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Why did the population of Athens rise sharply after the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1921?
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Athens
The Acropolis and surrounding area, Athens.
The population of Athens rose sharply following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey because of a massive influx of approximately 1.5 million Greek refugees arriving from Asia Minor in the early 1920s.123
Although the Greek government attempted to resettle these individuals in other parts of the country, many of the refugeesâmost of whom were pennilessâswarmed into the capital, establishing shantytowns around the fringes of Athens and Piraeus. This sudden migration caused the population of the area to soar from 473,000 to 718,000, effectively overturning the city's previous orderly development and initiating a period of rapid, haphazard urban growth.2