türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Hürriyet Newspaper, 11 March 2019)
Fethiye's name change click here to see how Fethiye got
it's name.
Birsen Gültekin
The Lausanne Agreement of 1923 concluded the Turkish War of
Independence and put an end to all fighting on the East Front of
World War I. One of the conditions of the treaty stipulated that there
be a 'population exchange' between Turkey and Greece based on
religion. The result was that 1 million Christian Greeks moved from
Anatolia and 500,000 Moslem Turks moved from Greece.
One of the groups in Greece was the 'Roman' (Gypsy) population living
in the Langaza region near Salonica. Naile Hanım was born in Harman
village there in 1879 to a Roman family that had live in the area
for 540 years. Her husband died in the Balkan Wars. For the forced
exchange mandated by Lausanne, Naile Hanın and her children
Nazmi (12) and Ramiz (8) boarded a ship and later arrived with 200
other Romans at Fethiye on the southwest coast of Anatolia.
The migrants were distributed to 15 different villages. Naile Hanım
and her sons went to Kayaköy village and got a 20 dönüm (5 acre)
plot of land. However, the newcomers were not well received by the
locals and soon moved to Fethiye town, where they established their
own neighborhood, called 'Cumhuriyet' (Republic). Nazmi worked
as a bearer and Ramiz shined shoes to make a living.
'Livissi' when Greeks lived there. 'Kayaköy' now, but deserted.
The source of this story is Naile Hanım's grandson Salih Kocatepe
(72), who is the founder and president of the 'Fethiye Migrants
Association'. Today there are 2,000 Romans living in Fethiye.
One of the current residents of Cumhuriyet neighborhood, Birsen
Gültekin (79), explained that "I was born and raised here. My family
came from Salonica and lived by farming. After the war (Greek-
Turkish war) a soldier came to our house and said 'your ship is
about to sail' so they came here without even grabbing a blanket.
They were sent to Bayat village but there was no housing so my
father built a house here in Cumhuriyet. My husband was a bearer,
whose family also came from Salonica. We were very poor but
we all loved Atatürk."
Another Cumhuriyet resident, Doğan Macit (83) related that "my
mother and father came from Salonica when they were about
13-years-old. They were from Langaza and all their belongings
remained there. They were supposed to land at Antalya but the
waves were too big so they came here to Fethiye instead. They
were given a house and field in Geberler village but ended up
here in Cumhuriyet. I was born here and I make a living with
horse carts."
Zeynep Kocatepe said that "my father was a musician. The family
came from Drahya village in Salonica. He used to talk about the
Turkish and Greek weddings in Salonica where he played. When
they arrived here they went to Kayaköy village first but then came
to Fethiye."
Greeks visiting their ancestors' home village of 'Livissi'
(Kayaköy).
Today Kayaköy is a touristic site in Muğla province. Its former
name was 'Livissi' and up until the population exchange, 6,500
people lived there. Fethiye's former name was 'Makri' so those
who were forced to migrate to Greece called their new town
'Nea Makri' (new Makri). Near his grandmother's house in
Kayaköy, Salih Kocatepe stated that "both sides suffered the same
pains of forced migration. Now, the people of Nea Makri come
here each year to see where their ancestors lived. We meet with
them, eat with them and share the emotions."
Because the migrants who were forced to leave Greece left in a
such a hurry, the Greek government set up a commission to assess
the value of the belongings they left behind. Salih Kocatepe
related that "Naile Hanım's husband left her property worth 30
Ottoman gold pieces, a 4-room house and an underground
storeroom that brought 10 Ottoman gold pieces of annual income.
There were copies of this document given to the Turkish and
Greek governments. The land given to migrants in Anatolia was
registered in a record book and we have tried to access these
documents though the Prime Minister's State Archives in Ankara,
but so far without success."
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