Location University of Newcastle, UK
Date and time
Monday 5 September 2022
08:00 - 16:30 (London GMT)
11:00 - 19:30 (Ankara UTC+3)
The conference will take place on the centenary of the 1922 forced displacement that followed a decade of warfare between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne legalised the forced movement of more than a million Greek Christians to Greece and that of approximately 400,000 Muslims to Turkey. The departure and arrival of both sets of refugees left indelible marks on both states and societies with the memory of refugeedom remaining strong today among all those of refugee descent.
Fast forward 100 years, Greece and Turkey are again at the epicentre of forced migrations, in what has become known as “Europe’s refugee crisis”. Greece is one of the main gateways to the EU for thousands of people on the move every year, while Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees worldwide. However, migration to, settlement in, and movement between the two countries is met with a number of challenges for forced migrants: the militarisation of borders, the erection of physical barriers, economic crises, political instability, populism, power politics, old rivalries, and a pandemic have posed insurmountable obstacles to people seeking refuge in recent times.
The centenary of the Greco-Turkish population exchange offers an opportunity to reflect on how forced migrations are remembered, lived, experienced and governed in the two countries and beyond.
Day 1 Programme:
Coffee/Tea Reception
9:00-9:30
Introduction
9:30 – 10:00 Violetta Hionidou and Dimitris Skleparis; Welcome from the HASS PVC Nigel Harkness; and John Bennett, Director of the BSA
Session 1
Chair: Violetta Hionidou, Newcastle University
10.00 – 10.15 Kristina Gedgaudaitė, Princeton University, in-person
Restorying Migration: Displacement, Memory and Counter-histories in Comics Form
10.15 – 10.30 Çağdaş Varol & Yasin Özdemir, Ege University, in-person
Written memories of an exchanged Turkocretan
10.30 – 11.00 Questions and Comments
Session 2
Chair: Dimitris Skleparis, Newcastle University
11.00 – 11.15 Georgios Kritikos, Harokopio University Athens, online
Places of Greeks and spaces of refugees: The case of Asia Minor refugees in the 1920s
11.15 – 11.30 Emilia Salvanou, Democritus University of Thrace, online
From the margins to the center of national memory: the adventures of refugee memory from 1922 to the present
11.30 – 12.00 Questions and Comments
12.00 – 13.00 Lunch
Session 3
Chair: Terri Teo, Newcastle University
13.00 – 13.15 Laura Brody, Charles University & Paul-Valery University, online
‘I’m not Greek, I’m Imvriot’: Diasporic Identities in Greece and Turkey
13.15 – 13.30 Sevcan Ercan Graham, Istanbul Medeniyet University, online
Recalling the Homeland: Return Migration to the island of Imbros/Gökçeada
13:30 – 14.00 Questions and Comments
Session 4
Chair: Terri Teo, Newcastle University
14.00 – 14.15 Eleftheria Daleziou, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, online
Fleeing through the Aegean Sea: Orphans and unaccompanied minors in Greece under the aegis of the Near East Relief following the Asia Minor Greek-Turkish War of 1922.
14.15 – 14.30 Gözde Emen-Gökatalay, Atılım University & Semih Gokatalay, University of California, San Diego, online
The integration of Refugee children into Turkish society in the Early Republican Era
14.30 – 15.00 Questions and Comments 15.00 – 15.30 Coffee & Tea Break
Session 5
Chair: Daniel-Joseph MacArthur-Seal, British Institute At Ankara
15.30 – 15.45 Stelios Michalopoulos Brown University, Vassilis Logothetis & Elias Papaioannou, online
Refugees in the Mediterranean: Political Consequences
15.45 – 16.00 Filyra Vlastou – Dimopoulou, Emmy Karimali, Eirini Avramopoulou & Panagiota Koutrolikou, National Technical University of Athens and Panteion University, online
Embodied geopolitics and negotiations of belongings from Turkey to Athens
16.00 – 16.30 Questions and Comments
Session 6
Chair: Deniz Yonucu, Newcastle University
16.30 – 16.45 Panagiotis Karagkounis, Manchester University- HCRI & Georgios Giannakopoulos, City University of London/ King’s College London, in-person
Forced Migrations, Humanitarianism and Human Trafficking: the case of the Anatolian Greeks revisited
16.45 – 17.00 Clara De La Hoz Del Real, University of Paris-Saclay & Humacoop-Amel France, in- person
A critical review of the configuration of power relationships between humanitarian actors and asylum seekers in Samos Island (on-going research)
17.00 – 17.30 Questions and Comments
Sponsored by: Newcastle University, British School at Athens and The British Institute at Ankara.
With the support of: The Greek Politics Specialist Group – GPSG and The Turkish Politics Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association, and the Society for Modern Greek Studies.