Ayvalık and the 1923 Mübadele/Ἀνταλλαγή/Population Exchange

This blog post by Sean Swanick, Librarian for Middle East, North Africa, and Islamic Studies, Duke University is part III of a short series exploring Duke University Libraries’ holdings about the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey. Part I of the series can be accessed here and Part II here .

Osmanlıca İzmir görüntülü Ege haritası ve Yunan adaları. Ottoman Maps Collection: https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/ottomanempiremaps.

Ayvalık is a northern Aegean city in Türkiye that was once inhabited predominantly by Greek Orthodox Christians. As such, it is yet another site of the 1923 Population Exchange that engineered the ethnic cleansing of cities and towns throughout both Türkiye and Greece. The Turkish word Ayvalık means “quince” and is borrowed from Αϊβαλί (Aivali), the modern Greek name for the coastal city, which was called Κυδωνιές (Kydonies ) in pre-modern times. Next to Ayvalık is one of the most desirable tourist and wedding destinations in Türkiye: Cunda (Alibey) island. Cunda, like Ayvalık, had several previous Greek names; the island was once called Ἑκατόνησα (Hekatonisa) and Μοσχονήσια (Moschonisi). Aside from being a popular tourist destination, the region as a whole is also famous for its olive groves and fresh produce, including the hard, acid pear-shaped fruit that gave Ayvalık its original name. At the same time, both of these places carry with them a dark modern history that remains just below the surface.

View of the Port and Cafes of Ayvalık. In Kaptan, M. Salim, Faruk Ergelen, M. Müjdat Soylu. Yılların içinden Ayvalık. İstanbul: M. Salim Kaptan. 2019.

Between 1919-1922 Greece and Türkiye fought a brutal war, mostly along the Aegean and Black Sea coasts, but also in parts of Anatolia, the West Asian peninsula that makes up the majority of the land area of Türkiye. Greece had occupied these lands as part of their Μεγάλη Ιδέα (Megali Idea; Great Idea), which was an irredentist and expansionist political movement to appropriate formerly- Ottoman territories, first in the Balkans and later in what we now recognise as Türkiye. The war and Ιδέα ended in 1922, with the defeat of Greece by Turkey (which explains why this military conflict is called the “War of Independence” in Turkish nationalist historiography and the “Asia Minor Catastrophe” in Greek nationalist historiography).

In the immediate post-war period, nationalist ideologues in both Greece and Turkey argued for the necessity of the 1923 Population Exchange. But, in fact, the Greek populations had already mostly expelled by 1922. Ayvalık was one of among many Greek urban centres that witnessed Turkish nationalist harassment and reprisals which encouraged a mass migration. Estimates suggest some 23,000 Orthodox Christian residents of Ayvalık fled or were deported to Greece. Most of the remaining Orthodox Christians in what would become Türkiye, some 1.1 million people, were exchanged with Greece as part of the 1923 Population Exchange.

Reflection of the city and the protagonist Adonis on the Quay of Mytilene (Soloup 2019: 24–25). In Kristina Gedgaudaitė. Comics, memory and migration: Through the mirror maze of Soloup’s Aivali. Journal of Greek Media & Culture. Vol. 6, issue 1, 2019.

From the coast of Ayvalık, one can see the Greek island of Lesvos (Ottoman مدللى, Midilli). During the Ottoman Empire, Midilli was inhabited by both Orthodox Christians and Muslims, and was host to an Ottoman navy fleet. It was a shared land with families, goods, and culture flowing back and forth between the mainland and the island. In 1922 most of the Orthodox Christians in Ayvalık fled to Midilli. After the 1923 Population Exchange, the cultural contact and exchanges were divided and erased by the political border and homogeneous nation-state.

In post-1923 Ayvalık, new populations arrived from Midilli as well as the former Ottoman island of Crete (كريد/ Girit). These new populations were homogenous in religion but not in culture and language. To this day, it is not uncommon to hear Greek spoken by the locals. That is because this was the mother-tongue of many of the Greek-born Turkish exchangees, much like those Greeks who were exchanged from this region would have spoken Turkish as their primary language. But more than this, the former Orthodox churches of Ayvalık were converted into mosques, with minarets constructed and attached for the muezzin (مؤذن) to call the faithful to prayer.

