Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-30T20:33:24.063Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of Forced Top-Down Nation Building on Conflict Resolution: Lessons from the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2019

Anastasia Filippidou Open the ORCID record for Anastasia Filippidou [Opens in a new window]
Anastasia Filippidou*
Affiliation:
Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: a.filippidou@cranfield.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Borders and boundaries can represent old narratives, which often, however, cannot deal with new realities. Borders are inflexible, but reality is flexible and fluid. This is augmented in crisis situations. Multi-ethnicity and history run in parallel, as shared cultures often precede and transcend Westphalia and institutionally imposed borders. For cultures with roots in antiquity, top-down established borders appear to lack legitimacy, as these cultures place more emphasis on historical similarities and traditions of peoples. Thus, what is more important: cultural and historical commonalities or institutional top-down constructions? This article examines the impact of the prioritization of top-down ethno-religious homogeneity over lasting conflict resolution. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the article draws a number of hypotheses from the fields of conflict resolution, territoriality, and nation building and tests these hypotheses on the specific case of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange (CPE) between Greece and Turkey and the dual role of the Mediterranean as a security bridge or barrier. This article highlights a “how-not-to” scenario in conflict resolution and argues that efforts to form apparent homogeneous nation-states led to short-term, incomplete conflict termination with a lasting impact, while conflict resolution remained elusive.

