turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

effort, we still see a decrease in the populations of the cities mentioned above.
This population chart is important as it shows that we have control over the
population because we draw this chart by looking at this population figures.
Looking into the details, we obtain data on the number of enval-i metruke
in Ankara. A source like this is a precious one for Turkey regarding not only
the exchange process but also the architecture history, city history and the
initiation of modern city planning discipline through designing the cities ruined
by fires and wars.
Everything, whether movable or immovable, mankind takes pains to realize
must be regarded as cultural property. So, a well-made wall, a well-placed
stained glass or a well-paved road may not be regarded as cultural property
according to today’s descriptions of concepts. However, they should be regarded
as so where the quality of work is appreciated. This study of mine is surely an
accountancy study but as I stated, we should be aware of our hens.
CHRISTIAN REFUGEES & MINORITY MUSLIMS IN GREECE:
THE QUESTION OF
NATIONAL HOMOGENISATION
AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION
............................................................................................. Giorgos Mavrommatis
Istanbul 8/11/03
I want to first clarify two observations about definitions and significances.
First it is about with the terms muhacir and mubadil.
All people in Greece, when they refer to the persons that came in the country
from the Eastern Thrace and the Asia Minor, use the term “refugees”. In
Turkey, they use the term “exchanged”. Two different teams, parallel policies
implemented, military and legal processes, experience their exit from the
patrimonial grounds - and their later attribute based on this exit - with
different ways, and they are finally named with different terms, that are of
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
course also connected with different meanings. I believe that they rather are
the terms of the exit, the different for each team conditions in which the
process was carried out. Perhaps, some of them are contemporaneous or even
posterior with the exit ideological and political choices that led to the use of
this different terminology.
My second observation is related with the terms “Christian refugees and
minority Muslims” that I use in the title. The bigger part of refugees, and
mainly those who come from the hinterland, they did not have a complete,
Greek national conscience at their arrival in Greece in 1923. Besides that, they
were compelled to abandon their homelands in the framework of exchange
of populations; it was those who depended on the jurisdiction of the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul.
Concerning the Muslims of Thrace, the research has proved clearly that, during
the decade of 1920, only very few people had a Turkish national conscience,
while about the question of the national conscience of the whole minority
intense discussions and contradictions continue existing. That’s how I selected
to use the terms “Christian refugees and minority Muslims”.
In 19th and in the beginning of 20th century, the predominance of ideology
of nationalism in the Balkans resulted from the collapse of big empires and
the creation of the national states through wars. The aim of the cultural
homogeneity led Greece and Turkey in the obligatory exchange of populations
between them, with the exclusive criterion of the religious faith. This exchange,
however, did not ensure obligatorily the desirable cultural homogeneity.
Regarding the Christian refugees, the place and the Greek culture was,
generally, unknown. Very few of them had contacts with the newly established
Greek state. Their basic means of integration in the Greek society was their
integration in the productive process. Much later they began to develop
narrower relations with the local population, while their direct attendance in
the political system and the common religion contributed in their integration.
For some of the refugee children, the situation was relatively easy. Their origin
from urban families with high income and education and their mother tongue
Greek created important conditions for success. The rest of the children faced
important difficulties, while it seems that children of Turkish-speaking farmers
faced the bigger problems.
Population Exchange
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