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The Greek Population of Asia Minor - KALAMARIA

from the recording "KALAMARIA Songs of Refugees" published by the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Kalamaria

The Greek population, which had spread over a vast area round the Aegean and for more than two millennia had shown the world an admirable economic and cultural development, from the 11th century and on began to retreat under the pressure and violence of the Turkish race that surged down from the steppes of Turkestan. This retreat went through two phases and currently is undergoing a third.

PHASE ONE
From the 13th to the 16th century the whole of the Greek territories came under the occupation of the Ottoman Turks. The Greek Christian populations were continuously drained of strength as a result of male children, violence and exploitation. In the 11th century the Greeks numbered over 8.000.000 but instead of further growth which would have been the case under normal conditions, their numbers decreased to levels which are not easy to ascertain.

PHASE TWO
During the decade of 1913 to 1923 the remnants of the Greek population in the Ottoman Empire, with the exception of 300.000 in Constantinople, were completely uprooted. Even these people though were in the end forced to leave Turkey after the pogrom of 1955, the increasing belligerence of the Turkish authorities, and the incitement of the Turkish population to hostility. For the few thousands still remaining the future holds no promise. Sooner or later they too will be forced to leave.

The number of Greeks in Turkey prior to the persecutions at the hands of the Young Turks, has not been established with any accuracy. Nevertheless, a certain amount of concrete evidence does exist which allows a rough estimate:

1. According to data compiled by reports from the Ecumenical Patriarchate by 1919 at least 774, 235 people, possibly more, were displaced from mainland Turkey. Out of these only a small number, still unverified, survived.
2. Prior to the Asia Minor disaster approximately 400.000 people were deported or fled to Greece.
3. After the Asia Minor disaster, and as a result of the exchange of populations, about 1.300.000 came as refugees to Greece.
4. The number of those who fled to other countries, especially Russia, is estimated at 200.000.
5. Those left still living in Constantinople amounted to 300.000.

During the Asia Minor campaign quite a number of the 400.000 refugees (as mentioned above in number 2) were repatriated only to be driven out again after the disastrous end.

Furthermore the numbers mentioned above under 3 and 4 are included in the overall survivors. On the other hand, the casualties as a result of the massacres, especially in Smyrna, should be added. Thus the Greek population in Asia Minor and eastern Thrace must have totaled at least 3.000.000 at the beginning of the 20th century.

PHASE THREE
This represents the present. After having rid itself of the Greek population for good and (by all appearances) for several decades abiding by the status quo in the Aegean, in 1973 Turkey began overtly to put forward claims on Greek territory in the area. It created the question of the partitioning of the Aegean Sea.  It attacked Cyprus occupying 38% of the island declaring it an...independent state. It resorts to the fabrication of pretexts with the purpose of creating a Western Thrace question. Thus the Greek population which for centuries suffered inordinately at the hands of the Ottoman Turks once again faces a new specific threat aiming at its abatement.

The Asia Minor Disaster probably had no equal in the history of the Greek nation. The French historian Driault justifiably considers it as the worst disaster Hellenism suffered since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. About 1.075.000 refugees fled Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace to seek shelter in Greece. With them came another 150.000 refugees from Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania. Thus in the period of one year the population of Greece increased by about one million to reach 6.010.000.

According to the census of 1928, out of these refugees 746.000 settled in northern Greece (mainly farmers), and 377.000 in southern Greece (mainly city dwellers). Together with those that moved into other parts of the country, they comprised 19.6% of the population.

The greatest increase in population was registered in the two main rural centers: Athens and Thessaloniki. In 1920 Athens had 453.000 people (8,19% of the total). Thessaloniki had 170.000 people (3,4% of the total). In 1928 Athens had grown to 802.000 (12,92% of the total). Thessaloniki had grown to 250.000 (4% of the total.) At that time these two cities contained 16.92% of the population in the country, i.e. more than 50% of the urban population. Many other towns went through similar changes. Kavala grew by 18%, Serres by 104%, Xanthi by 103%, Drama by 92%, and Alexandroupolis by 72.5%.

For Thessaloniki the arrival, and settling there, of the refugees, was an event of major importance. During the Asia Minor Disaster, and in the days that followed it, shiploads of destitute refugees arrived daily in the port of Thessaloniki, while no plans or any rehabilitation program existed for these people on whose faces deprivations, hunger, hardships, and misfortune of every kind, had left there mark. Malaria played havoc. The dead reached fifty a day.

For the Greek authorities, the feeding and housing of these people was a major problem compounded by the adverse outcome of the war.

Nevertheless, the refugee tents were gradually replaced with new settlements (shacks), while the newly formed Committee for the Rehabilitation of Refugees was making every effort to secure permanent accommodation facilities.

From the "Sfageia" (slaughter houses) area - Harmakioi - to Kalamaria, at the opposite end of the city, new settlements were built and soon out of the sadness of being homeless, and the laments for the "lost country", sprang the sounds of the lyra and the clarinet transporting the people the old familiar places, and at the same time opening for them the doors to a new productive life in a new homeland.

The following is a list of the various settlements and the origin of the people that occupied them.

All of these refugees, who settled in Thessaloniki and its greater district as well as those in the rest of Greece, were fully incorporated into the country and indisputably today constitute part of the indigenous population. Their help in the economic, social, political, and cultural development has been substantial. They contributed to the reorganization and expansion of agriculture, employing new methods in cultivation and systematically developing livestock, breeding and poultry, in the industrialization of the country, the increase in labor force, the expansion of trade, and the development of the arts and letters.

