During the 1912-1913 Balkan wars, the islands of Imbros and Tenedos were among the territories liberated by Greece. At the Lausannce Conferance Greece was forced to hand them back to Turkey. The Lausanne Treaty specified the rights of the Greeks of these two islands:

"The islands of Imbros and Tenedos, remaining under Turkish sovereignty, shall enjoy a special administrative organization composed of local elements and furnishing every guarantee for the native non-Moslem population in so far as concerns local administration and the protection of persons and property. The maintenance of order will be assured therein by a police force recruited from amongst the local population by the local administration above provided for and placed under it's orders. The agreements which have been, or may be, concluded between Greece and Turkey relating to the exchange of the Greek and Turkish populations will not be applied to the inhabitants of the islands of Imbros and Tenedos".Treaty of Lausanne, Article 14.

"In 1920 about 9,000 Greeks lived on the two islands; Imbros was inhabited almost entirely by Greeks, and Tenedos was about eighty percent Greek. By the early 1970's,only 2,622 Greeks lived on Imbros and 1,400 on Tenedos. Today,according to the Constantinopolitan Society of Athens, the Greek population of the islands has dwindled to about 480, most of them elderly,". "The Pan Imbrian committee in Athens reports that there are currently only 330 Greeks living on Imbros all elderly people who live in six villages". Denying Human Rights and ethnic identity: The Greeks of Turkey". Helsinki Watch, A Division of Human Rights Watch. March 1992.

The Greeks in Imbros and Tenedos have likewise been victimized by the Turks contrary to the guarantees of the Lausanne Treaty. It is only a matter of time before Hellenism becomes extinct in Turkey.