In his book titled The Concise History of the Genocide of the Greeks of Anatolia (Kyriakidis Publishers, 2009, in Greek), historian Haris Tsirkinidis uses archival material from a number of sources to conclude that the final death toll of Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire during 1914-1923 was 1.574.235. Tsirkinidis breaks the genocide period down into three phases when calculating the final death toll. As Tsirkinidis states himself, "In other words, in Thrace, in Pontus, and the remainder of Asia Minor, virtually half the Greek population was exterminated primarily from the beginning of 1914 until the end of 1923."
THE FINAL DEATH TOLL
According to Tsirkinidis:
The death toll in the first 6 months of 1914 according to American Consul Morgenthau was 400.000 although the Ecumenical Patriarchate which based its findings on local reports, states 284.172 perished.
During the 2nd phase (WW1), the death toll according to the accounts of the English representative to the League of nations (G.W Rendell) surpassed 550.000. I believe the figures of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and according to these the death toll during the second phase was 490.063.
During the 3rd phase (Kemalist phase), there is no official mention of a total death toll. However there are many references to the events during these times and the figures which are mentioned combined with the tragedy of Smyrna where only there 100.000 were exterminated, and the male population was driven into the interior (over350.000) and killed en masse, and finally the virtual enslavement of the Greeks of Pontus, we would easily conclude that the death toll during this phase surpassed 860.000 lives.
Therefore in total, 284.172 + 490.063 + 800.000 = 1.574.235 lives were lost.
If we keep in mind that the total Greek population in Anatolia before the genocide was 3 million and possibly even greater, and that according to statistics 1.221.000 people arrived in Greece (after the Exchange of Populations ) then the death toll would be even greater than the 1.574.235 stated. In other words, in Thrace, in Pontus, and the remainder of Asia Minor, virtually half the Greek population was exterminated primarily from the beginning of 1914 until the end of 1923.
THE GREEK POPULATION OF TURKEY
According to Tsirkinidis.
French author Victor Bérard in his book titled La mort d'Istanbul (Paris 1913) states, that in the first elections of 1908 which were organised by the Neo Turks, 23 Greeks were elected into parliament. The Turks intervened and the results of the election became partial. Elections were often violent in Turkey the end result always being that the Neo Turks were always elected.
In the elections of 1912, there was even more violence and the elections were titled ‘The elections of the big batons'. 27 Greek political representatives were elected, 7 of which represented the Greeks in the Pontus region. According to election rules, minorities were able to elect one representative for every 100.000 residents. Consequently the Turks accepted that the total population of Greeks in Turkey was 2.7 million.
It was known that in order to avoid being taxed (per capita), men being drafted into the army, and women being stolen away especially during times of crisis, the Greeks wouldn't declare all their family members as being Greek. As a result the Greek population would more likely have been 3 million. French Teacher Ernest Lémonon agreed with the above reasoning and in an article of his in ‘Le Temps' newspaper in 1918 wrote,..‘The Greeks of Asia Minor and Pontus number 2.5 million. However there are a further 600.000 Greeks who the Turks don't account for in their statistics because they speak Turkish and not Greek.'
See also: The Greek Genocide