Greeks in Turkey - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Greeks in Turkey constitute a population of Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

and Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

-speaking Eastern Orthodox

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

Christians

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

who mostly live in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, including its district Princes' Islands

Princes' Islands

The Princes' Islands , are a chain of nine islands off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, in the Sea of Marmara. The islands also constitute the Adalar district of Istanbul Province...

, as well as on the two islands of the western entrance to the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...

: Imbros

Imbros

Imbros or Imroz, officially referred to as Gökçeada since July 29, 1970 , is an island in the Aegean Sea and the largest island of Turkey, part of Çanakkale Province. It is located at the entrance of Saros Bay and is also the westernmost point of Turkey...

and Tenedos

Tenedos

Tenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...

( and Bozcaada).

They are the remnants of the estimated 200,000 Greeks who were permitted under the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne

Treaty of Lausanne

The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 July 1923, that settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty of Lausanne was ratified by the Greek government on 11 February 1924, by the Turkish government on 31...

to remain in Turkey following the 1923 population exchange

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was based upon religious identity, and involved the Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey and the Muslim citizens of Greece...

, which involved the forcible resettlement of approximately 1.5 million Greeks from Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

and East Thrace

East Thrace

East Thrace or Eastern Thrace , also known as Turkish Thrace, is the part of the modern republic of Turkey that is geographically part of Europe, all in the eastern part of the historical region of Thrace; most of Turkey is in Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor. Turkish Thrace is also called...

and of half a million Turks

Turkish people

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

from all of Greece except for Western Thrace

Western Thrace

Western Thrace or simply Thrace is a geographic and historical region of Greece, located between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. Together with the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, it is often referred to informally as northern Greece...

. After years of persecution (e.g. the Varlık Vergisi

Varlik Vergisi

Varlık Vergisi was a Turkish tax levied on the wealthy citizens of Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of an eventual entry into World War II....

and the Istanbul Pogrom

Istanbul Pogrom

The Istanbul riots , were mob attacks directed primarily at Istanbul's Greek minority on 6–7 September 1955. The riots were orchestrated by the Turkish government under Adnan Menderes. The events were triggered by the false news that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, north Greece—the...

), emigration

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

of ethnic Greeks from the Istanbul region greatly accelerated, reducing the 119.822
-strong Greek minority before the attack to about 7,000 by 1978. The 2008 figures released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Turkey)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a government ministry office of the Republic of Turkey, responsible for foreign affairs in Turkey. Professor Ahmet Davutoğlu is current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, appointed on May 1, 2009....

places the current number of Turkish citizens of Greek descent at the 3,000–4,000 mark.
However according to the Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

the Greek population in Turkey is estimated at 2,500 in 2006. The Greek population in Turkey is collapsing as the community is now far too small to sustain itself demographically, due to emigration

Emigration

, much higher death rates than birth rates and continuing discrimination.

Since 1924, the status of the Greek minority in Turkey has been ambiguous. Beginning in the 1930s, the government instituted repressive policies forcing many Greeks to emigrate. Examples are the labour battalion

Labour battalion (Turkey)

Ottoman labour battalions was a form of unfree labour in the late Ottoman Empire. The term is associated with disarmament and murder of Ottoman Armenian soldiers during World War I, of Pontic and Anatolian Greeks during the Turkish War of Independence - Armenians in labour battalions :Armenians...

s drafted among non-Muslims during World War I as well as the Fortune Tax (Varlık Vergisi

Varlik Vergisi

Varlık Vergisi was a Turkish tax levied on the wealthy citizens of Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of an eventual entry into World War II....

) levied mostly on non-Muslims during the same period. These resulted in financial ruination and death for many Greeks. The exodus was given greater impetus with the Istanbul Pogrom

Istanbul Pogrom

of September 1955 which led to thousands of Greeks fleeing the city, eventually reducing the Greek population to about 7,000 by 1978 and to about 2,500 by 2006.

