The Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations formalised the compulsory removal of Orthodox Christians from Turkey and Muslims from Greece. Approximately 1.5 million Anatolian Greeks and about 500,000 Muslims were uprooted. Cities including İzmir and Thessaloniki were transformed by the arrivals and departures.

Refugees carried songs, oral epics, dialects and musical traditions, helping shape rebetiko and modern Greek cultural life. Writers such as Elias Venezis and Dido Sotiriou portrayed forced departure, lost Anatolian homes and difficult resettlement.