A KARAMANIAN POEM ABOUT THE POPULATION "EXCHANGE"The following simple but touching poem was provided to me by fellow Karamanian Professor Ekrem Ekinci, President of Isik University, Istanbul Turkey. The poem conveys the despair of people who were uprooted without being asked. Politicians used people as pawns without regard to the people's welfare. This tragic event happened in 1924 (the infamous Lausanne treaty) . What was unique about the "exchange" is that while some people had already moved on their own for others it was a decision imposed from the top. The Turkish speaking Christians of Karamania were told one day that they must move to Greece. Similarly, the Greek speaking Muslims of Crete were told one day that they must move to Turkey. A good source about these events is the book Twice a Stranger. Even though, unfortunately, similar stories continue to happen in the world today I have not heard of anything as cold blooded as the Lausanne treaty.
Note: Some of the modern Turkish characters are not rendered correctly by HTML. The same appears to be true with some of the Greek characters but such glitches do not affect the impact of the poem. Posted June 12, 2009. Revised June 15, 2009. Back to the Karamanian Material Page Back to: Refugees from Asia Minor page | ||||||||||
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