Name

The Greeks of Turkey are referred to in Turkish as Rumlar, meaning "Romans". This derives from self-designation "Ρωμιοί" (Rhomioi) used by Greeks in the Middle Ages, who saw themselves as the heirs to the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. The ethnonym "Yunanlar" is exclusively used by Turks to refer to Greeks from Greece and not for the population of Turkey. In Greek, Greeks from Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

are referred to as "Μικρασιάτες" or "Ανατολίτες" (Mikrasiates or Anatolites, lit. "Asia Minor-ites" or "Anatolians"), while Greeks from Pontos

Pontós

Pontós is a municipality in the comarca of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia, Spain....

are known as Πόντιοι (Pontioi). Greeks from Istanbul

Istanbul

are known as "Κωνσταντινουπολίτες" (Konstantinoupolites, lit. "Constantinople-ites"), most oftened shortened to "Πολίτες" (Polites, pronounced po-LEE-tes). Those who arrived during the 1923 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was based upon religious identity, and involved the Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey and the Muslim citizens of Greece...

are also referred to as "Πρόσφυγες" (Prosfyges, i.e. "Refugees").

Background

Greeks have been living in what is now Turkey continuously since the middle 2nd millennium BC. Following upheavals in mainland Greece during the Bronze Age Collapse

Bronze Age collapse

The Bronze Age collapse is a transition in southwestern Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age that some historians believe was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive...

, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

was heavily settled by Ionian and Aeolian Greeks

Aeolians

The Aeolians were one of the four major ancient Greek tribes comprising Ancient Greeks. Their name derives from Aeolus, the mythical ancestor of the Aeolic branch and son of Hellen, the mythical patriarch of the Greek nation...

and became known as Ionia

Ionia

Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...

and Aeolia

Aeolia

Aeolia may refer to:*Aeolia, another name for Aeolis in Anatolia*Aeolia, an older name for Thessaly before the Greek Dark Ages*The home of Æolus, son of Hippotes, a character in the Odyssey*Aeolia , a character found in Mother 3...

. During the era of Greek colonization from the 8th to the 6th century BC, numerous Greek colonies were founded on the coast of Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

, both by mainland Greeks as well as settlers from colonies such as Miletus

Miletus

Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...

. The city of Byzantium

Byzantium

Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...

, which would go on to become Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

and Istanbul

Istanbul

, was founded by colonists from Megara

Megara

Megara is an ancient city in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King...

in the 7th century BC.

Following the conquest of Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

by Alexander the Great, the rest of Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

was opened up to Greek settlement. Upon the death of Alexander, Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

was ruled by a number of Hellenistic kingdoms such as the Attalids of Pergamum. A period of peaceful Hellenization

Hellenization

Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...

followed, such that the local Anatolian languages

Anatolian languages

The Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...

had been supplanted by Greek

Greek language

by the 1st century BC. Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

was one of the first places where Christianity spread, so that by the 4th century AD it was overwhelmingly Christian and Greek-speaking. For the next 600 years, Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

and Constantinople

Constantinople

which eventually became the capital of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

would be the centers of the Hellenic world, while mainland Greece experienced repeated barbarian invasions and went into decline.

Following the Battle of Manzikert

Battle of Manzikert

The Battle of Manzikert , was fought between the Byzantine Empire and Seljuq Turks led by Alp Arslan on August 26, 1071 near Manzikert...

in 1071, the Seljuk Turks swept through all of Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

. While the Byzantines would recover western and northern Anatolia in subsequent years, central Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

was settled by Turkic peoples and never again came under Byzantine rule. The Byzantine Empire was unable to stem the Turkic advance, and by 1300 most of Asia Minor

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

was ruled by Anatolian beyliks. Smyrna

Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...

fell in 1330, and the last Byzantine stronghold in Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

, Philadelphia

Alasehir

Alaşehir, in Antiquity and the Middle Ages known as Philadelphia , i.e. " brotherly love" is a town and district of Manisa Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. It is situated in the valley of the Kuzuçay , at the foot of the Bozdağ...

, fell in 1398.

Ottoman Empire

Constantinople

fell in 1453, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire. Beginning with the Seljuk invasion in the 11th century, and continuing through the Ottoman years

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, Anatolia underwent a process of Turkification

Turkification

Turkification is a term used to describe a process of cultural or political change in which something or someone who is not a Turk becomes one, voluntarily or involuntarily...

, its population gradually changing from predominantly Christian and Greek-speaking to predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking.

