turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

”While Greeks name the persons displaced through exchange of populations
as “göçmen” (emigrant), in Turkey they are called as “mübadil” (exchangee
- exchanged) with reference to the price to be paid off.” R.Hirschon corrected
that in Greek it’s not called emigrant but refugees.
“Most of the Christian emigrants did not posses national Greek identity and
understanding, their mind-set was set to pre-nation-state times. Community,
sect and religion were important. They were loyal to the Patriarchy in İstanbul. In
Thrace, there is very little understanding and acceptance of Turkish nationality.
Each state wants to have an homogenous community. Therefore, Greece has
taken into account the religious matters, however it still failed to create this
homogenous state. There were even Christian Orthodox communities speaking
in Kurdish.”
“Integration of emigrants with the Greek community started with the launch of
production, marriages with each other started only after 1950s. Furthermore,
the children were provided with Greek language and culture thanks to Greek
education system. Children of bourgeois families and children speaking Greek
were more successful at school, whereas children of emigrants faced some
difficulties. Children of emigrants were considered as being suspicious due to
their nationalities and were feeling ashamed of that. In years, emigrants from
Asia Minor, Black Sea and Thrace became full Greek citizens and gained more
respect.
Minority schools provided the children with Quran, mathematics and Turkish
language courses. As the revolutionaries gained power in time, Turkish
dimension drastically influenced education system in time at the beginning
of 1950s. The curricula became the real Turkish curricula. Even the ones
speaking “Pomakça” 1 as well as the gypsies were taught Turkish. Such an
education system accelerated Muslims migration to Turkey.”
During her speech, Nükhet Adıyeke made references to the Crete Island.
”Immigration from Crete started earlier than the compulsory exchange of
populations. Crete used to have a privileged status within the Ottoman Empire.
1 The Pomaks live in the region of the Rhodope Mountains on both sides of the Greek-Bulgarian
border. Their native language is Pomak (Pomachki). The Pomak language belongs to the linguistic
family of the Southern Slavic language.
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
Since it was conquered at a later stage, the Ottomans did not implement their
classic governance practices in Crete. The Ottomans did not ban Rum women
who gave birth to their children from Turkish men to address their children in
Rum”
”Together with the appearance of Muslim identity, Crete lives an overwhelming
Islamisation process. The Ottomans did not follow the policy of forcing Muslim
population into the island through forced exchange; however 100 years later a
Muslim population appeared in the island.”
“The conquerors of the island are reported to get married with Rum women.
However, the conquerors of the island were janissaries.”
”Molly Green advocates that changing religion also enables a higher rank within
the segments of the society, and the ones changing their religion can be a part
of military and political class. The Ottomans allowed private property in Crete.
The ones changing their religions became very fanatic and generated a lot of
hatred from their previous fellows.”
”Muslims and Non-Muslims were intensively involved in mutual trade and many
of the cases are related with property. As a result of the Greek independence
movement and nationalistic struggle started the mutual massacres.”
NOTES FROM THE ROUND TABLE
DISCUSSION
POPULATION EXCHANGE RECONSIDERED:
GENERAL ASSESSMENT
On the last day of the symposium, a session was dedicated for the general
assessment of the subject matter and the symposium itself. Ayhan Aktar
highlighted once again the Islamic law practices in Western Thrace.
Baltiosis stated that all the Macedonian emigrants are obliged to present
and identify themselves as of Thessaloniki origin. On the condition that they
Population Exchange
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