήνα, 2010. Most of the eye-witness reports identified troops from the Turkish army having set the fire in the city.After re-capturing Smyrna, Turkish forces headed north for the Bosporus, the Around this time, several Turkish officers were sent to infiltrate secretly into Constantinople to help organize Turkish population living in the city in the event of a war. One third of In one of the examples of the Greek atrocities during the retreat, on 14 February 1922, in the Turkish village of Karatepe in Atrocities and claims of ethnic cleansing by both sidesAtrocities and claims of ethnic cleansing by both sidesOne Greek division had at least 25% more men than a Turkish division. The end result though was instead to weaken the Greek defences in Smyrna by withdrawing troops. At the same time, the Greeks strengthened their defensive positions, but were increasingly demoralised by the inactivity of remaining on the defensive and the prolongation of the war. The Turkish forces, on the other hand, were recipients of significant assistance from Soviet Russia. Greece and Turkey have followed a series of confidence-building measures since 1987, when they nearly came to war over hydrocarbon exploration in the Aegean. The two countries have faced each other in four major wars—the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the First Balkan War of 1912 to 1913, the First World War (1914 to 1918) and finally the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), which were followed by the Greco-Turkish population exchangeand a period of friendly relations in the 1… "Mustafa Kemal presented himself as revolutionary to the communists, protector of tradition and order to the conservatives, patriot soldier to the nationalists, and a Muslim leader for the religious, so he was able to recruit all Turkish elements and motivate them to fight. He also stated that he and his wife were witnesses to the atrocities perpetrated by Greeks in the Yalova, Gemlik, and Izmit areas and they not only obtained abundant material evidence in the shape of "burnt and plundered houses, recent corpses, and terror stricken survivors" but also witnessed robbery by Greek civilians and arson by Greek soldiers in uniform as they were being perpetrated.Harold Armstrong, a British officer who was a member of the Inter-Allied Commission, reported that as the Greeks pushed out from Smyrna, they massacred and raped civilians, and burned and pillaged as they went.The Inter-Allied commission, consisting of British, French, American and Italian officers,Arnold J. Toynbee wrote that they obtained convincing evidence that similar atrocities had been started in wide areas all over the remainder of the Greek-occupied territories since June 1921.According to a number of sources, the retreating Greek army carried out a James Loder Park, the U.S. Vice-Consul in Constantinople at the time, toured much of the devastated area immediately after the Greek evacuation, and reported the situation in the surrounding cities and towns of İzmir he has seen, such as the Kinross wrote, "Already most of the towns in its path were in ruins. On August 10, 1920, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sèvres ceding to Greece Thrace, up to the Turkey was furthermore forced to transfer to Greece "the exercise of her rights of sovereignty" over Smyrna in addition to "a considerable Hinterland, merely retaining a 'flag over an outer fort'." This treaty ended the First World War in Asia Minor and, at the same time, sealed the fate of the Ottoman Empire. The Greeks initiated another attack on March 27, the By this time all other fronts had been settled in favour of the Turks,Between 27 June and 20 July 1921, a reinforced Greek army of nine This was the major decision that sealed the fate of the Greek campaign in Anatolia.