A class of moneyed ethnically Greek merchants (they commonly claimed noble Byzantine

Byzantium

Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...

descent) called Phanariotes

Phanariotes

Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...

emerged in the latter half of the 16th century and went on to exercise great influence in the administration in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

's Balkan domains in the 18th century. They tended to build their houses in the Phanar quarter of Istanbul in order to be close to the court of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who under the Ottoman millet

Millet (Ottoman Empire)

Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...

system was recognized as both the spiritual and secular head (millet-bashi) of all the Orthodox subjects (the Rum Millet, or the "Roman nation") of the Empire, often acting as archontes of the Ecumenical See

Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate are honorees of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who have been selected from among the laity due to service to those portions of the Eastern Orthodox Church under his particular guidance....

. For all their cosmopolitanism and often western (sometimes Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

) education, the Phanariots were aware of their Hellenism

Hellenism

Hellenism may refer to:*Hellenic studies*Hellenistic civilization*Hellenistic period, in Greek antiquity*Hellenistic Greece*Hellenization, the spread of Greek culture over foreign peoples*Hellenistic philosophy in the Hellenistic period and late antiquity...

; according to Nicholas Mavrocordatos

Nicholas Mavrocordatos

Nicholas Mavrocordatos was a Greek member of the Mavrocordatos family, Grand Dragoman to the Divan , and consequently the first Phanariote Hospodar of the Danubian Principalities - Prince of Moldavia, and Prince of Wallachia...

' Philotheou Parerga:We are a race completely Hellenic.

The first Greek millionaire in the Ottoman era was Michael Cantacuzenos, who earned 60.000 ducats a year from his control of the fur trade from Muskovy; he was eventually executed on the Sultan's order.

It was the wealth of the extensive Greek merchant class that provided the material basis for the intellectual revival that was the prominent feature of Greek life in the second half of the XVIII century and the beginning of the XIX century. Greek merchants endowed libraries and schools; on the eve of the Greek War of Independence

Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...

the three most important centres of Greek learning, schools-cum-universities, were situated in Chios

Chios

Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...

, Smyrna

Smyrna

and Aivali, all three major centres of Greek commerce.

By the late 19th and early 20th century, the Greek element was only predominant in Constantinople

Constantinople

, Smyrna

Smyrna

, its ancient areas of settlement on the western and northern coasts, and a few cities in the interior such as Alaşehir

Alasehir

. Prior to the outbreak of the First World War, up to 1.8 million Greeks lived in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

World War I and its aftermath

Given their large Greek populations, Constantinople and Asia Minor featured prominently in the Greek irredentist concept of Megali Idea

Megali Idea

The Megali Idea was an irredentist concept of Greek nationalism that expressed the goal of establishing a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas, since large Greek populations after the restoration of Greek independence in 1830 still lived under Ottoman rule.The term...

(lit. "Great Idea") during the 19th century and early 20th century. The goal of Megali Idea was the liberation of all Greek-inhabited lands and the eventual establishment of a successor state to the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as its capital.

During World War I and its aftermath (1914–1923), the government of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

instigated a violent campaign against the Greek population of the Empire. The campaign included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches, and summary expulsions. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. Some of the survivors and refugees, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

.

Following Greece's participation on the Allied side

Allies of World War I

The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

in World War I, and the participation of the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

, Greece received an order to land in Smyrna

Smyrna

by the Triple Entente

Triple Entente

The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....

as part of the planned partition of the Ottoman Empire.

On May 15, 1919, twenty thousand Greek soldiers landed in Smyrna, taking control of the city

Occupation of İzmir

The Occupation of Smyrna occurred from 15 May 1919 to 8 September 1922 by Greek forces under the High Commissioner Aristidis Stergiadis in the Smyrna district, aligned with the Allied partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. There were no military hostilities between Greece and the Ottoman Empire...

and its surroundings under cover of the Greek, French, and British navies. Legal justifications for the landings was found in the article 7 of the Armistice of Mudros

Armistice of Mudros

The Armistice of Moudros , concluded on 30 October 1918, ended the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I...

, which allowed the Allies "to occupy any strategic points in the event of any situation arising which threatens the security of Allies." The Greeks of Smyrna and other Christians, greeted the Greek troops as liberators. By contrast, the majority of the Muslim population saw them as an invading force.

