Greek Communities Relocated in the Making of the Balkan Nations the Greek Parliament’S Tackling of Refugee Settlement and Land Distribution in Thessaly (1906–1907)

Greek Communities Relocated in the Making of the Balkan Nations the Greek Parliament’S Tackling of Refugee Settlement and Land Distribution in Thessaly (1906–1907)

Research Notes/研究ノート Greek Communities Relocated in the Making of the Balkan Nations The Greek Parliament’s Tackling of Refugee Settlement and Land Distribution in Thessaly (1906–1907) MURATA SAWAYANAGI Nanako Ⅰ . Introduction Ⅱ . The Influx of Greek Refugees Ⅲ . The Start of the Debate on Refugees in the Greek Parliament Ⅳ . Granting Greek Citizenship to the Refugees Ⅴ . Legislation on Land Distribution in Thessaly Ⅵ . Legislative Procedures and Their Aftermath Ⅶ. Conclusion バルカンの国民国家形成とギリシア人 コミュニティの 再 編 テッサリアにおける難民定住と土地分配をめぐるギ リシア議 会 の取り組み(1906 ~ 1907 年) 村田(澤柳) 奈々子 20世紀初頭、排外的民族主義が興隆する中で、国民国家形成途上のバルカン諸国は 対立を深めていた。1906年に勃発したブルガリア、東ルメリア、およびルーマニアでの、 ギリシア系コミュニティに対する暴力事件・迫害行為の結果、大量のギリシア系住民が、 151 Greek Communities Relocated in the Making of the Balkan Nations( Murata) 22010_26-2.indb010_26-2.indb 115151 22010/12/27010/12/27 221:16:241:16:24 難民としてギリシア王国に流入した。ギリシアは、これら難民にいかに対処するかと いう問題に、国家としてはじめて直面することになったのである。本論は、難民定住 と土地分配に関する立法措置へと至る、1906 年~07年のギリシア議会の取り組みと、 法案・法律の具体的内容を詳細に跡づけるとともに、ギリシア・ナショナリズムの政 治言説において、国境外のギリシア系住民がどのように位置づけられ、いかにしてギ リシア国民として受け入れられたかを検討する。 ギリシア系難民の発生は、オスマン帝国領マケドニアの領土獲得めざすギリシアと ブルガリアの武力衝突、マケドニアのヴラヒ人の民族帰属をめぐる、ギリシアとルーマ ニアの対立を背景としていた。ギリシア議会は、これら難民を、ギリシア愛国主義精 神の体現者と見なし、国力増強の一助とすべく、市民権・国籍を付与する特別措置を 講じた。さらに、政府との協調により、定住のための土地と資金の提供を可能とする 法的枠組みづくりを急いだ。難民の定住地とされたテッサリア地方では、オスマン時代 からの大土地所有(チフトリキ)制が維持されていた。難民の定住政策は、この大土地 所有制下にあった地元の分益小作人を、小規模自作農に転換させる政策と連動すること で、農業近代化の契機ともなった。1907年4月制定の法3202号は、困難な財政事情の下、 新たなコミュニティ建設のための国家支援を保障する内容を含む点で評価できる。 本論で考察する、難民問題解決にむけたギリシア議会での活発な議論と、早急かつ 実効ある立法措置に向けての真摯な取り組みは、腐敗と無秩序に支配されたとされる 20世紀初頭のギリシア政治にあって、特筆すべきものである。さらに、難民が領土拡 張主義政策の「殉教者」と位置づけられ、彼らの国内定住に向けての現実的な施策が採 られたことは、バルカン諸国のナショナリズムと対峙したギリシア国家が、自国領と しての併合を目指していた地域の完全な獲得を、もはや困難なものと考えていたこと を暗示する。 オスマン帝国を特徴づけた、多民族共生の社会は終焉を迎えようとしていた。1906 年に起こった、国境外のギリシア系コミュニティからの難民流入と、国内におけるコミュ ニティ再編は、その前奏に過ぎない。二度のバルカン戦争、第一次大戦、そして1922 年の対トルコ戦争での敗北によって、ギリシアは、さらに大量のギリシア系難民を受 け入れることになる。本論で論じた立法措置は、これら難民の受け入れに際し、ギリ シア政府の基本方針として引き継がれてゆくことになる。 I. Introduction Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830 and its AJAMES no.26-2 2010 152 22010_26-2.indb010_26-2.indb 115252 22010/12/27010/12/27 221:16:241:16:24 national border was officially established in 1832. The independent Greek state had within its frontiers only about 750,000 inhabitants while approximately two million ethnic Greeks (ομογενείς) were under Ottoman rule [Dakin 1972: 72](1). After Greece’s independence, the European territory of the Ottoman Empire was gradually ceded to the newly-born Balkan nation states throughout the nineteenth century. The framework of multi-ethnic coexistence that the Ottoman Empire had guaranteed was crumbling. As Justin McCarthy correctly puts it, “National states in the Balkans were to be states for ‘the people’ alone, defined as members of only one ethnic group. This was to be the continuing definition and practice of Balkan nationalism” [McCarthy 2001: 48]. Consequently the position of ethnic Greek communities that came under the domain of non-Greek nation states became precarious. Bulgarian anti-Greek vandalism in the summer of 1906 was a catastrophic disaster for the age-long Greek communities in Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria. Ethnic Greeks were compelled to leave their hometowns that were passed down from their ancestors, and flooded into Greece as refugees. Against the backdrop of this event, there were contested irredentist aspirations between Greece and Bulgaria over Macedonia in the Ottoman domain. Armed struggles between the two nations had intensified since 1904. While waging battle against the Greek guerrilla bands in Macedonia, the Bulgarians attacked the Greek communities in Eastern Rumelia and Bulgaria and tried to destroy them in order to make their future national state ethnically homogeneous. The ethnic Greeks living there were vulnerable and became prime targets for the Bulgarians as the conflict between Greece and Bulgaria heated up. Greek communities in Romania were also under siege by Romanian nationalism in the beginning of the twentieth century. The dispute between Greece and Romania over the Vlach national identity of Macedonia provoked powerful anti- Greek movements in Romanian society, which placed the Greek communities at a disadvantage. The increasing pressure of the anti-Greek public opinion brought about the exodus of the Greeks from Romania to Greece. The Greek state faced, for the first time in its history, the challenge of dealing with refugees. The fact that the refugees were ethnically Greek̶they were Christians of the Patriarchate Eastern Orthodoxy and spoke the Greek language̶obliged the Greek state to assume the role of their protector. The disastrous damage to the Greek