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The Kordon today at the Pasaport Pier, . © Paul Watkins SMYRNA: Return of the Greeks? Paul Watkins wanders the streets of old Smyrna (Izmir) looking for survivals of the 1922 Catastrophe

Old Levantine houses in the Punta. © Paul Watkins 23 FEATURES

alking north along the two-mile stretch of Smyrna’s promenade, Wthe historic Kordon, with the Mediterranean Sea to your left and the high-rise blocks to your right, you’ll catch a glimpse, out of the tail of your eye, of a poignant memento of another city, cauterized and buried but not yet erased from your mind. This is the sea-worn rampart of the old quay, overlaid now with a smart walkway of tessellated The great fire of Smyrna, September 1922. waves. Mute stones that weep with result of the holocaust and the Lydians but ultimately flourishing the buffeting sea, and with the rest were forced into exile. As to under Alexander the Great’s spectral touch of feet – burnt who started the fire, a long-held colony on Mount Pagus, a mile by the hot stones, gripping the theory that it was the Armenians, or so inland. Its commercial edge before the plunge. For fleeing from their historic foes, development was galvanized many of the thousands forced who wished to deny their property during the Byzantine period by onto the quay by a vengeful army to the Turks, has been disproved. the competition between Turks, and merciless flames, the water Cumulative eye-witness reports Venetians, Genoese and others was no salvation but a stay of describe Turkish soldiers pouring for its possession, and the issue execution, either by rifle shot petrol on Armenian houses, in of the first ‘capitulations’ from or drowning in a vain attempt anticipation of a wind that would the Greek empire. Renewed to reach the heedless ships ignite the Greek and Armenian later by the Ottomans after the anchored offshore. quarters, sparing the Jewish fall of Constantinople (1453) This was the scene during and Muslim areas. Levantine these were the special trading the terrifying days and nights of commercial properties – ­those concessions offered to foreign September 1922, when in the lining the central Frank Street companies that allowed them wake of the retreating Greek and the Cordon –­ would also be to trade freely throughout the army, sent by the Greek prime destroyed. subject territories. Beneficiaries minister The outcome of the tragedy of these concessions (often won three years earlier, Turkish troops was the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, by military achievements against under Mustafa Kemal (later Kemal which provided for a mass the Ottomans themselves) Atatürk) had marched on Smyrna exchange of populations. More from the north. The Greek troops, were first the Genoese and the than a million and a half people Venetians and then the French making good their escape via the were forcibly resettled – Muslims Çesme peninsula to the south, (1569), who were to become living in eastern Thrace sent to long-term allies of the Turks. Later thus abandoned the people they Turkey and Greek Christians were sworn to defend, the city’s on, capitulations were extended living in Asia Minor to Greece. Greek majority. For the Christian to the English (1580), the Dutch Smyrniots, accustomed to and other trading nations. In the centuries of tolerance by their Why Smyrna? case of the English, trade was Ottoman masters, it was a bitter consolidated by the founding adieu. The genesis of this dynamic of the Company (1581), The great fire of Smyrna, multi-cultural city on Turkey’s which guaranteed its protection otherwise known as ‘the western seaboard lay in its under the English crown. The Catastrophe’ lasted two weeks superb deep-water harbour, company’s monopoly – similar to and destroyed nearly two thirds which unlike others on her antique that of the of the city. Estimates of the Aegean coastline (Greek Miletus, – brought it great power and human toll vary greatly, often Ephesus and others) had not influence in the region of the depending on the viewpoint of silted up, leaving their port-cities Eastern Mediterranean, including the observer. The consensus stranded. From the earliest Greek Smyrna and Alexandria, which is that out of a joint Greek and settlement (c. 9th century BC) made its representatives – the Armenian population of 200,000, Smyrna had been an important English Vice-Consuls –­ minor approximately 50,000 died as a centre of trade, contested by the potentates whose businesses 24 FEATURES and families enjoyed special privileges including exemption from the taxes and laws of the state.

