 The numbers began falling steadily to 9,000,000 Byzantines at 1204 and even lower to 5,000,000 Byzantines at 1281 with the arrival of the Turks.The loss of a considerable area in Asia Minor along with a series of conflicts henceforth with the Ottomans never allowed the Greek population to recover and over the next few centuries remained stable between the range of 4–5,000,000 people.Asia Minor would be completely lost as a Greek-inhabited area in 1922 after defeat by Turkey and the population exchange which saw 1,250,000 Greeks move across the Aegean (100,000 had departed Eastern Thrace in the decade prior to 1914).