The Asia Minor Catastrophe is considered the greatest calamity of Hellenism throughout time. With the Treaty of Lausanne and the mandatory exchange of populations, Hellenism has disappeared following two thousand years of presence in Asia Minor. In September 1922, Smyrna, the capital of Ionia, was set on fire. Its Greek and Armenian population was massacred by the Kemalist army. Asia Minor refugees also came to Cyprus disseminating their high living and spiritual standard to their new homeland. Some of them will become refugees for the second time in 1974 due to the Turkish invasion.

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