Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions That Forged Modern Greece and Turkey

Like so many state actions we now condemn, ethnic cleansing was viewed not so long ago as a legitimate tool of foreign policy. In the early part of the 20th century, forced population shifts were not uncommon, as multicultural empires crumbled and nationalism drove the formation of new, ethnically homogenous countries. The reciprocal, unofficial exodus of Palestinians and Jews during the creation of Israel in the 1940’s is well known; less familiar are the expulsions of millions of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the mass transfer of Hindus and Muslims between Pakistan and India after World War II. In “Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions That Forged Modern Greece and Turkey,” Bruce Clark, the international security editor of The Economist, explores another such incident: the population exchange that helped create modern-day Greece and Turkey.

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