Auctions and evictions in Thessaloniki

The National Bank of Greece had a pivotal role in the refugee compensation process. The task of appraising the assets left behind by the refugees was undertaken by a ‘Mixed Commission’ comprising 11 members; 4 from Greece, 4 from Turkey and 3 elected by the League of Nations. According to the Lausanne Treaty, all refugees were entitled to compensation of a value equal to the movable, immovable and cash assets they had in their homelands. Refugees submitted a statement of assets which would then be verified by local appraisal committees.

However, as this process was slow and time-consuming, the state decided to give refugees an advance on their compensation based on an initial appraisal of their assets. The bonds issued were backed by the Greek state and used the exchangeable properties left behind by the deported Muslims as collateral (with the exclusion of all properties ceded to the Refugee Settlement Commission). The entirety of these assets was then transferred from the state to the National Bank of Greece which could sell them or rent them in order to redeem the bonds. The size of the advance ranged from 5% to 25% of the total compensation, depending on the value of the refugee’s assets^[1], and the expense was covered via bond loans issued by the bank between 1926 and 1928. Part of the advance (20%) was awarded in cash, while 80% was awarded in bonds.

As a result of this development, the bank started auctioning off the assets which had come into its possession. In the region of Thessaloniki, there were 5,019 such properties, of which 4,952 were located within the city limits carrying a total value of 1,113,647,971 drachmas, representing approximately 25% of total property value in Greece at the time (4,431,763,333 drachmas). By 30/8/1927, only 139 of these properties had been auctioned off carrying an estimated original value of 13,871,039 drachmas. In the end, the properties were sold for 27,166,705 drachmas in total, 95,8% lower than their estimated price.

In order to sell off or rent out these properties, it appears that the National Bank of Greece proceeded to evict refugees. One such eviction took place in the Tsinari neighbourhood in Ano Poli in October 1928. According to a news report in I Efimeris ton Valkanion [The Balkans Gazette] dated 31/10/1928, the supervisor for the ‘Refugee Bank’ or ‘National Bank’ (two names commonly used for the National Bank of Greece at the time), accompanied by police officers, ‘lunged at widows and orphans and threw them on the streets like garbage’.

The refugee families were evicted from a mosque on Kleious Street (the Tsinarli mosque and madrasa) where they had been staying for the previous 4-5 years. The property had just been leased to a private individual. The newspaper criticised the bank’s actions, since, according to the testimony of local residents, there had been no warning for the eviction. It also appealed to the director of the bank ‘to instruct his supervisors to be kinder while performing their duties so that they will not victimise other people in the future’.

At that time, Thessaloniki’s newspapers often published property auction notices. Many of these properties were located in Ano Poli. We provide two such notices here, both from the newspaper Makedonia. The first is from the issue dated 17/10/1928 and includes residences located on the following streets: Evdoxou, Apostolou Pavlou, Akrita, Aiolou, Moreas, Mouson, Athinas, and Palamidou. The second is from the issue dated 31/3/1930 and includes residences on the following streets: Apostolou Pavlou, Antigonis, Theofilou, Kassandrou, Ioulianou, and Areos, a coffee shop and garden on Apostolou Pavlou Street (referring to the ‘Elpis’ coffee shop, also known as ‘the coffee shop of Karamanlis’, which still operates as a coffee shop today called ‘I Prigkipos’), as well as land plots on the streets Ioulianou, Dios, and Kalliopis and several others within Eptapyrgio.

^[1] 25% for assets worth up to 400 gold Turkish liras, 20% for assets worth from 400 to 1,000 liras, 15% for assets worth from 1,000 to 2,000 liras, 10% for assets worth between 2,000 and 5,000 liras and 5% for assets worth over 5,000 liras.