As the result of warlike operations there fled into Greece between 1915 and 1922 1,250,000 Greek refugees from Asia Minor and eastern Thrace and 5o,000 from Bulgaria. In addition there came under treaties for the exchange of population from Bulgaria a further 5o,000 ; from Asia Minor approximately 100,000.
From the year 1915 onwards there were expelled from their dwellings in Asia Minor some hundreds of thousands of Armenians. Great numbers of them perished in their wanderings in the mountains; some thousands succeeded in mak ing journeys on foot as far as Mesopotamia ; others sought pro tection in the Russian empire. In 1921 the independent Armenian republic of Erivan, with an Armenian population of 800,000, adopted the Soviet regime and became part of the Federated Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. To its original population, 300,00o to 400,000 additional refugees from Turkish Armenia were shortly added, and in spite of their great suffering, they were absorbed with remarkable rapidity into the economic system of the country. It is further estimated that more than 300,000 other Armenians are scattered more or less in destitution over Russia and the Near East, particularly Bulgaria and Greece. In 1921
Ioo,000 fled to Syria, many of whom have now become Syrian subjects in the territory under French mandate; more than 6o,000 fled in the following year to Greece, 35,000 to Bulgaria and 20,000 to 30,00o more fled to the Republic of Erivan.
From 1918 onwards a large number of minori ties of Bulgarian or quasi-Bulgarian race and language fled from their homes in the Dobrudja, in Macedonia and in eastern and western Thrace. It is calculated by the Bulgarian Government that their total number amounts to almost half a million. In addition, about 75,000 Bulgars have voluntarily emigrated to Bulgaria from Greece under the terms of the Greco-Bulgarian Exchange of Populations Treaty.
Approximately 50,000 Turks fled from eastern Thrace and Smyrna when these territories were occupied by Greek forces in 1919, but returned to their homes in 1922. In addition approximately 350,000 to 400,000 Turks were moved from Greece (most of them from Macedonia, Crete and western Thrace) to Asia Minor under the terms of the Exchange of Popu lations Treaty made at Lausanne in 1923.