communities outside its national borders represented shrinking Hellenism, a 153 Greek Communities Relocated in the Making of the Balkan Nations( Murata) 22010_26-2.indb010_26-2.indb 115353 22010/12/27010/12/27 221:16:241:16:24 phenomenon quite unfavorable to the “Great Idea,” the Greek irredentist dream(2). In historiography there have some, not many, studies on the anti-Greek movements of 1906 in the Balkans and ethnic Greek refugees who fled to Greece. Spiridon Sfetas looks at Bulgarian violence against Greek communities of 1906 in conjunction with the political intention of the Bulgarian government to induce European Powers to support Bulgarian territorial claim to Macedonia [Σφέτας 1993– 94]. Both Lena Divani and Xantippi Kotzageorgi briefly mention the events of 1906 from the standpoint of rooting out Greek minority [Διβάνη 1995: 353; Κοτζαγεώργη 1999: 63-70]. Theodora K. Dragostinova illustrates the malleability of ethnic identity among Greeks in Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia while arguing that the Bulgarian government took up the task of systematically making the Greek inhabitants remaining in its lands full-fledged Bulgarian after the disturbances of 1906 [Dragostinova 2005: 42-87]. Ekaterini K. Karvela explores how the Greek state practically carried out the land distribution project for the refugees [Καρβέλα 2005]. These studies indicate that the anti-Greek movements of 1906 in the Balkan states, which caused a wave of ethnic Greek migration, were one of the important historic incidents for Greece in the light of its national policy. However, these studies, except for that of Karvela, do not consider the events of 1906 as a domestic political problem of the Greek state. They do not look at in detail how the Greek state actually treated the refugees in connection with their impact on the country once they arrived in its territory. Karvela grapples with the issue from the standpoint of the Greek internal affairs. She reveals the leading role the Greek state played in forming new communities for the refugees, fully focusing on the technical and administrative aspects during the period of 1907‒1911 when the Greek government put into practice the land distribution undertaking for the refugees in accordance with a series of laws and related cabinet decisions. Her study, however, does not pay enough attention to the very first phase in which the Greek state set about the task of providing a legal framework for the refugees’ status and their settlement within its borders. As the anti-Greek movements among the Balkan nations gave rise to Greek refugees, most of whom eventually headed for Greece to survive, it is significant to examine the initial endeavors of the Greek state to tackle the refugee problem immediately after the presence of the refugees in the country came to the fore. In this sense, it is meaningful to examine the debate on their treatment in the Greek Parliament, which commenced in November 1906. We need to look at, in AJAMES no.26-2 2010 154 22010_26-2.indb010_26-2.indb 115454 22010/12/27010/12/27 221:16:241:16:24 chronological order, how the original state-sponsored refugee arrangements were made as a result of the debate. This paper intends to shed light on the first lawmaking process of the Greek state for refugee settlement by focusing on the parliamentary discussions which led to the enactment of Law 3202 of the Settlement and Land Distribution and of the Establishment of the Thessalian Agricultural Fund on April 7, 1907(3). In this paper, depicting the concrete parliamentary debate, we demonstrate how the refugees were regarded in the context of Greek irredentist nationalism; the measures that were first taken to formally incorporate the ethnic Greek refugees into the Greek state; the opinions on the settlement of the refugees in Thessaly and the land distribution to them that were advanced and how clashes of opinions were resolved; the condition of the relations between the incoming refugees and the native local Greeks over the issue of the land distribution project. For this purpose, we employ the following primary sources: Parliamentary Proceedings of the Hellenic Kingdom; Supplement of Parliamentary Gazette of the Hellenic Kingdom; legislative bills of the land distribution for refugee settlement; the text of Law 3202; contemporary Greek newspapers; some documents in the files of Stefanos N. Dragoumis at the Gennadius Library in Athens, Greece; and the British Foreign Office Reports. We first look at the development of ethnic rivalry in the Balkan states, which eventually forced the ethnic Greeks to take refuge in Greece. Then, we examine how the Greek Parliament began undertaking the task of the refugee settlement. The Parliament made a law to give them Greek citizenship, provoking the debate on land distribution among them. II. The Influx of Greek Refugees 1. The Exodus of the Ethnic Greeks from Eastern Rumelia and

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