Microsoft Word 1 Arif thesis cover final doc

CHAPTER 2 – HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 
34 
Greek
15
, and a very few, such as Çeşme, in which the Greek element predominated; 
within the confines of the city of Smyrna the Greeks probably constituted a bare 
majority by the end of the century
16
. 
Whatever the numbers, W. M. Ramsay, a leading authority on the historical 
geography of Asia Minor, could write in 1890
17:
At the present day, after the East had ruled for centuries undisturbed in 
Anatolia, the old struggle has recommenced. The Greek element is 
gradually supplanting the Oriental on the Aegean coast. That strength 
and vitality which the Greek race seems to possess under every 
government except its own, is gradually placing the coast valleys in its 
hands. The Oriental element does not retreat, it is not driven back by 
open war: it dies out on the coast by a slow yet sure decay.
This was a testament not only to the growth of the Greek population but to its much 
greater presence in trade
18
, drawn as it was by the opening of western Asia Minor to 
world markets. Ramsay continued:
But the interior is still wholly Oriental, and if the same peaceful 
development continues I believe that the Turks, as soldiers, and the 
Greeks, as traders, will, united, make a happier country than either race 
could by itself.
The same peaceful development, alas, did not. 
15
Ploumidis, 131-132 n. 226 
16
This was substantially the conclusion 2 (c) dated 13 October 1919 of the Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry 
on the Greek Occupation of Smyrna and Adjacent Territories (available at 
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv09/d3
 ; accessed 4 February 2018). 
17
Ramsay, 25 
18
Karpat, 1985, 47; McMeekin, 428; Ploumidis, 35 

---