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The Project

The research project “100memories”, starting from the refugee movement of 1922-1924, takes up the multiple migrations that followed over the next 100 years until today. The study of the past and memory meets the digital world and shapes new (analogue, hybrid and digital) narratives. More here: https://100memories.gr/

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The 100sources digital platform is a digital repository documenting a century of arrivals and departures.

Narratives

Let us think of our cities as spaces that are constantly woven through the journeys, histories and experiences of their inhabitants, through encounters and conflicts, separations and arrivals that always leave traces – more or less visible – in urban space. By unraveling, but also by intertwining, these threads of movement, habitation, work and daily life, we tell aspects of the history of refugee neighbourhoods.

Bibliography

The bibliography concerns all the research aspects studied in the project on the history of migration in Greece.

Map

The map identifies institutions with archival material related to the history of the refugee settlement of 1922-24, collectives and monuments.

Scripts

See the educational scripts developed during the project.

100places

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Contact

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Refugee sports associations

City

Chania

Migration Period

Population Exchange

Tag

Clubs / Associations

Category

Public Space

Full Description

Soon after the settlement of Asia Minor refugees in Chania, the first refugee sports associations were established. The first major one was the Ionia Sports Association. It was founded by a group of refugees who wanted to create a refugee team in an effort to rebuild earlier sports associations which had been lost due to the Catastrophe and the displacement. The main activity of the Ionia Association was football.

From the beginning, the association lacked basic necessities. According to a piece in the newspaper Athlitika Nea, in 1923, the association ‘had no offices and the managing board met in the Public Garden. […] There was no money for football boots and outfits […] initially the team practiced at the Agios Ioannis airport’.

During those first years, but also later in the association’s life, it was the refugees themselves who donated money and time in order to meet the team’s financial needs. Kyriakos Balis, vice president of the Asia Minor Refugee Brotherhood of Chania and an active member of Ionia’s managing board, explains that the team never had sponsorships. ‘We supported the team with our own funds. Everyone contributed from their own pocket because they loved Ionia. Because they were from Ionia, from the coast of Asia Minor. They were Ionian’.

From early on, the association started branching out into other sports besides football. By 1924 it already had a swimming team and in 1928, Ionia was the champion in the volleyball league. Simultaneously, the association’s members also offered services to refugees. The first years after the refugee arrival, Ionia operated employment agencies for refugees. Later, in 1932, there was this announcement in a newspaper: ‘The sports and football association Ionia is organising a free film screening at the cinema of the Public Garden’.

The team flag referenced the history and perhaps also reflected the expectations of the refugees who arrived in Greece. It was a triangular black flag embroidered with the name ‘Ionia’. Next to it, there was a winged goddess Nike standing over Constantinople and Asia Minor and, underneath, the island of Crete. The flag was recently displayed as part of the exhibition ‘Ionia, Ikaros, Kritikos Astir, the guiding lights of the refugees. Football stories from Asia Minor to Chania’, to commemorate the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

In Chania, more football associations were established after Ionia, some mixed and others exclusively made up of refugee members. Some of these associations were ‘Apollon’, from the area of Varousi-Nea Chora, ‘Aris Vamvakopoulou’, later renamed into ‘Anatolikos Astir’ [Eastern Star] and ‘Kritikos Astir’ [Cretan Star], and ‘Ikaros Pasakakiou’.

Bibliography

G. Kalogerakis, G. Pitsitakis, ‘Football in Nea Chora’, in Municipality of Chania, Nea Chora: Washed by the Sea, Chania 2012, pp. 322-346.

Giorgos Gasias, Football clubs in the Greek society during the Interwar 1922-1936, unpublished graduate dissertation, University of Crete, Rethymno 2005.

Exhibits

Video

Sound Files

https://100sources.gr/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Κυριάκος-Μπαλής.m4a

Files

αθλητικά-νέα-1.pdf
αθλητικά-νέα-2.pdf
αθλητικά-νέα4.pdf
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Visit the project website 100memories.gr.

Terms of Use

Website Structure

CITIES

  • Volos
  • Thessaloniki
  • Piraeus
  • Chania

PAGES

  • Bibliography
  • Map
  • Entries

Το ερευνητικό έργο υλοποιείται στο πλαίσιο της Δράσης ΕΡΕΥΝΩ – ΔΗΜΙΟΥΡΓΩ – ΚΑΙΝΟΤΟΜΩ και συγχρηματοδοτείται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και εθνικούς πόρους μέσω του Ε.Π. Ανταγωνιστικότητα, Επιχειρηματικότητα & Καινοτομία (ΕΠΑνΕΚ) (κωδικός έργου: Τ2ΕΔΚ-04827)

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