Rather severe were the demographic changes of the Anatolian Greek population , as well as the changes in the demography of Greece herself . The Young Turks revolution , the Asia Minor Expedition and subsequent Catastrophe , had as a result , apart from the 1.5 million refugees , the death of approximately 1 million ethnic Greek civilians ( the most notable case being the Greek genocide ) and the hostage of hundreds of thousands of Greek men , who were not allowed to leave Anatolia , but were sent to '' labor battalions '' after the war ( it is estimated that as many as 150,000 Greek men from Smyrna were not allowed to go to Greece ) . The demographic bleeding of the refugee population continued in Greece , where thousands of people ( especially women and children ) died of diseases . The diseases had also an impact on the native population of the country . Apart from malaria , which caused the death of tens of thousands , diseases that had not appeared in Greece for years ( cholera , plague ) increased the already high mortality rates
Greek genocide
Greek genocide
Greek refugees