Keywords

Compulsory Population Exchange (CPE)Treaty of Lausannehomogeneityconflict resolutionterritoriality
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 48 , Special Issue 1: Special Issue on the Emergence and Resilience of Parastates , January 2020 , pp. 144 - 157
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aktar, Ayhan. 2006a. “Homogenising the Nation, Turkifying the Economy.” In Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, edited by Hirschon, Renee, 79–95. Oxford, UK: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Aktar, Ayhan. 2006b. “Το Πρώτο Ετος της Ελληνοτουρκικής Ανταλλαγής” [“The First Year of the Greco-Turkish Exchange”]. In Η Ελληνοτουρκική Ανταλλαγή Πληθυσμών, πτυχές μιας εθνικής σύγκρουσης [The Grego-Turkish Population Exchange, Approaches of an Ethnic Conflict], edited by Tsitselikis, Konstantinos, 111–156. Athens: Kritiki.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Barth, Fredrik, ed. 1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Bayar, Yeşim. 2014. “In Pursuit of Homogeneity: The Lausanne Conference, Minorities and the Turkish Nation.” Nationalities Papers 42 (1): 108–125.Google Scholar
Black, Jeremy. 2009. Geopolitics. London: Social Affairs Unit.Google Scholar
Colson, Elizabeth. 2003. “Forced Migration and the Anthropological Response.” Journal of Refugee Studies 16 (1): 1–18.Google Scholar
Curzon, George, Lord. 1923. Minutes of the Twenty-Third Meeting of the Territorial and Military Commission, 27 January 1923, Lausanne Conference, London, session 406, p. 412.Google Scholar
Eddy, Charles. 1931. Greece and the Greek Refugees. London: George and Unwin Ltd.Google Scholar
Erden, Mustafa Suphi. 2004. “The Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations in the 1920s and Its Socio-Economic Impacts on Life in Anatolia.” Journal of Crime, Law, and Social Change 41 (3): 261–282.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Niall. 2011. Civilisation: The Six Killer Apps of Western Power. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Gibney, Matthew, and Hansen, Randall. 2005. Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.Google Scholar
Goalwin, J. Gregory. 2017. “Understanding the Exclusionary Politics of Early Turkish Nationalism: An Ethnic Boundary-Making Approach.” Nationalities Papers 12: 1–17.Google Scholar
Greco-Turkish Exchange Convention (1925). 1923. XXXII L.N.T.S: 75.Google Scholar
Greco-Turkish Exchange Convention supra. 1924. Article 19, Treaty of Lausanne 1923, XXVIII L.N.T.S 11, Article 142.Google Scholar
Hare, Raymond. 1930. “The Origin and Development of the Greco-Turkish Exchange of Populations Question, 15 October 1930.” Document no. 767.68115/143. Records of the Department of State Relating to the Political Relations of Turkey, Greece and the Balkan States, 1930—1939.Google Scholar
Hemingway, Ernest. 1994. “On the Quai at Smyrna.” In The Snow of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories. London: Vintage Classic.Google Scholar
Hirschon, Renée. 1998. Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe: The Social Life of Asia Minor Refugees in Piraeus. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 2002. “The Globalization of Informal Violence, Theories of World Politics, and the ‘Liberalism of Fear.’” Dialogue IO 1 (1): 29–43.Google Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar. 1987. State and Class in Turkey: Study in Capitalist Development. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Keyder, Çağlar. 2006. “The Consequences of the Exchange of Populations for Turkey.” In Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, edited by Hirschon, Renee, 46–50. Oxford, UK: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Kitromelides, Paschalis, and Alexandris, Alexis. 1984–1985. “Ethnic Survival, Nationalism and Forced Migration. The Historical Demography of the Greek Community in Asia Minor at the Close of the Ottoman Era.” Δελτίο Κέντρου Μικρασιατικών Σπουδών [Bulletin of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies] 5: 9–44.Google Scholar
Köker, Tolga. 2006. “Lessons in Refugeehood: The Experience of Forced Migrants in Turkey.” In Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, edited by Hirschon, Renee, 201–206. Oxford, UK: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Kontogiorgi, Elisabeth. 2006. “Economic Consequences Following Refugee Settlement in Greek Macedonia, 1923–1932.” In Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, edited by Hirschon, Renee, 65–67. Oxford, UK: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Krauss, Eric S., and Lacey, Mike O.. 2002. “Utilitarian vs Humanitarian—The Battle over the Law of War.” Parameters XXXII (2): 73–85.Google Scholar
Ladas, Stephen. 1932. The Exchange of Minorities: Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. New York: McMillan.Google Scholar
League of Nations, Official Journal. 1922. “Note by the Secretary General Resolution, adopted by the Third Assembly of the League of Nations at its meeting held on 19 September 1922.” 3rd year, November.Google Scholar
League of Nations, Official Journal. 1922. “Minutes of the Sixth Committee, Ninth Meeting, 22 September 1922.” Record of the Third Assembly, 3rd year.Google Scholar
League of Nations, Official Journal. 1923. “Report by Dr F. J. Nansen for Refugees in the Near East.” 4th Year, Annex 471. March 13: 383–384.Google Scholar
League of Nations, Treaty Series. 1925. Vol. XXVIII, numbers 1–4, no. 807, pp.13ff.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Morgenthau, Hans. 1965. “Globalism: The Moral Crusade, Reprinted in Vietnam and the United States.” Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 81–92.Google Scholar
Morris, Ian. 2010. Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal about the Future. London: Profile Books.Google Scholar
Naimark, Norman. 2001. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nansen, Fridjof. 1922. “Statement in Minutes of the Eighth Meeting of the Territorial and Military Commission.” December 1, Lausanne Conference, §2.Google Scholar
Özsu, Umut. 2015. Formalizing Displacement: International Law and Population Transfers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Paris, Roland, and Sisk, Timothy. 2015. “Understanding the Contradictions of Postwar Peacebuilding.” In The Contemporary Conflict Resolution Reader, edited by Woodhouse, T. and Miall, H., 301–306. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Pentzopoulos, Dimitris. 1962. The Balkan Exchange of Minorities and Its Impact on Greece. London: Hurst & Co.Google Scholar
PRO FO 371/9058, Registration no. (E1004/1/44): “Draft Minutes of the Twentieth Meeting at Lausanne Conference on Eastern Affairs under the presidency of Lord Curzon, 10 January 1923.”Google Scholar
Sack, Robert D. 1986. Human Territoriality: Its Theory and History. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, John H. 1939. The Refugee Problem: Report of a Survey. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, Claire. 2017. “The Mediterranean and Its Migrants.” International Affairs 93 (4): 949–956.Google Scholar
Statistical Annual of Greece, Athens. 1930. Στατιστική Επετηρις της Ελλαδος. http://dlib.statistics.gr/Book/GRESYE_01_0002_00001.pdf. (Accessed May 1, 2017.)Google Scholar
Tsitselikis, Konstantinos, ed. 2006. Η Ελληνοτουρκική Ανταλλαγή Πληθυσμών, πτυχές μιας εθνικής σύγκρουσης [The Grego-Turkish Population Exchange, Approaches of an Ethnic Conflict]. Athens: Kritiki.Google Scholar
Ureneck, Lou. 2015. The Great Fire: One American’s Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century’s First Genocide. New York: Ecco.Google Scholar
Venizelos, Eleftherios. 1922. “Statement by Prime Minister Venizelos to the Territorial and Military Commission.” December 14, minutes: 223–224.Google Scholar
Veremis, Thanos. 2006. “1922: Political Continuations and Realignments in the Greek State.” In Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, edited by Hirschon, Renee, 56–61. Oxford, UK: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Venizelos, Eleftherios Kyriakou, Prime Minister. Minutes of the Fourteenth Meeting of the Territorial and Military Commission, 13 December 1922, at 11.00am under the Presidency of Lord Curzon, Lausanne Conference, London, pp. 223–224.Google Scholar
Waterman, Stanley. 2002. “States of Segregation.” In The Razor’s Edge: International Boundaries and Political Geography, edited by Schofield, Clive, 57–76. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Weigert, Hans. 1942. Generals and Geographers: The Twilight of Geopolitics. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Welwood, John. 1977. “On Psychological Space.” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 9 (2): 89–99.Google Scholar
Wilson, Woodrow. 1917. “Peace without Victory, Address of President Woodrow Wilson to the US Senate 22 January 1917.” http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/peacewithoutvictory.htm. (Accessed April 7, 2016.)Google Scholar
Zürcher, Erik J. 1998. Turkey: A Modern History. London: IB Tauris.Google Scholar