Architectural survivals

My curiosity about the fate of the Levantine families and their properties following the fire, which had virtually extinguished their community, and those of the Greeks and Armenians, brought me to Smyrna in the early summer. It was a good time to experience the contrast of the growing heat of the hinterland with the cooling breezes of the seaward-facing The Kordon photographed in the early 20th century. city, whose vision of the blue- grey infinity that lay beyond its alleys, most famously Frank of Orthodox churches, modern western gulf was more bracing Street, the main shopping artery Greek schools and splendid than the congested Istanbul of the European quarter, was now mansions for their families. where I had started my journey. overlaid by a radiating network of It seemed appropriate that As I carried on northwards modern boulevards and traffic one of the pre-1922 buildings along the Kordon (now officially circles. on the Kordon was the home of Atatürk Caddeşi), I found it Today, the shade of the old the present Greek consulate, that difficult to reconstruct the burnt Greek quarter lies beneath a had been temporarily vacated city, which would have lain to my vast parkland known as the for restoration. Adjoining 19th- right, behind the modern blocks Kültürpark, in the centre of the century buildings also looked of apartments and hotels. The city, scene of a yearly trade fair. in need of repair, which might Kordon itself, built by a French- The Greek population, initially be considered a priority after a owned consortium in the 1870s, eclipsed by the arrival of the halt was put to the large scale had extended the line of the old Ottomans in the 15th century, destruction of such buildings in wooden quay into the sea by had revived dramatically in the the ‘90s, following an outbreak of fifty metres. Its name (Turkish: ensuing centuries, becoming a heritage consciousness among ‘cord’) brought to mind another majority again in the mid-19th. In the Turks. meaning: the cordon thrown this period it had been enlarged One survival stood out: the around it by the Turks to keep the by Greeks from the Aegean mansion wedged incongruously panic-stricken refugees trapped islands, notably from Chios, between two blocks that had been on the quay between the burning whose own population had been adapted for use as the Atatürk city and the sea. In its Levantine decimated by the Turks in the Museum. The discovery that this heyday, the ‘quai’, as it was Greek War of Independence. The was formerly the property of the otherwise known, would have same war, paradoxically, had wealthy Armenian, A. Spartali, thronged with porters and their brought an influx of Greeks from a member of the consortium animals, camels and donkeys Greece itself, where conditions (Societé des Quais de Smyrne) of poverty and brigandage had carrying goods to and from the which had built the Kordon, increased since the country’s waiting vessels. Figs, raisins, raw reminded me of the fate of cotton and other products from liberation. They had arrived in a Smyrna’s other large non-Turkish the Anatolian hinterland would city which was well established community. The area of the city have mingled with the imports, as the largest and most to the west and south of the predominately the cotton-cloth prosperous port of the Ottoman from England. Empire, with a Greek population Greek district, inhabited by the The destruction of the old greater than the city of Athens. Armenians, had been consumed, city had given Atatürk an The leaders of the community along with its Greek neighbour, opportunity to carry his national were the Greek merchants and by systematic burning. With a modernization programme into bankers, many of whom (such single exception, which I was to urban reconstruction. The original as the Mavrogordatos and Ralli discover later, most of the city’s labyrinth of narrow streets and from Chios) financed the building Armenian and Greek Orthodox 25 FEATURES churches had been destroyed in Now I understood that their half-a-dozen others in Alsançak the fire, and those that survived numbers had increased with an showed that there had been no – either ruined or converted to influx of Greeks, mainly from attempt to destroy monuments other uses –­ had been dynamited Thessaloniki, escaping the of the Catholic faith, the focus to make way for the new city. Did economic crisis in Greece to of the majority of Smyrna’s non- any of their adherents remain in seek new opportunities abroad. Orthodox Christian worshippers. the city today? My researches They had been made welcome The fire, in any case, had not into this question had largely by the Turkish government and reached this part of the city, and drawn a blank. The Armenians, with their work and academic I was delighted to discover the a thriving community in the studies, were integrating with the streets of old Levantine houses Levantine city, had completely Smyrniot community. with the characteristic wooden disappeared, just as they had balconies of the Ottoman period. earlier been expunged from The British presence Their architects, the Chian eastern and other parts of Turkey ktistes, were similar to those in by the pogrom of 1915. Beyond the northern limit of the Chios town. Until the late 20th The population of Smyrniot fire I turned east to explore the century these houses had been © Paul Watkins

The church of Ayios Voukolos.

