Venizelos seeks to destroy Turkey
Eminent Greek leader and former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos met with the Secretary of the British Prime Minister on March 8, 1922. Telling him that the news about Mustafa Kemal’s command of powerful armies was nothing more than a bluff, Venizelos added, “Greece can take over the task of imposing the conditions of peace (Sèvres). We can crush the Turkish with merely a couple of divisions. The armed Armenians in the East can stand against Mustafa Kemal.”
A sound politician, High Commissioner John de Robeck did not share the views of Venizelos. In a note he sent to Lord Curzon the next day, de Robeck wrote, “Peace must comply with our principles. The annexation of Smyrna to the Greeks is entirely contrary to the principle of national sovereignty. Out reputation is at stake. With the conditions it sets forth, the Council is heading towards a general war. Is Venizelos worth all that?”
This was the first opposition against the policy United Kingdom Prime Minister Llyod George was blindly conducting against the Turks. Later on, Lord Curzon would become a part of this opposition.
