7 Eylül 2020 Pazartesi

Aristotle Onassis's Turkish Birthplace Not For Sale at Any Price

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 7 September 2020)

for the last of a four-part TNT series about 
fighting between Turkish and Greek forces
around Akhisar in 1919.  Onassis, 13-years-
old at the time, may have been there or in 
high school in Izmir.  He fled to Argentina 
in 1922, in the wake of  the Turks' recapture 
of Izmir.

Hikayesi ilgi çekiyor! Tarihi evi 3 milyon euro verdiler satmadı

 
The house where Aristotle Onassis was born became famous because
of his life story.  Onassis lived in a 3-story house in the Hashoca 
neighborhood of Akhisar district of Manisa province.  In 1972, one of
the region's wealthy businessmen, Cemal Yalazı, bought the house 
and lived there with his wife Mihriye and their four children.  When 
Cemal bey died in 2004, Mihriye hanım continued to live in the house 
alone.  

Recently, officials from the Onassis Foundation came to see the house,
along with Greek diplomats from the consulate in Izmir, and wanted to
buy it but Mihriye hanım (85) refused their 3 million Euro offer (!).  

Yunan bayrağı dalgalanmasın diye satmadım'
                          Mihriye hanım.

Explaining her decision, Mihriye hanım said that "We had many lovely
days in this house.  One day, Onassis Foundation officials and Greek
diplomats came and offered me 3 million Euros (26.4 million TL), 
which shocked me.  That same day, Cüneyt Kavuncu, the commander
of the Akhisar garrison, came to visit me. He is a Turkish patriot and a 
devotee of Atatürk." 

Aristotle Onassis in 1932.

"Col. Kavuncu told me that selling this house would be like selling 
out the nation and that having the Greek flag waving on the same 
street as the Turkish Army's Akhisar bureau would be painful for 
every Turk.  When he said this I knew that I couldn't bear to see the
Greek flag waving on this street either, so I decided not to sell this
house, where I spent so many wonderful days with my husband, to
the Onassis Foundation."

MANİSA
Akhisar is northeast of Izmir, just left of the map's 
crosshairs.

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