On 9 September 1922, following the headlong retreat of the Greek army after its defeat at the Battle of Dumlupınar and its evacuation from western Anatolia, the Turkish 5th Cavalry Corps under the command of Major-General Fahrettin Altay within Turkish Army under the command of Mustafa Kemal Pasha marched into the city of Smyrna (modern İzmir), bringing three years of Greek occupation to an end.

At the moment they entered the Kordon they encountered a French captain in a black automobile which urged them to be quick and shouted the following: "Hurry, your homeland is about to be burned.

Unlike Horton and Williamson, Captain Şerafettin does not use the words fool or silly and mentions the grenade thrower as a civilian who had a sword in his belt.

[11] Lieutenant Ali Rıza Akıncı, the first Turkish officer to hoist the Turkish flag in Smyrna (present day Izmir) on the 9th of September, and his unit of thirteen cavalrymen were ambushed by a volley fire by 30-40 rifles from the Tuzakoğlu factory after being saluted and congratulated by a French Marine platoon in the Halkapınar bridge.

Moreover, Captain Şerafettin, as well as Lieutenant Ali Rıza Akıncı, were wounded by a grenade thrown by a Greek irregular in front of the Pasaport building.

Pockets of resistance continued; a Turkish Cavalryman was wounded by rifle shots coming from the houses in Kokaryalı neighbourhood.

[13] Greek soldier Vasilis Diamantopoulos, who in 1922 was among the units that retreated from Aydın, after the local Greeks and other Christians left the city without their belongings and also burnt their own homes so the Turks wouldn't find them intact,[14] was captured along with his entire 18th regiment which was commanded by Colonel Zenginis on the evening of 10 September by the Turkish regular cavalry.