Population Exchange

The Population Exchange Accord signed between Greece and Turkey in Lausanne provided for the compulsory mutual resettlement of Greek populations then inside Turkey and Muslims living in Greece. Greeks in Constantinople and on Imbros and Tenedos were exempted from the population exchange, as were Muslims in West Thrace. The exchangee populations were forced to abandon their properties. By 1925, when the process was complete, it has been estimated that over one million Greeks had moved from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace to Greece, while the opposite road had been taken by about half a million Muslims.

In exchanging populations, both countries aspired to achieve internal ethnic uniformity and the mutual recognition of their borders.