29039 - The example of Thrace
N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athina Kehagias
The positions of both the Monarchists and the Venizelians in regards to Thrace are so problematic at a logical level, that it’s difficult for someone to study them, firstly without becoming frustrated, and secondly without finding them completely absurd. Not only did they not emphasize in Constantinople, but they didn’t even help the ANZAC’s, the English and the French in the least, in the case of Gallipoli in 1915. Consequently Thrace was left to her fate during both the two World Wars, while previously she had been bisected by the St. Stephen’s and the Berlin Treaties back in 1878, when Greece played no role whatsoever, so let’s not either the Monarchists nor the Venizelians claim such a role. After the catastrophe of Smyrna in 1922, the catastrophic Treaties of Lausanne and Ankara followed, in 1923 and 1930 respectively. And while some are boasting about the 1920 Western Thrace, they have completely forgotten the Eastern Thrace. And, of course, we can always see that while everyone was talking about the liberation, even the Sevres Treaty had not included Constantinople, because the allies saw exactly what happened at Gallipoli and they had their own interests to satisfy. Additionally, with the Bulgarian occupation from 1941 to 1944, where were the Monarchists and the Venizelians, and who really liberated the occupied Thrace? Because we had a Greek population outflow, and the settlement of a Bulgarian population. So who saved Thrace after all?