Aspasia Tsormpatzoglou’s refugee compensation

The population exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey, signed by the two countries on January 30, 1923, stipulated that all exchangeable refugees were to be compensated by the state receiving them for the entirety of the property they had to leave behind in their place of origin. Besides determining exactly how the exchange would take place, the Mixed Commission for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Population, established by Article 11 of the Lausanne Treaty (July 24, 1923), also took on the task of appraising the immobile assets of the exchangeable populations. In 1924, the General Directorate of Population Exchange was established under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture in order to assist with the efforts of the Greek delegation to the Commission. Population Exchange Offices were also opened in areas that hosted refugees to facilitate the property appraisal process.

On May 4, 1927, Aspasia Tsormpatzoglou from Malakopi (Derinkuyu) in Ikonio (Konya), Asia Minor, who had settled in the village Orman Magoula (today Kato Dasolofos) in Farsala, Greece, submitted a document to the Mixed Commission declaring all the mobile and immobile assets owned by her family in Asia Minor so that she could get compensated by the Greek state according to the terms of the Greek-Turkish agreement of January 30, 1923.

Besides her full name, her place of origin and her profession, the applicant included in the document all the property owned in her place of origin, the village of Malakopi in Asia Minor, as well as any other properties she owned in other parts of Turkey. The document details the type and size of her property, the acreage of the farm land she owned, the type of crop cultivated, its location, the date and registration number on the property deed, or any other piece of evidence that could prove ownership. In her declaration of property, Aspasia stated that it had been transferred to her by her father, Kosmas Tsormpatzoglou, and that the transfer had been approved by the Appraisal Committee. The assets were one residence and one store in Constantinople, on Sachtouri Street, and were transferred to Aspasia as part of her inheritance. The value of the declared property was 1,940 Turkish liras.