Greece was subsequently awarded Eastern Thrace up to the Chatalja lines

Çatalca

Çatalca is a city and a rural district in Istanbul, Turkey. It is in Thrace, on the ridge between the Marmara and the Black Sea. Most people living in Çatalca are either farmers or those visiting vacation homes. Many families from Istanbul come to Çatalca during weekends to hike in the forests or...

at the outskirts of Constantinople

Constantinople

, the islands of Imbros

Imbros

and Tenedos

Tenedos

, and the city Smyrna

Smyrna

and its vast hinterland by the Treaty of Sèvres

Treaty of Sèvres

The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany before this treaty to annul the German concessions including the economic rights and enterprises. Also, France, Great Britain and Italy...

, all of which contained substantial Greek populations.
During the Greco-Turkish War, a conflict which followed the Hellenic occupation of Smyrna in May 1919 and continued until the Great Fire of Smyrna

Great Fire of Smyrna

The Great Fire of Smyrna or the Catastrophe of Smyrna was a fire that destroyed much of the port city of Izmir in September 1922. Eye-witness reports state that the fire began on 13 September 1922 and lasted until it was largely extinguished on September 22...

in September 1922, atrocities perpetrated by both the Hellenic and Turkish armies.

For the massacres that occurred during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, British historian Arnold J. Toynbee

Arnold J. Toynbee

Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...

wrote that it was the Greek landings that created the Turkish National Movement led by Mustafa Kemal

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

: "...The Greeks of 'Pontus

Pontós

Pontós is a municipality in the comarca of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia, Spain....

' and the Turks of the Greek occupied territories, were in some degree victims of Mr. Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...

's and Mr. Lloyd George

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...

's original miscalculations at Paris."

After the end of the Greco-Turkish War, most of the Greeks remaining in the Ottoman Empire were transferred to Greece under the terms of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was based upon religious identity, and involved the Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey and the Muslim citizens of Greece...

. The criteria for the population exchange was not exclusively confined to ethnicity or mother language, but on religion as well. That is why the Karamanlides

Karamanlides

The Karamanlides , or simply Karamanlis, are a Greek Orthodox, Turkish-speaking people native to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of Anatolia...

, or simply Karamanlis, who were a Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

-speaking (while they employed the Greek alphabet to write it) Greek Orthodox

Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...

people of unclear origin and were deported from their native regions of Karaman

Karaman

Karaman is a town in south central Turkey, located north of the Taurus Mountains, about south of Konya. It is the capital district of the Karaman Province. According to 2000 census, the population of the province is 231 872 of which 132,064 live in the town of Karaman. The district covers an area...

and Cappadocia

Cappadocia

Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...

in Central Anatolia to Greece as well. On the other hand, Cretan Muslims

Cretan Turks

The Cretan Turks, Turco-Cretans , or Cretan Muslims were the Muslim inhabitants of Crete and now their descendants, who settled principally in Turkey, the Levant, and Egypt as well as in the larger Turkish diaspora.After the Ottoman conquest of Crete...

who were part of the exchange were re-settled mostly on the Aegean coast of Turkey, in areas formerly inhabited by Christian Greeks. Populations of Greek descent can still be found in the Pontos

Pontós

Pontós is a municipality in the comarca of Alt Empordà, Girona, Catalonia, Spain....

, remnants of the former Greek population that converted to Islam in order to escape the persecution and later deportation. Though these two groups are of ethnic Greek descent, they speak Turkish as a mother language and are very cautious to identify themselves as Greeks, due to the hostility of the Turkish state and neighbours towards anything Greek.

Republic of Turkey

Due to the Greeks' strong emotional attachment to their first capital as well as the importance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , part of the wider Orthodox Church, is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches within the communion of Orthodox Christianity...

for Greek and worldwide orthodoxy, the Greek population of Istanbul was specifically exempted and allowed to stay in place. Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne

Treaty of Lausanne

(1923) also exempted Imbros

Imbros

and Tenedos

Tenedos

islands from the population exchange and required Turkey to accommodate the local Greek majority and their rights. Nevertheless, the Greek population began to decline, as evidenced by demographic statistics.

Punitive Turkish nationalist exclusivist measures, such as a 1932 parliamentary law, barred Greek citizens living in Turkey from a series of 30 trades and professions from tailoring and carpentry

Carpentry

A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....

to medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

and real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

. The Wealthy Levy

Varlik Vergisi

Varlık Vergisi was a Turkish tax levied on the wealthy citizens of Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of an eventual entry into World War II....

imposed in 1942 also served to reduce the economic potential of Greek businesspeople in Turkey.

On 6–7 September 1955 anti-Greek riots

Istanbul Pogrom

were orchestrated in Istanbul by the Turkish military's Tactical Mobilization Group, the seat of Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...

's Turkish branch; the Counter-Guerrilla

Counter-Guerrilla

Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...

. The events were triggered by the news that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, north Greece—the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

was born in 1881—had been bombed the day before. A bomb planted by a Turkish usher of the consulate, who was later arrested and confessed, incited the events. The Turkish press conveying the news in Turkey was silent about the arrest and instead insinuated that Greeks had set off the bomb. Although the mob did not explicitly call for Greeks

Greeks

to be killed, over a dozen people died during or after the pogrom as a result of beatings and arson

Arson

Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...

. Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

, Armenians

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

and Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s were also harmed. In addition to commercial targets, the mob clearly targeted property owned or administered by the Greek Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

. 73 churches and 23 schools were vandalized, burned or destroyed, as were 8 asperses and 3 monasteries.

The pogrom greatly accelerated emigration of ethnic Greeks from Turkey, and the Istanbul region in particular. The Greek population of Turkey declined from 119,822 persons in 1927, to about 7,000 in 1978. In Istanbul alone, the Greek population decreased from 65,108 to 49,081 between 1955 and 1960.

Current Situation

Today most of the remaining Greeks live in Istanbul. In the Fener

Fener

Fener is a neighborhood midway up the Golden Horn within the district of Fatih in Istanbul , Turkey. The streets in the area are full of historic wooden houses, churches, and synagogues dating from Byzantine and Ottoman eras. The area's name is a Turkish transliteration of the original Greek φανάρι...

district of Istanbul where the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , part of the wider Orthodox Church, is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches within the communion of Orthodox Christianity...

is located, less than 100 Greeks live today. A handful also live in other cities of Anatolia. They are generally very old people.

Another location where the Greek community lives is the islands Imbros and Tenedos near the Dardanelles

Dardanelles

, but this community is diminishing very fast and only 200 elderly Greeks have remained there, less than 2%. In the 1950's, an estimated 98% of the island was Greek.

The so-called Antiochian Greeks

Antiochian Greeks

Antiochian Greeks are members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch who have resided in the territory of contemporary Turkish province of Hatay, which includes the old city of Antioch or modern-day Antakya. The community has a long heritage that dates back to the establishment of Antioch in 323...

(Rum) living in Hatay

Hatay

Hatay refers to the following places in Turkey:* Hatay Province, Turkey* Republic of Hatay, between 1938–1939.* Hatay, İzmir, Turkey, a district of İzmir...

, Adana

Adana

Adana is a city in southern Turkey and a major agricultural and commercial center. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean, in south-central Anatolia...

and Mersin

Mersin

-Mersin today:Today, Mersin is a large city spreading out along the coast, with Turkey's second tallest skyscraper , huge hotels, an opera house, expensive real estate near the sea or up in the hills, and many other modern urban...

are actually Christian Arabs. In fact, they speak or spoke Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

as a mother language, and that is why they were excluded from the exchange and were able to stay in Anatolia. They do not speak Greek at all, the younger generation speaks Turkish, and they have Turkish names now. Their population is about 4000-5000, and they are faithful to the Patriarchate of Antiochia in Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

.

The Greek minority continues to encounter problems relating to education and property rights. A 1971 law nationalized religious high schools, and closed the Halki seminary

Halki seminary

The Halki seminary, formally the Theological School of Halki , was founded on 1 October 1844 on the island of Halki , the second-largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara. It was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church's Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until...

on Istanbul's Heybeli Island which had trained Orthodox clergy since the 19th century. A later outrage was the vandalism of the Greek cemetery on Imbros on October 29, 2010. In this context, problems affecting the Greek minority on the islands of Imbros and Tenedos continue to be reported to the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

.

In July 2011, Istanbul's Greek minority newspaper Apoyevmatini

Apoyevmatini

Apoyevmatini is a daily Greek-language newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. The newspaper was founded on 14 July 1925 and is still being published until today...

declared that they will shut down the newspaper due to financial difficulties. The four-page Greek-language newspaper faced closure due to financial problems that had been further aggravated by the economic crisis in Greece, when Greek companies stopped publishing advertisements in the newspaper and the offices have already been shut down. This ignited campaign to help the newspaper. Among the supporters were students from Istanbul Bilgi University who subscribed to the newspaper. The campaign saved the paper from bankruptcy for the time being. Because the Greek community is close to extinction, the obituary notices and money from Greek foundations, as well as subscriptions overwhelmingly by Turkish people, are the only sources of income. This income covers only 40 percent of the newspaper expenditures.

This was followed in September 2011 by a government cash grant of 45,000 Turkish Lira

Turkish lira

The Turkish lira is the currency of Turkey and the de facto independent state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The lira is subdivided into 100 kuruş...

s to the newspaper through the Turkish Press Advertisement Agency, as part of a wider support of minority newspapers.
The Turkish Press Advertisement Agency also declared intention to publish official government advertisements in minority newspapers including Greek papers Apoyevmatini and IHO.

As of 2007, Turkish authorities have seized a total of 1,000 immovables of 81 Greek organizations as well as individuals of the Greek community. On the other hand Turkish courts provided legal legitimacy to unlawful practices by approving discriminatory laws and policies that violated fundamental rights they were responsible to protect. As a result, foundations of the Greek communities started to file complaints after 1999 when Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union was announced. Since 2007, decisions are being made in these cases; the first ruling was made in a case filed by the Phanar Greek Orthodox College

Phanar Greek Orthodox College

-See also:*Fener*Greeks in Turkey*Zografeion Lyceum*List of schools in Istanbul*Ottoman Greeks...

Foundation, and the decision was that Turkey violated Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which secured property rights.

A government decree published on 27 August 2011, paves the way to return assets that once belonged to Greek, Armenian, or Jewish trusts and makes provisions for the government to pay compensation for any confiscated property that has since been sold on, and in a move likely to thwart possible court rulings against the country by the European Court of Human Rights.

Since the vast majority of properties confiscated from Greek trusts (and other minority trusts) have been sold to third parties, which as a result cannot be taken from their current owners and be returned, the Greek trusts will receive compensation from the government instead. Compensation for properties that were purchased or were sold to third parties will be decided on by the Finance Ministry. However, no independent body is involved in deciding on compensation, according to the regulations of the government decree of 27 August 2011. If the compensation were judged fairly and paid in full, the state would have to pay compensation worth many millions of Euros for a large number of properties. Another weakness of the government decree is that the state body with a direct interest in reducing the amount of compensation paid, which is the Finance Ministry, is the only body permitted to decide on the amount of compensation paid. The government decree also states that minority trusts must apply for restitution within 12 months of the publication of the government decree, which was issued on 1 October 2011, leaving less than 11 months for the applications to be prepared and submitted. After this deadline terminates on 27 August 2012, no applications can be submitted, in which the government aims to settle this issue permamenetly on a legally sound basis and prevent future legal difficulties involving the European Court of Human Rights.

Demographics

The Greek community of Istanbul numbered 67,550 persons in 1955. However, after the Istanbul Pogrom

Istanbul Pogrom

orchestrated by Turkish authorities against the Greek community in that year, their number was dramatically reduced to only 48,000 in 1955. Today, the Greek community numbers about 2,000 people.

Year	People
1923	100,000-80,000
1955	48,000
1978	7,000
2006	2,500.

External links

Athens protests latest desecration of Orthodox cemetery in Turkey
The Greeks of Turkey
Greek - Turkish minorities
Greeks Living in Turkey Today
Turkey’s Greek Community Grapples with adnersity
Turkey - Greeks
Istanbul Greek Minority Information Portal for present Greek Minority of Turkey in Greek, Turkish and English

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