Greek Islanders leaving Turkish Soil: What Oral History Conveys about Incentives behind Migration from Imvros Island?

Abstract

Abstract:The Convention of the Compulsory Exchange of Populations between Turkey and Greece was signed on 30th January 1923, as part of the Lausanne treaty (24th July 1923). An exception was done for the Greek Orthodox population of the two small Aegean islands Imvros and Tenedos in the eastern Mediterranean along with the Constantinopolitan Greeks—and for Muslims in Western Thrace. However, population displacement did not stop with the implementation of the population exchange programme. While the Greek population of Imvros was about 6,000 in the 1960s, by the 1990s, it had been reduced to 300. This paper focuses on analysing the character of native Greek Imvrians' migration. It is based on first hand data gathered utilising oral history methods. It deals with the events that forced them to leave their homelands. By focusing on the experience of Imvrians who began to leave their homeland in the 1960s, this study seeks to shed light on the silenced Greeks of Imvros island. It is an attempt to provide a tangible insight to the in comprehensions produced by Turkish historiography about Greek Imvrians fleeing their homeland islands.