Ottawa'da Lesvos'u Özlerken - Bölüm 1

O yüzden bunu verimli bir döneme dönüştürmeye karar verdim. İçim kıpır kıpır, deniz kıpırtısız Bülent Ortaçgil'in söylediği gibi. Ottawa kocaman ve soğuk bir deniz. Dümdüz ve dalgasız, çok güzel bir deniz ama deniz ve ben ayrı düştük...
O yüzden işte şimdi ben sıcak bir adadaki anılarımı anlatacağım sizlere. Orda gittiğim bir müzeyi ziyaret edeceğiz. Anılar müzesi, babası İzmir'den zorla göç etmek zorunda kalmış olan bir kadının hikayesini, babasına hasretini, babasının ülkesine hasretini ve kendisinin babasının hasretini yorumlayışıyla ilgili bir hikaye bu. Babalar ve kızlar arasındaki ilişki özeldir. Nasıl erkek çocuklar ile anneler arasındaki ilişki özelse... Nasıl anlarlarsa birbirlerini. Bir kitapta bir yazar der ki "Ben hep babalarını çok seven kadınları sevdim..." Ben de galiba hep annelerini çok seven adamları seviyorum. Sevmeyi bilen insanlar belki, belki benim gibi haddinden fazla duygusal ve toz kondurmaz.
Bu yazı İngilizce fakat dikkat çekmek istediğim noktaları, daha sonra Türkçe olarak yayımlayacağım, burda çok tek başıma vaktim olacak gibi görünüyor, eğer bu vakitlerden birinde doktora tezini yazmaktan kaçarsam Lesvos Adası'ndaki bu anıları (kaydettiğim üzere) sizinle paylaşacağım.
Skala diye bir şehre gittik Midilli Adası'nda... Müzede eski eşyalar, bavullar, göçmenlerin dökümanları vardı...

Refugee Memory Museum in Skala... a small village in Lesvos. All the memories, nostalgia, longing for a lost past are here told within stories, within maps, with the objects of those who had immigrated here after the exchange of populations in 1922. This place used to be a school of one teacher and there were 10-12 students. Number of the pupils were reduced.
It contains the objects of the families of descendants who came from Anatolia. They came to Greece as refugees. It is a cultural heritage, and there is also politics of cultural heritage is involved as our professor Elia Petridou had indicated. She drew our attention to three things:
Political and historical frameworks of the events of 1922 defeat of the Greek army in Turkey. For the Greeks it was called "big catastrophe"... it was forced migration that took them away from their homes... and the same counted for the Turks who had to leave Greece...
Petridou's father was also a refugee...
"My father was born in İzmir in 1923 being a refugee. He was living with this trauma which was an important event in his life. Many of those who came from Crete has left their houses cause they were Muslims. Museum representation is about how the knowledge of the past is represented. Objects are classified and presented with certain kind of information and they tell you a story about the past. By presenting they construct this knowledge... Look at what kind of information accompanies these exhibitions. What this museum tells us, how we use the objects as a system of language... There is a discourse about the past that this museum creates. There are many ways of talking about the past. What kind of objects would you show in a museum? What would you write near the maps, objects? Which objects and which people would you focus on?"
Why do we represent the past?
What do these stories claim?
This place is important for their belonging to their sense of history...
The two prime ministers of the time Venizelos and İnönü had singed the agreement in Switzerland in 1923 to exchange the Turkish-Muslim populations in Greece with the Greek-Christian population in Turkey. This would have created homogenous nation-states where there was only one language, one religion and one nation. There was no mercy for the minorities. They had to leave. 1 million refugees moved from Eastern Thrace and the Asia Minor. It was a compulsory exchange. It was secretly desired but it was compulsory, later it was admitted that it was a shame. 500.000 Turks were exchanged and religion was the main criteria regardless of their ways of living.
Turkish speaking communities of Capadoccia... Pontus, Trabzon, Samsun, Sinop, Amasya, Giresun from all these parts the minorities were transferred. They are saying in the documentary "When they called us Muslims we would go crazy" as they first moved to Greece. First the Greeks were removed but the houses they were going to live were not prepared yet. So they lived with the Turks in the same house before the Turkish population left in 1924. They left from Kastoria. They were mostly Greek speaking Muslims from Kastoria, Kozani and Grevena. They were moved to Niğde near Capadoccia, to Yeşilburç, Teney...

The documentary that we watched showed the tragedy that the people had gone through. Becoming stranger to the places they went to... even if it was supposed to be their nation and home. The Muslims would be blamed for not being Muslim enough. The Christians were not Greek enough... The conditions that the Greeks were living after they were forced to migrate was much worse. Those Turks who had to leave their houses did not know how to deal with the climate they went into, they did not know the arts and crafts that Greeks were dealing with... It was loss of jobs, place, home and families sometimes. For both sides, it was painful and historically it was meant to be the loss of the roots.

The lady who build the Museum had said "This is a bridge of communication with our roots. There is no living without history. My father's heart was very open. He wanted to visit his homeland since he was four years old. They were coming from Çeşme on the opposite side of the island. They were mostly sailors and fishermen owning big boats. They had to leave the land in one day. Turks told them that they had to leave. But they left for a nearby village, stayed there for 2 days. "Çete"s were after the Greeks to kill them. My grandfather and grandmother dragged the fishing boats to sail to Skala from Çeşme. Voyage was rough and they were in danger of drowning. Arrived in Skala because they had merchant relationships from an earlier time.

They first did olive-pressing plants. They turned the place to a hotel but they had to live here and conditions were not so good. Amongst 22 they started their odyssey. They were wealthy back in their homelands so the had to adopt a new way of life. They had to sail and carry a few items they could take with them. Few people who belong to this association with great respect and love created this place here. To convey the culture and civilization to the future generations. Who leave their homeland with lots of pain. All these items belong to Asia Minor refugees who are carrying dignity and pride. Teaching traditional principles to them. My village is a little land but the people are nice. They share solidarity until now."

To be continued... soon.