halil wrote:CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON
[email protected]More often than not, many of us are under the impression that Turks and Greeks are always at odds with one another. This is not always necessarily so.
The İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency recently announced that Turkey’s first population exchange museum will be opening on Dec. 18 at Kaleiçi in İstanbul’s Çatalça district. This will be the first museum of its kind in Turkey.
Are you wondering how this came about? You see, when the Ottoman Empire fell apart after World War I, the victorious allies decided to grant all of Thrace to Greece. In the summer of 1920 Greek armies occupied Edirne and parts of western Turkey. Unwilling to accept this situation, Turkish military general Atatürk launched a counter offensive in the War of Independence.
Atatürk’s republican armies were victorious. The Treaty of Lausanne, signed in 1923, left Edirne and eastern Thrace to the Turks. In fact, it confirmed Turkey’s lands in Anatolia and removed the obligation to pay reparations. The fate of the minority populations, as you can well imagine, was a major element. The treaty opened the way for a large population exchange, with many hundreds of thousands of Greeks leaving Turkey and a smaller number of Turks leaving Greece, and secured the rights of minorities who stayed in Turkey.
The minorities are primarily concentrated in the northern regions that were historically inhabited by mixed populations and were subjected to many foreign invasions. Just as you can find Greeks living in certain parts of Turkey, mostly in Thrace and fewer along the Aegean coast, across the border you can find Turks living in the northern part of Greece. It may come as a surprise to some readers, but Turks are the largest minority group in Greece. The Turkish population in Greece during Ottoman rule was not large; it comprised mostly government officials, soldiers and farm land owners. Atatürk himself came from Thessaloniki, now in Greece but at the time he was born it was part of the Ottoman Empire.
The population exchange museum is housed in a Greek home built in 1913 and seeks to familiarize current and future generations with the different ways of life people enjoyed before and after the exchange of populations.
Perhaps you have traveled by bus to Greece. If so, you would have noticed that the bus from İstanbul to Thessaloniki is full of Turks and Greeks. Greeks have relatives still living in Turkey and Turks have relatives living in Greece. Both Turks and Greeks had to move from their homelands, and when doing so, took their own culture with them.
Perhaps there is not as much enmity between the two nationalities as some would like to have you think.
Ancient Hellenistic influence in the Mediterranean was no doubt a powerful and influential one and should not be underestimated. Mediterranean cuisine is delicious -- but whose is it? I remember visiting Alexandropolis years ago and causing grave offense when I made the passing comment to a Greek restaurant waiter that Greek food reminded me of Turkish cuisine. That appeared to be a sore spot. From then on I was careful what I said as it became obvious that Greek culinary nationalism was strong. It is interesting, though, that even some of the dishes are basically the same: Both nations enjoy their dolma (stuffed peppers), sarma (wrapped grape leaves) and desserts such as those we know in Turkish as kadayıf, lokum and helva.
Some other similarities you’ll notice are how you pass the time -- whether you call it Turkish coffee or Greek coffee -- both love their coffee. By the way, while you sip your coffee you chat and play tavla (backgammon). This board game has been around a while. It is a shared tradition of both countries.
Whether you are in Turkey or in Greece, you can’t help but notice how much they love their traditional dances and music, open bazaars, markets and bargaining for goods and walking in city squares arm-in-arm chatting away with friends.
If you are interested in learning about how Greeks and Turks lived closely together during the Ottoman Empire before this population exchange, I can recommend “Birds Without Wings” by Louis de Bernières. He records how people lived together, until a war far away changed things forever.
Exchange can open the way to better communication and be a good thing.
lol but the topic is Turks and Greeks so I guess we have to discuss them lol...on the other hand, we are free to ignore the thread completely and move to other threads