In the case of Thessaloniki, the arrival of the refugees resulted in:

a) a more homogenous population - Turkish people left the city. Greeks became 87% of the total.
b) the revitalization of the local market despite the refugees' limited financial base
c) brisker trade
d) the creation of a greater labor force
e) the broadening of the city's industrial basis, foreshadowing industrial development and new commercial ventures
f) new progressive ideas
g) the improvement in culture
h) the infusion of new blood, in northern Greece as a whole

The elements which molded the indigenous pre-war folklore of Thessaloniki are: 1. Wars and freedom movements
2. Urbanism
3. Europeanization
4. Minorities
5. Government policies
6. Exile integration
7. Divided cultural identity

If Thessaloniki is considered to this day to be the "mother of refugees", then Kalamaria is its precious and long enduring daughter. A place synonymous to exile, from Pontos in particular. Ioannis Kameniatis referring to the period prior to the capture and plunder of Thessaloniki by the Saracen pirates in 904, writes:

"...on both sides of the mountain (i.e. Hortiatis) to the north and south spread valleys easily accessible and useful, which offer the population of the city all that is necessary for a good life. Of the two valleys how much more beautiful and pleasant is the one situated to the north of the mountain and the east of the city. It is adorned with dense woods, a variety of gardens, and an abundance of spring and river waters, which on their way to the sea lend the valley its rich vegetation. Flourishing vineyards drown the fields and in the copiousness of their fruit delight the eye of the kindly visitor. Numerous monasteries on the slopes of the mountain, as well as on other delightful sites offer a new and pleasant view, not only to travelers but to the city people as well."

Under the title "Controversial Name: Various interpretations of Kalamaria" by Professor G. Theoharidis, we find:

"Kalamaria, therefore, as the name for a refugee neighborhood is recent . The name had originally been given to one of the Thessaloniki city wall gates (Gate of Kalamaria), since the gate led to an area of that name before the formation of the eponymous quarter. This particular gate had been known as "kassandreotiki" until the beginning of the 10th century, because it opened out to the road to Kassandra in Chalkidiki. Consequently it may be that its renaming came about during the time of Ioannis Kameniatis who still called the gate Kassandreotiki. Chroniclers after him use Kalamaria as the gate's name. It is certain though that some specific event was the cause for the change in name of the gate and the area. Possibly a "kapetanikio" (county) under the Byzantine empire which instead of a large military, political and administrative area, had become a small administrative division of a thema (county), which under the name of the kapetanikio of Kalamaria comprised the coast of Chalkidiki from "Megalo Emvolo" to the canal of Potidea. It was established most probably some time between the Frank occupation of Macedonia (1224) and its first appearance as kapetanikio in 1300. Since the name Kalamaria is encountered in 1083 the existence of a "vandis of Kalamaria" may be presumed (an administrative division before the introduction of kapetanikio). The kapetanikio must have survived even beyond 1340 and up to the fall of Thessaloniki to the Turks. The name of Kalamaria appears in patriarchal documents of the period of Turkish occupation.

On the origin of the word, the writer offers various interpretations. One is that it comes from Mara, and being good (good=kali), i.e. Kali-Mara, was easily turned to Kalamaria. The explanation though fails the test, since Kalamaria as a location name precedes Kali Mara. Equally shaky is the view that the name derives from Empress Theodora's sister Kali Maria. In this case Kali Maria lived long before the location name, despite the fact that the name could be easily corrupted to Kalamaria. A further interpretation which attributed the name to Kalimeria, meaning good place, cannot be accepted because the first component word is not an adjective which the second, "meria", does not mean "place".

And this is how G.K. Moraitopoulos saw Kalamaria in 1880:

"When we come out through the Gate of Kalamaria, to the east of the city we observe that part of the land is flat and part hilly with wooded Hortiatis in the background. The plain is all green with gardens, a few field crops and many vineyards covering the land to the far end of Kara-burnu. Moreover we see many houses dispersed among the trees, in greater numbers mainly at two points, considered the outskirts of the city."

Some thirty years later beautiful Karaburnaki is destined to offer shelter to the greatest number of refugees and described in songs in the darkest of colors.

During the period 1915-1923 successive historic events culminating in the great national disaster of 1922-23 drove thousands of refugees to Karaburnu-Kalamaria.

The ancestors to the people in all walks of life now living in Kalamaria came from the never-to-be-forgotten homes in long list of famous names of places such as Trapezus, Batumi, Cromni, Santa, etc.

I. Karatasidis writes about Kalamaria that:

"It was the richest and most fertile land. It produced grain, vegetables, grapes and fruit. Moreover and in contrast to the opposite side (i.e. lake of Giannitsa, etc.) it was free of malarial fever, tuberculosis and the other scourges of the time. Hence the name "kali meria" (good side).

From 1928 and on, horror-struck refugees driven out of their ancestral homes, arrive here. At first they themselves build shanties, shacks, huts and later the State undertakes the rehabilitation. The first to arrive were the refugees from Kars in Caucasus and were followed by those from Asia Minor, Pontos, Constantinople, Eastern Thrace, Bulgaria, Serbia, and elsewhere. Up to 1943 Kalamaria was part of the municipality of Thessaloniki (comprising a unified city plan). On January 1, 1943 it began functioning independently as the "Municipality of Kalamaria".

This article in Greek - Το άρθρο αυτό στην ελληνική

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