Collaborative attempts at exemption from the population exchange

The mandatory population exchange on the basis of religious faith triggered intense backlash both among the Asia Minor Greeks who moved to Greece and the Muslims who left for Turkey. Those who did not wish to leave explored the possibility of gaining an exemption from the Population Exchange Agreement.

This was by no means an easy process. Both in Greece and in Turkey, it was a time of major political upheaval under circumstances of conflict and strife. Under such conditions, the communication lines between citizens and state apparatuses are not always open or available. Besides, the actual, practical terms of the exchange were not all finalised in the initial Agreement text. Any issues that emerged were dealt with along the way. As a  result, there was vagueness with regards to the exemption eligibility of certain population groups. Finally, access to information about specific cases was not easily accessible to all citizens. It appears that the people who had a better chance at acquiring trustworthy information about their rights were those who could afford to travel to the cities, visit ministries and receive legal advice, as well as those with social networks that had access to information sources and decision centres.

This becomes evident in the correspondence between Ippokratis Abatzis and Hasan Vei Sourourzade, which can be found in the Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA). Ippokratis Abatzis was a refugee from Adramytio (Edremit) in Asia Minor who had arrived in Greece with an earlier refugee wave in 1914. Ippokratis and his family didn’t manage to return to their home town and were living in Athens when the Population Exchange Agreement was signed in 1924. As we see in his letters, Ippokratis was deeply disappointed by the fact that his family situation had taken a turn for the worse ever since coming to Greece and he was fiercely demanding that they be exempt from the Agreement and allowed to return to Adramytio.

After arriving in Greece, Ippokratis had met a Muslim family in Crete and developed a strong relationship with two of its members, Nesimi Vei Hilmizade Voskakis and his nephew, Hasan Vei Sourourzade. They were an affluent family that had settled in Crete a few decades earlier and, just like Ippokratis, they wished to stay on the island and be exempt from the exchange.

Their efforts to gain exemption brought them closer, both emotionally and practically. Ippokratis exchanged regular letters with Hasan Vei in which they shared their hardships and concerns and offered each other help by contacting the authorities and mobilising people who could support their claims, thus utilising their social networks on each other’s behalf:

‘Dearest Hasan Vei Sourourzade, […] I wish to relate some happy news with regards to your uncle’s case, Nesimi Vei Hilmizade. Since last week, the case is almost closed after the Cabinet of Ministers issued its opinion. There is a minor detail to be sorted and today or tomorrow you will receive a relevant telegram from me so your uncle can finally rest assured that the matter has been resolved’. This was what Ippokratis wrote to Hasan Vei a few months before Hasan’s uncle died, referring to issues the latter had been having with managing his property in Chania (letter dated 26/01/1925).

‘[…] I am anxious to learn about the developments in the case of your citizenship. Why won’t you send me your certificates so that we can finally answer to Agiah? If you receive them, tell me how you want me to answer him and I will do so according to your wishes’, wrote Hasan Vei in a letter to Ippokratis a few months later (letter dated 22/03/1925). Hasan Vei was a trainee lawyer in Alexandreia at the time and was offering to provide Ippokratis with legal help.

‘You have every right to complain because I haven’t written you in a long time while you have written me repeatedly. I hope you don’t believe I forgot about you or that I have something against you. […] You know that I love you and my love for you has become even greater since the death of your dearly departed uncle, my special friend and perfect human being, Nesimi, who I still cannot forget […] oftentimes I see [your uncle] in my sleep with his red cheeks and his always smiling, guileless face’. This is one of the times when Ippokratis expressed his deep and intense feelings for a family he commiserated with, a family that he viewed as comrades in his efforts to reclaim the life he had left behind in Adramytio, (letter dated 11/01/1927).

Hasan Vei expressed similar feelings at every chance. In the extract that follows, he apologises for missing a meeting with Ippokratis due to departing from Chania earlier than scheduled (letter dated 27/03/1925): ‘You cannot imagine my joy at seeing your letter among the ones from my loved ones, but also my sadness that due to my departure from Chania, I missed our impending meeting […] My dear and esteemed friend, I am horrified and feel that I truly made a mistake by departing from Chania a day earlier than my original schedule and I must apologise. […] I feel so sad and appalled at my mistake that to compensate I would be willing to come meet you in Athens if necessary’.

Despite the systematic efforts of both, their expectations were not fulfilled. The Abatzis family stayed in Athens. This outcome weighed on Ippokratis’ conscience until he died shortly after the Second World War, because he viewed the population exchange as irreversibly detrimental to his financial situation and believed that due to the failure of the resettlement process in Greece, his ability to be productive and do profitable work was curtailed. Nesimi Vei died unexpectedly during a journey to Athens in 1925. Hasan Vei was in the end registered as exchangeable and resettled in Turkey in 1931. The letters presented here are representative of the adversities these people faced, their unrealised expectations, and the practices they adopted in order to defend their personal desires against the decisions made by the leaders and the parliaments of their respective countries.