The 1923 Greco-Turkish Population Exchange with Aytek Soner Alpan, SFU

Описание: The SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at SFU is proud to present our 2023/23 Hellenisms Past & Present, Local & Global Postdoctoral Fellow, Aytek Soner Alpan and his talk "'Μουκαδδερατημηζά χακίμ ολαλήμ': The Turcophone Refugees in Greece After the Asia Minor Catastrophe & the 1923 Greco-Turkish Population Exchange".

ABSTRACT
On January 30, 1923, the Convention regarding the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations was signed, marking history’s first-ever compulsory population exchange. The Turkish-speaking Orthodox communities of Asia Minor were too subject to the population exchange and transferred to Greece. Upon arriving in Greece, the refugees faced a society torn by the war and imbued by nationalism. In this milieu, the Turcophone refugees encountered a double challenge. Being deprived of access to the existing sociopolitical networks, they utilized different means to participate in political life and banish the aphonia imposed upon them. They used publications as a means to address this need. This talk depicts the atmosphere in which the Turcophone refugees found themselves and their political reaction to this atmosphere while wandering through the pages of a refugee newspaper published in Turkish with Greek characters, namely Προσφυγική Φωνή/Μουχατζήρ Σεδασί [Muhacir Sedası = Refugee Voice].

SPEAKER BIO
Aytek Soner Alpan is a historian. Broadly, his research examines ethnic and linguistic minorities in the framework of the transition from empire to nation-state, forced displacement, and the formation of refugee identity, agency, and memory subsequent to involuntary population movements. His research concentrates primarily on modern Greece and Turkey, particularly on the experience of the 1923 Greco-Turkish population exchange. His book project entitled Trajectories of Displacement: A Comparative Historical Analysis of the 1923 Greco-Turkish Population Exchange offers a broad and long-term analysis of the Greco-Turkish population exchange with an emphasis on the refugee experience.

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