Greeks that remained after the area of the city which had largely threatened with demolition by fire – no more than a hundred or escaped the conflagration. the rush for development, but so – had originally been limited This was the part known as now they could command their to descendants of those made ‘Alsançak’, which was associated own price as highly desirable exempt from the exchange of with the former Greek and residences. populations in 1923, such as Levantine community. I shortly On the eastern side of ‘Punta’ Greek women married to foreign passed the portico of a ‘Katolik (the northern, sea-girt quarter of nationals. Until recently these Kilisesi’, the early 20th-century Alsançak) I found myself at the individuals had been invisible Roman Catholic church of the 150-year-old hub of the area’s outside their own community. Holy Rosary, which along with business, the old Alsançak railway 26 FEATURES station. Here the good burghers history over the past two hundred be protected’ was a positive of the Levant were distinguished years. step but it was not until 2008 that by a strong British presence, In the villages outside Smyrna restoration of the church was flagged by the station itself, built the wealthy expatriates had built authorised. Although principally by British engineers. This was the splendid mansions in the classical used as a cultural centre it was terminus of the railway they had style, most of which are still there returned to the Orthodox rite with constructed in the 1850s from today and in some cases owned a divine liturgy in August 2014 and Aydin, to transport produce from by the families. Regrettably I six months later repeated the ritual the fertile plain in the south. didn’t have an opportunity to visit in the presence of the Ecumenical The old houses opposite the Rees villa in Boudja (modern Patriarch Bartholomew – the first the station, occupied by those Buca), but was fortunate to patriarchal visit to the city in more same engineers, were recorded be given a tour of some of the than 93 years. In a speech to the as once belonging to ‘Warren’, surviving Levantine mansions congregation, which included not ‘Andrus/Purser’ and ‘Shotton’. In of Bournabat (modern Bornova) only Greek residents of the city addition to these, I had special a former forest village which and descendants of refugees from information on ‘Hitchens’ – a offered the wealthy families a Greece but the Turkish mayor gently decaying, patched up palatial retreat from the humidity of Izmir and representatives of house with an attic floor. Built by and congestion of the coastal other communities, the Patriarch a former chaplain of the Anglican area. The village, now a suburb stressed the importance of church, it had served as the of modern Izmir and the home peaceful coexistence between English Nursing Home during of Ege University (University of people of every religion. the Smyrna disaster and had its the Aegean) was still shaded by Standing in the courtyard of own heroine, Grace Williamson, its tall pine trees, through which Ayios Voukolos near the myrtle tree who managed the home and one could glimpse the elegant planted by the Patriarch, I gazed looked after its British inmates façades. Many of these buildings, silently at the church’s beautifully and refugees until they could be such as the splendid university restored portico and reflected on escorted to a British ship in the rectorate (originally the Whittall the past of this ill-fated city. A harbour. Her intrepid character mansion) have now been taken century on, I could only imagine was shown by her return to over by public institutions. the music of its streets: the Smyrna after the disaster, to vibrant interplay of Greek, Turkish, continue running the home as a Greek revival Armenian, Levantine and Jewish pension. voices in the bazaar and in the The ‘corner of England in a But what of the Greeks? So narrow lanes behind the Kordon. foreign field’ certainly applied far I had not discovered any This had been the essential elixir to the nearby Anglican church ecclesiastical building of Greek of Smyrna: so many different with its adjacent parsonage, origin of the pre-1922 city. The people with so many different a reassuring ensemble of small Greek community (either religions and cultural identities, Gothic gables and red brick so descendants or new arrivals) living peacefully and creatively reminiscent of other outposts of could claim a place of worship together until the heedless tide Britain’s trading empire. Inside (Ayia Photini, in the heart of the of 20th century politics engulfed the church I found a memento of a city), but this had been adapted them. Though ultimately doomed, celebrated family who had served from an old Dutch Protestant and seemingly out of step in a the Levant Company in Smyrna chapel which had survived the divisive 21st century, this had and Alexandria, with whom I had fire. Marked on my map, however, for centuries been a resilient co- a personal connection. Strangely, was one building that my historical existence. If the Greeks came the name on the memorial, Zoë guide, George Vassiadis, had back they could, perhaps, help Rees, was the same as that of a mentioned. Tucked away in a reclaim it. friend of mine whose roots were poor quarter of the city centre in the family, but of a different near the Basmane railway station The author would like to thank Dr George generation and longevity: the was the little known church of Vassiadis of Royal Holloway, University earlier Zoë having died in infancy. Ayios Voukolos, built in 1886 and of London, and Görkem Daşkan of Ege Along with the Werrys, the abandoned in 1922. University, Bornova, for their background Whittalls, the Girauds and many For years, under Turkish knowledge and practical advice with locations. others of Smyrna’s important authority, it had served as an Recommended reading: Levant: Splendour international commercial archaeology museum, then in and Catastrophe in the Mediterranean by Philip community, some of whom had the 1950s was once more vacant Mansel (John Murray, 2010); Paradise Lost: intermarried, the Rees family was and left to decay. Its recognition, Smyrna 1922, the Destruction of Islam’s City of very much a part of the city’s in 1975, as a ‘cultural entity to Tolerance by Giles Milton (Sceptre, 2009) 27 FEATURES

The Acropolis, Athens.

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