Anton Zischka links Asia Minor Catastrophe to oil geopolitics

Historical analysis by Austrian journalist and historian Anton Zischka suggests that the Asia Minor Catastrophe was fundamentally driven by geopolitical competition over Middle Eastern oil resources. In his book, ‘Der Kampf um die Weltmacht Öl’ (The Battle for the World Power of Oil), Zischka argues that the Greek campaign in Asia Minor was not an independent venture but one manipulated and ultimately abandoned by Western imperialist powers, specifically the United Kingdom.

According to Zischka, once Western commercial and oil interests secured their objectives within the collapsing Ottoman Empire, military and diplomatic support for Greece evaporated. He posits that the British utilized Greece as a tool to clear the path toward the oil fields of Mosul, which was the world’s largest oil-producing region at the time. This shift in alignment led to the military collapse of Greek forces and the subsequent humanitarian catastrophe.