Editing Megali Idea (section)

==Early 20th century==

===Balkan Wars===
{{Main|Greece in the Balkan Wars}}
[[File:Maximal Greek claims in Epirus and Macedonia.png|thumb|200px|Greek claims in Epirus and Macedonia after the first Balkan war]]
[[File:New Greece.jpg|thumb|200px|Poster celebrating the "New Hellas" after the [[Balkan Wars]].]]

A major proponent of the Megali Idea was [[Eleftherios Venizelos]], under whose leadership Greek territory doubled in the [[Balkan Wars]] of 1912–13 — southern [[Epirus]], [[Crete]], [[Lesbos]], [[Chios]], [[Ikaria]], [[Samos]], [[Samothrace]], [[Lemnos]] and the majority of [[Macedonia (region)|Macedonia]] were attached to Greece. Born and raised in Crete, in 1909 Venizelos was already a prominent Cretan and had influence in mainland Greece. As such, he was invited after the [[Goudi coup]] in 1909 by the Military League to become Prime Minister of Greece. Venizelos pressed forward a series of reforms in society, as well as the military and administration, which helped Greece succeed in its goals during the Balkan Wars.

===World War I===
{{Main|Greece during World War I|Treaty of Sèvres}}
[[File:Map of Great Greece (Megali Hellas) Venizelos c1920.jpg|thumb|200px|Map of Megali Hellas after the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] and featuring a picture of [[Eleftherios Venizelos]].]]
Following the Greek gains in the Balkan Wars, the Ottomans began to persecute ethnic Greeks living in the Empire, which led to [[ethnic cleansing]] in the [[Greek genocide]]. This persecution continued into [[World War I]] when the Ottomans declared for the [[Central Powers]] on late 1914.  Greece remained neutral until 1917 when they joined the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]].  Refugees reports of Turkish atrocities as well as the Allied victory in [[World War I]] seemed to promise an even greater realization of the Megali Idea. Greece gained a foothold in Asia Minor with a protectorate over [[Smyrna]] and its hinterland. Following 5 years of Greek administration, a referendum was to be held to determine whether the territory would revert to Ottoman control or join Greece.  Greece also gained the islands of [[Imbros]] and [[Tenedos]], [[Western Thrace|Western]] and [[Eastern Thrace]], the border then drawn a few miles from the walls of [[Constantinople]].

===Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)===
{{Main|Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Great Fire of Smyrna|Treaty of Lausanne|Population exchange between Greece and Turkey}}
[[File:Izmir15Mayis1919.jpg|thumb|200px|Greek soldiers in Smyrna, May 1919.]]

Greece's efforts to take control of Smyrna in accordance with the Treaty of Sèvres were thwarted by [[Turkish revolutionaries]], who were resisting the Allies.  The Turks finally prevailed and expelled the Greeks from Anatolia during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)]] (part of the [[Turkish War of Independence]]). The war was concluded by the [[Treaty of Lausanne]] which saw Greece cede Eastern Thrace, Imbros, Tenedos and [[Smyrna]] to the nascent Turkish Republic. To avoid any further territorial claims, both Greece and Turkey engaged in an "[[exchange of populations]]": During the conflict, 151,892 Greeks had already fled Asia Minor. The Treaty of Lausanne moved 1,104,216 Greeks from Turkey,<ref>André Billy, ''La Grèce'', Arthaud, 1937, p. 188.</ref> while 380,000 Turks left the Greek territory for Turkey. The transfers ended any further appetite for pursuing the concept of a Greater Greece and ended the 3000 year Greek habitation of Asia Minor. Further population exchanges occurred after World War I, including 40,027 Greeks from Bulgaria, 58,522 from Russia (because of the defeat of the [[White Army]] led by [[Pyotr Wrangel]]) and 10,080 from other lands (for example [[Dodecanese]] or [[Albania]]), while 70,000 Bulgarians from [[Thrace]] and [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]] had moved to [[Bulgaria]].<ref>''The [[Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine]] led to an exchange of 50,000 Greeks for 70,000 Bulgarians between the two countries.'' For more see: Rutsel Silvestre, J. Martha; The Financial Obligation in International Law, Oxford University Press, 2015; {{ISBN|0191055956}}, p. 70.</ref> From the Bulgarian refugees ca. 66,000 were from Greek Macedonia.<ref>"''The second wave of Bulgarian refugees took place in the 1920s, following the signing of the Neilly Treaty (1919) concerning the so-called "voluntary" exchange of population between Greece and Bulgaria. Of them 66,126 people from Greek Macedonia.''" For more see: Victor Roudometof, Collective Memory, National Identity, and Ethnic Conflict: Greece, Bulgaria, and the Macedonian Question; Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002
{{ISBN|0275976483}}, p. 97.</ref>

The immediate reception of refugees to Greece cost 45 million francs, so the League of Nations arranged for a loan of 150 million francs to aid settlement of refugees. In 1930, Venizelos even went on an official visit to [[Turkey]], where he proposed that [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Mustafa Kemal]] be awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]].

The Greek novelist [[Yiorgos Theotokas]] described the psychological impact of the defeat of 1922:<blockquote>"For a short time, while the Treaty of Serves ran its joyful but uncertain course, it seemed to them that the...long-buried hopes of their ancestors were to be fulfilled. But the terrible summer of 1922 came all too soon. From the hermitage of Arsenios they watched, tense with anxiety, the daily unfolding of the national tragedy, the last desperate efforts of the Royalist Governments of Greece to save the situation, the failure of King Constantine's attempt to take Constantinople, and the final Catastrophe.<br>In mid-August Mustapha Kemal broke through the Greek front and the Greek army, exhausted by ten years of warfare and the privations of the Asia Minor campaign, was vanquished in two weeks. The Turks, advancing rapidly, recaptured in quick succession Afion-Karahisar, Eski-Shehir, Kiutahia, Brussa, Oushak—and then Smyrna! Once again the banners of Islam floated proudly, tauntingly, over the Aegean coast opposite Chios and Mytilene. The whole of Ionia was in flames. Slaughter and pillage descended on the smiling city of Smyrna and in a few short days turned it into a ruin...As day succeeded day, Greece seemed to have become paralyzed, to have lost all will, all ability to resist the blows of fate. The swiftness of the catastrophe completely overwhelmed the State, flooded as it was by the thousands of fleeting soldiers and refugees who sought shelter on the Greek coasts.The nation was plunged into deep despair...<br>Greece had lost her big gamble and had been uprooted from Asia Minor. St. Sophia remained in the hands of the Moslems. The brilliant plans of 1918 were mocking visions, hallucinations, dreams. And the return of reality was truly heartbreaking. The tale of the years was not yet told, then, the historic hour, the fulfillment of the Great Idea, the moment they had longed for with such faith and such anxiety for five tortured, bloody centuries, had not yet come! It was all a lie!"<ref>Kaloudis, George "Ethnic Cleansing in Asia Minor and the Treaty of Lausanne" p.59-89 from ''International Journal on World Peace'', Volume 31, No. 1, March 2014 p.83-84</ref></blockquote>