The participation of the Turkey in the First World War was the beginning of the second and most systematic period of the persecutions of the Greeks which is mainly characterized by the use of drastically financial measures in order to serve the needs of the war. The ban of the capitulation (Autumn 1914) didn't solve Turkey's financial problem. Despite the recent persecutions, the Greeks, who were still one of the most prosperous selections of the population, paid a large amount of the extraordinary charges which constituted a new form of oppression. The strictest and the most painful measure for the Greeks was the requisitions even for luxurious things essential for the needs of the war. Besides, in 1915, the Ottoman government built an exclusive Muslim enterprise in Smyrna, which was monopolistically in the import and export trade, in order to focus the trade in Turkish hands. Therefore, for the slightest commercial transaction by someone else, an enterprise's licence was needed.

Another measure which could be placed in the application of the publicized equality of the minorities, if it didn't turn out to be an additional measure of elimination in practice, was the military service. At first the recruiting decree, which was published just before the war (19th June/1st August 1914), concerned all citizens who were between 20-45 years old. Later it was given the chance to the non-Muslims to buy themselves out of army by paying 44 sovereigns. Whoever was 45 years old and on were forced to man the well-known amele tabourou (working orders). Therefore, for the older ones the military service was replaced by the fatigue in mines, roads and fields. Due to malnutrition and the fact that they were outnumbered by the diseases, they were lead to Asia Minor, Ikonio, Sebastia, Agira and Mersina. There are many Greek and Turkish testimonies about the awful working conditions in these working orders. Also the statement of the Turkish government which hadn't had the ability to subsist them and its appeal to the Greeks of Smyrna for their benevolence are some more proofs about the awful conditions these working orders were lived in.

In the multiple hardships of the ones who were recruited was also added the violent behaviour of the locals because the Turkish command had made the Greek "soldiers" out to be prisoners of the war. In fact the amele tabourou were concentration camps for the extermination of the most powerful element of the Greek population. In order the Greeks to avoid all these, they bought themselves out of army by selling all their fortune or the poor ones by going to live on the mountains. By this way they were characterized deserters and their families faced brutal reprisals. In March 1916 with the new law for the buying out of the military service, it was established the annual tax of 22 sovereigns. Finally with the abolition of the buying out of the military service thousands of deserters were notice and this had as a result many of them to be dispatched. As far as the report of the Greek deputies of the Ottoman parliament is concerned, 250,000 Greeks died from the hardships of the working orders.