Re: CHAT Anatolian groups (was Re: question - Turco-Japanese)

On Thursday, November 25, 2004, at 08:58 , Rodlox wrote:

>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>
[snip]
>>> Yep - right up till the 19th century/early 20th cent. The de-hellenizing
>>> of Anatolia was not completed till the upheavals  & 'ethnic cleansing'
>>> following WW1.
>>
>>   please see my recent post (_request_).
I did read it. I had no desire to continue it anyway. Therefore I find it
somewhat surprising you now want to continue.

I do not know what yor cryptic remark is meant to imply. The original
question was why were there no Greek communities in Anatolia. I replied
that there had been Greek communities in parts of Anatolia such as
Cappadocia, Pontus and Ionia around Smyrna (possibly some others). I
referred to one or two of the peculiarities of their dialects. To the best
of my knowledge, those communities do not exist today. There were
upheavals and 'exchanges of population' after WW1 in several places in
Europe as well as the Aegean area. I know that compared to what
subsequently happened both during and after WWII they were on a smaller
scale - but they happened none-the-less.

>>
>>> As I have observed elsewhere, AFAIK the last of the Greeks
>>> were expelled from the Smyrna region in 1922.
>>
>>   but not all Greeks left Asia Minor (just like not all Turks left
>> Thrace)....and it wasn't so much an expulsion as an exchange of
> populations
>> between two countries.
When people are compelled to leave an area against their will it is
'expulsion' in my book. The fact that there expulsions were two way ('an
exchange of population') does mean they are not expulsions. Europe & its
neighbors witnessed too many such 'exchanges of populations' during the
last century IMHO.

I know there are some Turkish communities in Greek Thrace - I assumed
there were Greek communities in Turkish Thrace. If there are some Greek
communities still in Anatolia despite the upheavals of the 1920s, I am
glad to hear to know it. Do we have actual facts and figures.

Ray
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ray.brown@freeuk.com
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Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason."      [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]

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