On this day, 9th September, in 1922, at around 11am, Turkish cavalry rode into Smyrna entering the city from the north and riding southward along the Quay.
At the time there were 200,000 Christians in Smyrna crammed along the shoreline who had fled the interior of Turkey in fear of Turkish reprisals following the Hellenic Army defeat.
There were hopes the Turks would treat the Christians with respect. But by mid-afternoon the looting, violence and massacre had begun. In nearly every street Lt. Comm. Harrison Knauss passed in the Greek and Armenian neighbourhoods, he could see bodies lying about, shot from close range in the face or the back.
After the Turkish advance on Smyrna, a mob hanged the Orthodox bishop Chrystosomos of Smyrna and a few days later the Great Fire of Smyrna burnt large parts of the city (including most of the Greek and Armenian areas) and on 24 July 1923, the parties signed the Treaty of Lausanne ending the war.
