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and Turkish Populations, also known as the Lausanne and many of the ships involved in this mammoth operation
Convention, was an agreement between were full to overflowing. The elderly and the young
the Greek and Turkish governments signed by their especially suffered from the terrible travel conditions.
representatives in Lausanne on 30 January 1923, in the
aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. The "My mother had to throw my younger sister, who was three
agreement provided for the simultaneous expulsion of or four, into the sea. I don't remember it but that's what my
Orthodox Christians from Turkey to Greece and of Muslims mother told me", says Huseyin Selvi, who had to leave
from Greece (particularly from the north of the country) to Greece when he was five years old.
Turkey. The population transfers involved approximately
two million people, around 1.5 million Anatolian Greeks and At the age of 97, he was able to travel back to the village
500,000 Muslims in Greece. where he was born. Only since the 1990s has it been
With respect to the Muslims of Greece the treaty reflected possible for the "exchangees" and their families to visit
Ottoman conceptions of 'nationality' in that their actual what they see as their ancestral villages in Greece and
ethnic origins was superseded by religious affiliation. That Turkey.
meant that many Greek Muslims from Greek Numan Toker, a second generation exchangee, also
Macedonia and Epirus were classified as Turks and so travelled to the village in Greece his late mother was forced
were forced to leave their homes, despite the fact that out of. "It was my mother's last wish. Now I'll bring water
many spoke little or no Turkish and actually descended from there, to her grave. I'll bring soil ... She was longing to
from Ottoman-era Greek converts to Islam. Similarly, many see it [village] again but never had the chance," Numan
Turkish Christians from north-eastern Anatolia says.
and Cappadoccia were also classified as Greeks and were
deported to Greece although they spoke little or no Greek. His ancestors had lived in Greece for 400-500 years, until
Such groups include Karamanlides, who spoke Karamanli the population exchange. Recalling his mother's stories,
Turkish. Because the Convention classified Greeks and Numan says, "She cried, laughed and talked about what
Turks according to religious affiliation, they were also they used to do. The day they were called back to Turkey
expelled to Greece alongside Greek-speaking Anatolian and were leaving, they left 500 sheep and their farmland
Christians. behind. She even left dinner cooking on the stove. They left
For the same reason, many historic cases of Pontic everything behind."
Greeks from northeastern Anatolia and the Trans-
Caucasus region who had converted to Islam and adopted Population shifts occurred in the early 20th century as old
the Turkish-language and national identity were simply empires disintegrated and new nation-states emerged. But
classified for the purposes of the Convention as 'Turks'. these changes often raised complex questions of identity
However, large numbers from that Pontic Greek community for the ordinary people caught up in them.
had remained Crypto-Christians into the late Ottoman Greek Orthodox Christians and Muslims had lived together
period, before reverting to their ancestral Christian under Ottoman rule for centuries, though not always
Orthodox faith following the 1828 Russian occupation entirely peacefully.
of Erzurum and Gumushane, when they joined the invading
forces and then followed the Russian Imperial Army back The Greek war of independence from the Ottomans was
into Georgia and southern Russia upon its withdrawal. fought between 1821 and 1832 and the new state of
The convention was ratified by the Turkish government on Greece founded. This created tension which increased
23 August 1923 and by the Greek government on 25 after the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. Muslims
August 1923, after the conclusion of the Treaty of remaining in Greece and the Balkans suffered
Lausanne. It was registered in the League of Nations discrimination and persecution, while Greek Orthodox
Treaty Series on 27 January 1925.[1] Christians were expelled by the Ottomans from the Aegean
Source: Wikipedia region.