turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

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EXAMINING THE LAUSANNE
CONVENTION
........................................................................................................... Renée Hirschon
St Peter’s College, University of Oxford
This speech given by Renée Hirschon on the 7 th and
8 th November 2003 is about the Greek - Turkish
compulsory population exchange as agreed in the
Lausanne Convention in 1923. When giving the speech
the speaker intended to examine the consequences
of the above-mentioned Convention and to see what
we can learn from this example of forced migration
that could be proven useful in a similar situation in
the future.
Having lived for a year in a neighborhood of Piraeus
in the 1970s, the speaker had the opportunity to
socialise with forced migrants from Turkey and
to gather some of their opinions on the particular
subject. After listening to many stories by those of
the elder generation who remembered actual facts
and could share their experiences, she reached some
conclusions.
Very often, she would hear interesting stories describing sweet memories of
the past. What she found very important was the fact that those people were
able to understand and live with diversity, as it was a basic characteristic of
the society they had lived in up to the 1920s. Until then, people had learned
to live without expressing hostility towards others who behaved in a different
way as their society had always been multicultural.
Habits of every group of population were easily accepted by others, while
stereotypes did not exist. The ‘unmixing’ of mixed populations though led to
the destruction of multicultural societies, thus creating two different national
identities. Numerous are the claims of people that describe their relations with
the Turks and other populations friendly. This is not only proven by people’s
statements, but also found in many different sources such as historical archives.
However, the memories would not always be sweet and agreeable. The elder
generation had not forgotten cases of killings, manslaughter, rapes or even the
great fires and everything that forced them to migration.
Nevertheless, what seems to be very important and yet strange is that those
people did not put the blame on Turks in general. On the contrary, they knew
that what happened then was the governments’ fault. It is very impressive to
see how balanced their good and bad memories are.
Some claim that the co-existence of different groups of people might result in
conflicts, but according to the speaker, it could only result in the forming of a
more sophisticated society, which can recognize and accept diversity, as social
contacts tend to reduce prejudice against groups of population, under given
circumstances.
As for the hostility between the two nations, which is currently apparent, it
is obvious that it has been created by those who wrote each nation’s history
and some groups of people who have extreme beliefs. It is certain that modern
multicultural societies have still much to learn from those older ones.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES FORM
THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ÉMIGRÉS,
......................................................................................... SIA ANAGNOSTOPOULOU
As it is already common knowledge, the vast population movements are a
result of important subversions occurred in the history of a region, whilst the
settlers become subversions themselves for the history of the hosting regions.
The population movement from and towards Near East (TR), mainly between
1922-1924, confirms this general assumption.
Since 1922 until the Treaty of Lausanne and the population exchange, 1923-
Population Exchange Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe