Across the Aegean

For a century, the Aegean has stood as both a border and a bridge. The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey - the forced relocation of over a million Christians to Greece and some 400,000 Muslims to Turkey - transformed both states and societies. Refugee movements from occupied Greece to neutral Turkey during the Second World War, and more recently the crossings from Turkey to Greece of Syrians and others during 'Europe's refugee crisis', highlight the Aegean as a recurring site of forced migration. Today, the region remains defined by militarised borders and the criminalisation of humanitarian actors. This book investigates the major forced population movements across the Aegean in the last 100 years. It uses the 1922-1923 forced population exchange as an intellectual point of departure to investigate the multiple refugee movements across the Aegean and their interconnections. It addresses the forced displacement of not only Turks and Greeks but also Jewish people and Syrians while also investigating the remembering of these episodes, within and beyond Turkey and Greece. Bringing together leading experts on Greece and Turkey, the volume advances a dialogue between national and international historiographies and offers fresh perspectives on the enduring legacies of displacement. Across the Aegean is essential reading for scholars and students of modern Greek and Turkish studies, cultural heritage, refugee/forced migration, and memory studies. Its insights also resonate with policy practitioners, journalists, and wider audiences seeking to understand how histories of displacement continue to shape the politics and societies of the Aegean today.

Violetta Hionidou is Professor of Modern European History at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests span from famines to birth control; from popular medicine to family history; and from migration and refugee studies to the displacement experiences of Pontic Greeks in the former USSR. Currently, she is researching migration in times of famine. She has published three monographs, two of which are prize-winning. Hionidou has held research fellowships at Princeton University's Seeger Centre for Hellenic Studies, at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (George Papaioannou Fellowship), and at the University of Cambridge (Lewis-Gibson Visiting Fellowship). Dimitris Skleparis is Senior Lecturer in the Politics of Security at Newcastle University. His research explores the intersections of security and forced displacement, focusing on threat perceptions, empathy, and collective memories of historical victimisation. He has published widely in international journals and edited volumes, and has contributed to research reports and policy briefs. Dimitris is Co-Convenor of the Greek Politics Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association and serves on the Scientific Board of the Greek Review of Social Research. He previously held academic and research positions at the University of Glasgow, the University of California, and ELIAMEP.

Introduction Violetta Hionidou and Dimitris Skleparis Part 1: Navigating Humanitarianism: War, Displacement, and Marginalised Lives Chapter 1 Fleeing across the Aegean Sea: Orphans and unattended minors in Greece under the aegis of the Near East Relief after the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 Eleftheria Daleziou Chapter 2 Forced Migrations, Humanitarianism and Sex-Trafficking: the case of the Anatolian Greeks revisited, 1921-1925 Panagiotis Karagkounis and Georgios Giannakopoulos Chapter 3 Dystopias of sexual abuse and prostitution: the case of Greek-Orthodox refugee women in the 1920s Georgios Kritikos Chapter 4 Lived experiences of dehumanisation: a case study of Asylum Seekers in the Zervou Refugee Camp in Samos, Greece, 2022-2024 Clara De La Hoz Del Real Part 2: Identity of peoples and places Chapter 5 The Social Construction of Ottoman Greek Identity in an Early 20th-Century US Context Yiorgo Topalidis Chapter 6 Identity Confusion of a Multifaceted Landscape: Revisiting the Isolated Rum Heritage in Rural Ayvalik (Late 19th/Early 20th Century) Hasan Sercan Saglam Chapter 7 Intertwined Settlements, different Memories: Lithri and Ildiri in the shadow of Forced Migrations Nursen Kul and Ela Çil Chapter 8 Diasporic Homelands in the Greco-Turkish Context (post-1923): The Locality of Imbros (-µß---/Gökçeada) Laura Brody Part 3: Memory Chapter 9 Legacies of the 1923 Turkish-Greek Population Exchange: Greek Refugees in Turkey during World War II Alexandros Lamprou Chapter 10 Odyssey across the Aegean: The Perilous Exodus of Greek Jews (1943-1944) in Light of Individual Agency and Refugee Experience Julia Fröhlich Chapter 11 Postmemories of the 1922 Asia Minor refugee experience on Chios: The perspective from oral histories, 1999-2020 Violetta Hionidou Chapter 12 Impossible Homecomings: Reconsidering the Legacies of the Greco-Turkish War and Population Exchange through the Life and Work of Etel Adnan (1925-2021) Kristina Gedgaudaite Chapter 13 Perceptions of the Past: Pleasant Remembrance and Difficult Memories of Greco-Turkish Population Exchange Descendants Serkan Günay Conclusions Dimitris Skleparis and Violetta Hionidou Afterword Bruce Clark Bibliography