Kemal prevented a trial and Nureddin Pasha was soon rehabilitated and became the commander of the First Army in 1922. Pontic Greek Expulsion and Massacre On 9 June 1921, the Greek destroyers and battleship Kilkis bombed İnebolu. Nureddin Pasha advised the general staff of the Ankara government that in view of the danger of a Greek landing in Samsun, all male Greeks aged between 16 and 50 years should be deported to Amasya, Tokat and Karahisar-ı Şarkî (present day: Şebinkarahisar) by the order numbered 2082 and dated 12 January 1921. The Ankara government accepted it on 16 June. And the Central Army deported nearly 21,000 persons and the Samsun Independent Tribunal passed 485 death sentences. The massacres committed from the Central Army were so brutal, than even MPs of the GNAT demanded Nureddin's execution. Eventually, the National Assembly relieved him of command and prosecuted him, but Mustafa Kemal revoked the procedure. After the Greek armoured cruiser Georgios Averof bombed Samsun on 7 June 1922, Greeks in the areas of western and southern Anatolia under Turkish nationalist control were deported by order of the Ankara government. Great Offensive After the commander of the First Army Ali İhsan (Sâbis) was dismissed and sent to the Konya Court Martial, the command of the First Army was offered to Ali Fuat (Cebesoy), and then Refet (Bele). But neither man wanted to serve under İsmet (İnönü). On 29 June 1922, Nureddin Pasha was appointed to the commander of the First Army replacing Ali İhsan and on 31 August, he was promoted to the rank of Ferik. Murder of Archbishop Chrysostomos and Great Fire of Smyrna He was to re-enter into İzmir at the head of the First Army on 9 September 1922. According to Ütkan Kocatürk, he was assigned the Military Governor (Askerî Vali) of İzmir, but according to other sources, the Commander of the I Corps Mirliva İzzettin Pasha (Çalışlar) was appointed the Military Governor and Abdülhalik Bey (Renda) was appointed the Civil Governor of İzmir. Nureddin Pasha summoned the Greek archbishop Chrysostomos of Smyrna and accused him of treason. Nureddin Pasha pushed him out of the residence and invited a mob of Muslims to deal with him. He was killed in a lynching. Falih Rıfkı (Atay), the Turkish nationalist journalist who had come from Constantinople to İzmir to interview Mustafa Kemal, noted in his diary about the Great Fire of Smyrna that began