[MUHAJIR = ÉMIGRÉ / TURKISH - GREEK EXCHANGE OF POPULATIONS] A settlement document of a Turkish female émigré who settled in Türkiye from Gümülcine [Komotini] in 1930

N. A.

Neuvieme Sous-Commission Mixte Pour l'Echange: Certificat d'Etabli de Non-Echangeabilite, Komotini, 1930.

Original manuscript document which is partly printed bilingual titles in Greek & French “Neuvieme Sous-Commission Mixte Pour l'Echange: Certificat d'Etabli de non-Echangeabilite” [i.e., Ninth Joint Subcommittee for Exchange: Certificate of Establishment of Non-Exchangeability]. 27 x 20 cm. In French and Greek. With photograph of the émigré.

A rare certificate of a Muslim female émigré named “Ayse binti Hasan” who settled in Türkiye from Gümülcine [Komotini] in 1930 involved the Population Exchange Act in 1923 between Greece and Turkish Republic.

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was the result of the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations, signed in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923 by the governments of Greece and Turkey. The exchange affected at least 1.6 million people, including 1,221,489 Greek Orthodox individuals from Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, the Pontic Alps, and the Caucasus, as well as 355,000 to 400,000 Muslims from Greece. Most of these people were forcibly displaced, becoming refugees, and were officially stripped of their citizenship in their native lands.

This large-scale compulsory population exchange or essentially a mutually agreed expulsion, was based primarily on religious identity. It involved nearly all of Turkey's indigenous Greek Orthodox Christian communities (the Rûm 'Roman/Byzantine' millet), including Armenians and approximately 100,000 Karamanlides, a Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox population.

On the other hand, most of Greece's native Muslim populations were also affected. These included Greek-speaking Muslims such as the Vallahades, Cretan Turks, and Muslim Roma groups like the Sepečides. These Muslim communities were culturally and linguistically distinct from the Greek Orthodox populations targeted by the exchange.

Both groups (Greek Orthodox Christians from Turkey and Muslims from Greece) were native peoples and citizens of their respective states. Some were even veterans who had served those states. Yet, none of these communities had formal representation in the negotiations or in the treaty that determined their forced displacement.

For both communities, the population exchange inflicted deep psychological trauma, leaving lasting scars on collective memory and individual lives.