Migration and the built environment: a spatial analysis of resettlement in Çeşme, Turkey

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the retreat of the Ottoman Empire caused a massive scale migration in the Aegean regions. This process was furthered by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) between the Turkish Republic and Greece. Gradually, more than one million people were formally exchanged under the control of the respective national authorities. This study shows that the predictions made by political authorities regarding the expected adaptation and homogenization based on religious affiliations failed to materialize; instead, the process of migration generated its own unique and autonomous processes derived primarily from cultural aspects and social origins. This research examines the materialization of the migrants’ adaptation practices and the spatial transformations in the built environment at both urban and domestic level, in order to indentify spatial and related social conflicts that arose as a result of socio-cultural mixing through a case study of the Çeşme Peninsula, Turkey. The study concludes that the relationship between social space and the physical environment is intertwined, with spatial transformations based on residents’ home of origin, professions and economic prosperity positioned in a clearly defined hierarchy of meaning.

Résumé

Au début du vingtième siècle, la retraite de l’empire ottoman causa une migration à grande échelle dans les régions égéennes. Ce processus fut accru par le traité de Lausanne (1923) entre la République turque et la Grèce. Progressivement, plus d’un million de personnes furent échangées formellement sous le contrôle des autorités nationales respectives. Cette étude montre que les prédictions faites par les autorités politiques au sujet de l’adaptation et l’homogénéisation attendues, reposant sur les affiliations religieuses, ne se sont pas matérialisées ; au lieu de cela, le processus de migration a généré ses propres processus uniques et autonomes issus essentiellement des aspects religieux et des origines sociales. Cette recherche examine la matérialisation des pratiques d’adaptation des migrants et les transformations spatiales dans l’environnement construit à la fois au niveau urbain et domestique, afin d’identifier les conflits spatiaux et sociaux associés qui sont nés du mélange socio-culturel, à travers un cas d’étude dans la péninsule de Çeşme en Turquie. L’étude conclut que la relation entre l’espace social et l’environnement physique est étroitement liée, avec des transformations spatiales fondées sur le lieu d’origine des résidents, leur profession et prospérité économique,  positionnés dans une hiérarchie de signification clairement définie.

Resumen

A principios del siglo XX, la retirada del Imperio Otomano provocó una migración masiva en las regiones del Egeo. Este proceso fue fomentado por el Tratado de Lausana (1923) entre la República de Turquía y Grecia. Poco a poco, más de un millón de personas migraron formalmente bajo el control de las respectivas autoridades nacionales. Este estudio muestra que las predicciones hechas por las autoridades políticas con respecto a la prevista adaptación y homogeneización en base a afiliaciones religiosas no llegaron a materializarse; en cambio, el proceso de migración generó sus propios procesos únicos y autónomos, principalmente derivados de aspectos culturales y orígenes sociales. Esta investigación examina la materialización de las prácticas de adaptación de los migrantes y las transformaciones espaciales en el entorno construido, tanto a nivel urbano como doméstico, a fin de detectar los conflictos sociales y espaciales relacionados que surgieron como resultado de la mezcla socio-cultural a través de un estudio de caso de la península de Cesme, Turquía. El estudio concluye que la relación entre el espacio social y el entorno físico está entrelazada, con transformaciones espaciales basadas ​​en el hogar de origen, profesiones y la prosperidad económica de los residentes posicionados en una jerarquía de significado claramente definida.

Keywords:

• Spatial
• identity
• memory
• migration
• housing
• Turkey

Mots clés:

• spatial
• identité
• mémoire
• migration
• logement
• Turquie

Palabras clave:

• espacial
• identidad
• memoria
• migración
• vivienda
• Turquía

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgements

This paper is a product of a research I launched during my master’s studies. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan for his constant support, inspiration and wisdom as my dissertation advisor. I would like to convey my sincere appreciation to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexandra Staub for her sincere mentorship and guidance as my second advisor, which was invaluable to giving form to this paper during Fulbright program at Penn State University. I would like to thank the editor and the anonymous referees for their patience, critical feedbacks and scholarly guidance on earlier drafts. Finally, I wish to thank every interviewee for sharing their experiences on the very subject and my father to accompany me during the field trips.

Notes

1. Although late Ottoman and early Republican archives on displacement and Lausanne Commission are rich in content, the translations and accessibility were limited until the end of twentieth century. Nevertheless, Foundation of Lausanne Treaty Emigrants archives and General Directorate of State Archives provides multiple primary sources that would be backed up by the reputable literature existing in the scholarly world.

2. Twelve interviewees are from the lands other than Greek Mainland, who arrived before the treaty, eight are from Northern Greece, who arrived after the treaty, and five are local people from the peninsula.

3. I had some very old interviewees who could not fully comprehend how to process an answer. So I launched indirect questions, deliberately including inaccurate pre-assumptions. For instance: “Did your family live in a double storey house with a farm where they tended their cattle?” This question highlights a possibly wrong claim, which triggered the interviewees’ attention and they immediately aimed to correct my false claim with original details. I ensured to obtain their own configuration of responses, and what was significant for them.

4. Article 1, Lausanne Convention, 1923. (See Hirschon, 2005c, pp. 387–393). In various literatures, the sides were given different labels such as Muslim, Greek, Orthodox or Turkish. In order to avoid confusion, this study will name the migrants as given in the treaty: Muslim and Orthodox communities.

5. The proposal of population exchange was assigned to exclude from the treaty the settled population of Orthodox Greeks in İstanbul and the Muslim communities in Western Thrace (Article 2, Convention concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations and Protocol, signed at Lausanne, 30 January 1923. See Hirschon, 2005c, pp. 387–393. Also see <http://www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-treaty.en.mfa> accessed May 2013.).

6. Additionally, the scope of the treaty was extended to include the people who mutually migrated during the Balkan wars after 18 October 1912 (Article 3, Convention, 1923).

7. Ibid.

8. Article 11, Lausanne Convention, 1923.

9. Ottoman Empire expanded over Balkans and central Europe between fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Muslim societies were settled in those geographies for over three centuries.

10. See Akyuz (2006, p. 63).

11. Ibid.

12. The officials mentioned in the text are the former and the current chairmen of the Association of Protection of the Farmer’s Goods of Alaçatı, which is the southern port-town of Çeşme. The former was in charge from 1954 to 1983, and the latter from 1988 to present.

13. Those immigrants started their journey from Damascus, Aleppo [Halep], Iskenderun, Urfa, Adana or Samsun.

14. H. Serdar Yasa has been the Mayor of Karaburun since 2004, and currently holds this position.

15. I investigated a large spectrum of dwellings in other towns of the peninsula (such as Ovacık, Dalyan, Ildırı and Mordoğan) in addition to Çeşme, Alaçatı and Urla. I didn’t observe a separate space within any dwelling unit, and the owners (migrants) confirmed this very same detail. Oral accounts revealed that the migrants of the peninsula didn’t initially participate in the use of public bath, which is located close to the castle area in Çeşme.