Aristeidis Stergiadis

Who is Aristeidis Stergiadis?

Aristeidis Stergiadis was the Greek high-commissioner, or governor-general, of Smyrna during the Greek occupation of the city from 1919 to 1922. He was selected for the post by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who was a fellow Cretan. He is considered one of the darkest figures in modern Greek history. Stergiadis was arguably possessed of a strict sense of justice and a high ideal of duty, he lived as a hermit, accepting no invitations and never appearing in society. According to George Horton, Stergiadis informed him that he wished "to accept no favors and to form no ties, so that he might administer equal justice to all, high and low alike." It soon became known that when he issued an order he expected it to be obeyed.

He abandoned Smyrna on 25 September 1922 on a British ship, and was transported to Britain. Later the same year he moved to Nice, where he lived until the end of his life, on 22 June 1949, under British protection, leading to wide spread rumors that he had been a Secret Intelligence Service spy. His family's property probably allowed him to live in wealth until the beginning of the Second World War, when most of the companies related to him were destroyed.