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Space, memory and the legacy of the 1923 Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey

Project description

Uncovering the refugee perspective of the 1923 population exchange

The 1923 Lausanne Convention, the first internationally ratified compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey, had far-reaching ramifications that involved the dislocation of over one million people. The EU-funded HOMEACROSS project will focus on the population exchange in Izmir and Attica, two provinces that received large numbers of refugees, and examine their material legacies. The project will further explore how the refugees’ agency shaped their surroundings, introduce new findings and historiographical perspectives and contribute to a knowledge-based society.

Objective

The 1923 Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey ratified the dislocation of over a million Greek Orthodox Christians from Anatolia and Eastern Thrace to the Kingdom of Greece, while hundreds of thousands of Muslims abandoned their homes on the Greek side to move to Turkey. Resettlement was a massive challenge for both sides; the incoming refugees settled in the homes of the now departed, or lived in sheds and squats until the first housing projects were completed. Gradually they took over to repair, expand and reshape their dwellings. During the following decades they made a permanent contribution to the rural and urban landscapes they inhabited, a contribution that is still largely understudied.
As the centennial of these events approaches and while the Aegean continues to be a space of crossings, HOMEACROSS looks at the material legacies of the Population Exchange in Izmir and Attica, two provinces that received large numbers of refugees. First, it records and studies the urban and rural sites of displacement and resettlement – whether new, re-inhabited or abandoned. Second, it raises questions of memory, based on oral accounts and reconstructed or reused monuments. As a great part of the oral history records belong to women survivors, it further examines women’s agency in preserving community memory. Last, in cases where current residents are contemporary refugees, it addresses current practices of homemaking as an additional layer of these spaces' histories.
Combining extensive fieldwork, archival research and digital mapping technologies (GIS) to collect, analyse and visualise the data, this project explores a major event in the two sides’ national histories. While studies until now have mostly focused on the dislocation and the political events that caused it, this research investigates the refugees’ agency in shaping their surroundings, introduces new findings and new historiographical perspectives and contributes to a knowledge-based society.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG

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Host institution

ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 226 241,55
Address
HEROON POLYTECHNIOU 9 ZOGRAPHOU CAMPUS
157 72 ATHINA
Greece

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Region
Αττική Aττική Κεντρικός Τομέας Αθηνών
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 226 241,55

Beneficiaries (2)

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