The decline and fall

When the First World War ended, the British and French casually carved up the lands of the defeated Ottoman Empire. New Kingdoms, mandates and protectorates emerged on the map setting the borders which define much of the modern Middle East. The victorious powers also granted land to their allies - with Greece, Italy and Armenia granted generous swaths of Anatolia. All of whom promptly sent troops to occupy their new possessions. 

Greeks and Armenians had lived in parts of Anatolia since Antiquity, but neighbourly relations deteriorated during the war. The Ottoman’s systematically butchered ethnic Armenians and during the subsequent Greco-Turkish War, both sides turned upon each other savagely.

The Turks eventually defeated the Greeks and the subsequent peace treaty called for a population exchange based upon religious lines. Roughly half a million Muslims were expelled from Greece and switched places with close to a million ethnic Greeks fleeing Turkey. 

The village of Kayakoy is a vivid reminder of this period. It was abandoned by its Greek-speaking population during the 1923 population exchange. It hasn’t been inhabited since.