Yeni Cami (Γενί Τζαμί), Mytililene, Lesvos/ Midilli. Photo by Sean Swanick, 2020.

This homogenisation based on nationalist revisionism is witnessed throughout both Ayvalık and Midilli. Mosques, like the New Mosque (Tk. Yeni Cami; Gk. Γενί Τζαμί/) have been left to disintegrate. In Ayvalık, street names have been changed to names that reinforce the Turkish nationalist narrative. But still visible are the buildings, houses, and piers of yesteryear that bear witness to the island’s long multi-ethnic and multi-confessional history.

Panagia Phaneromeni ayazması/Παναγία Φανερωμένη ἁγίασμα.

Today, remnants of the Greek populations past survive and, in some cases are being restored. For example, the Panagia Phaneromeni ayazması (Παναγία Φανερωμένη ἁγίασμα) of Ayvalık was recently restored and opened to the public. The curative springs of Ayazma (from the Greek ἁγίασμα, hagiasma, meaning sacred healing water or spring of water) is a popular pilgrimage site, especially for the sick. The Panagia Phaneromeni was constructed ca.1850 but its use came to an abrupt end after 1922. In 2012, a restoration project was funded by grandsons of exchangees from Lesvos/Midilli and in 2018 the Ayazma of Ayvalık re-opened to the public.

Panagia Phaneromeni ayazması/Παναγία Φανερωμένη ἁγίασμα. Photo by Sean Swanick, 2023

The glitz and glamour associated with the opening of such tourist destinations as the Panagia Phaneromeni may seek to suppressthe violence of Ayvalık’s and Cunda’s recent past, but it can never erase it. These places remain two important cultural centres due precisely to the heritage left by their former Greek residents, as well as the influences of the new Turkish inhabitants from Crete and Lesvos. The history of ethnic cleansing that underwrote the 1923 Population Exchange may not be well-known to outsiders, but its sad memory remains and continues to permeate the collective memory of the people who live on these lands.

In August 2025, the Mary Duke Biddle Room of Perkins Library, on Duke’s West Campus, will host an exhibition of DUL’s extensive holdings of both primary and secondary sources on the Mübadele/Ἀνταλλαγή. Besides materials on Ayvalık and Cunda, these items will include images from the extensive postcard collections including the Izmir Postcards and photographs collection; the Selanik/Thessaloniki collection, and the Balkans collection. As well as select materials from the Ottoman Documents Collection and the Turkish political posters collection.

Further reading

Akın, Berrin. 2008. Kentli Ayvalık. İstanbul.

Akın, Berrin, Taylan Köken, Turgut Baygın. 2023. Bir kent, bir fotoğraf sanatçısı: “Ayvalık’a Önder Aksoy ile Yeniden Bakmak.” Ayvalık: Ayvada Yayıncılık Ltd.

Clark, Bruce. 2006. Twice a stranger: how mass expulsion forged modern Greece and Turkey. London: Granta Books.

Ioannis M. Fountoulis; English translation, Damien Dessane, Stratos Georgiades, Stratis Anagnostou. 2024. The Agiasma of Ayvalik Holy Water Sanctuary: Panagia Phaneromeni of Kydonies. Istanbul: Birzamanlar Yayıncılık.

Kaptan, M. Salim, Faruk Ergelen, M. Müjdat Soylu. 2019. Yılların içinden Ayvalık. İstanbul: M. Salim Kaptan.

Şahin Güçhan, Neriman. 2023. Ayvalık kent tarihi çalışmaları / Urban history studies. Istanbul: ODTÜ Mimarlık Fakültesi.

Soloúp, translation Tom Papademetriou. Aivali : a story of Greeks and Turks in 1922.

Soloúp; sunuş, Bruce Clark; çeviren, Hasan Özgür Tuna. Ayvali: dört yazar, üç kuşak, iki yaka, bir Ayvalık.

Tamer, Ayşe Gülsevin. 2020. The Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922 in Greek historiography: the Megali idea in action.

Yorulmaz, Ahmet. 1997. Savaşın çocukları : Giritʼten sonra Ayvalık : roman. Sultanahmet, İstanbul: Belge Yayınları.

Films

Film Ideas. With Olive Groves In The Aegean : Greeks & Turks

istos | ιστός. AYVALİ-AYVALIK: Dört Yazar, Üç Kuşak, İki Yaka.