Bamberger 9 Orientstudien The Dowry of the State? The Politics of Abandoned Property and the Population Exchange in Turkey, 1921-1945 Ellinor Morack Izmir and the population exchange: The politics of abandoned property and refugee compensation, 1922 - 1930 Zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades eingereicht am Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin im Jahr 2013 vorgelegt von Sara Ellinor Morack 1. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Christoph Herzog Tag der Disputation: 1. November 2013 9 Bamberger Orientstudien Bamberger Orientstudien hg. von Lale Behzadi, Patrick Franke, Geoffrey Haig, Christoph Herzog, Birgitt Hoffmann, Lorenz ornK und Susanne Talabardon Band 9 2017 The Dowry of the State? The Politics of Abandoned Property and the Population Exchange in Turkey, 1921-1945 Ellinor Morack 2017 Bibliographische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Informationen sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de/ abrufbar. Diese Arbeit hat der Fakultät Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin als Dissertation vorgelegen. 1. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Freitag 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Christoph Herzog Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 01.11.2013 Dieses Werk ist als freie Onlineversion über den Hochschulschriften-Server (OPUS; http://www.opus-bayern.de/uni-bamberg/) der Universitätsbiblio- thek Bamberg erreichbar. Kopien und Ausdrucke dürfen nur zum privaten und sonstigen eigenen Gebrauch angefertigt werden. Herstellung und Druck: Digital Print Group, Nürnberg Umschlaggestaltung: University of Bamberg Press, Anna Hitthaler Umschlagbild: “Turks of Manisa” von Frédéric Gadmer, Musée départemen- tal Albert-Kahn © University of Bamberg Press Bamberg, 2017 http://www.uni-bamberg.de/ubp/ ISSN: 2193-3723 ISBN: 978-3-86309-463-8 (Druckausgabe) eISBN: 978-3-86309-464-5 (Online-Ausgabe) URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:473-opus4-485106 Contents Note on transcription and names .............................................................. ix Acknowledgments........................................................................................ x Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 State of the art ..................................................................................... 8 Theoretical approach......................................................................... 23 Sources .............................................................................................. 33 1 Forced migration, settlement, and the emergence of “abandoned property” in Ottoman times ...................................................................... 41 1.1 Property and forced migration ............................................ 42 1.2 Migration and refugee settlement in the 19th century ...... 55 1.3 Migrations from the North Caucasus................................. 58 1.4 The Balkan Wars ................................................................. 67 1.5 The expulsions of 1913–14 .................................................. 74 1.6 The Armenian Genocide and abandoned property ........... 83 1.7 The regulation for Greek property .................................... 104 1.8 Custodian accounts ........................................................... 109 1.9 The deportees’ return: 1918–20 ........................................ 112 1.10 Conclusion: From empty land to “national” property ..... 118 2 Making sense of ethnic cleansing and genocide: Parliamentary debates concerning “abandoned property”, 1921–22 ............................. 123 2.1 Historical background: The War of Independence ......... 124 2.2 Abandoned property in parliament .................................. 139 2.3 The legal background ........................................................ 145 2.4 The first draft: Who were “the disappeared”? .................. 147 2.5 The question of proxies ..................................................... 154 2.6 The question of legality ..................................................... 161 2.7 “Fugitive”, “Disappeared” or “Deported”? ....................... 169 2.8 The state as universal custodian? ..................................... 173 2.9 Conclusion ......................................................................... 177 v 3 Self-help, corruption, or theft? Debating practices of property appropriation in İzmir and western Anatolia, 1922–24 ........................ 181 3.1 İzmir, September 1922: destruction, death and exile ...... 181 3.2 The fate of “abandoned property” in Smyrna/İzmir ....... 188 3.3 İzmir’s looted wealth in parliament .................................. 195 3.4 Who took part in the looting? ............................................ 201 3.5 The identity of squatters .................................................... 204 3.6 Conclusion ......................................................................... 208 4 International agreements, national legislation, and the implemention in Turkey, 1923–45 ......................................................... 211 4.1 Negotiations in Lausanne .................................................. 211 4.2 The Mixed Commission and follow-up negotiations ....... 219 4.3 Preparations in Turkey, 1923-1924 ................................... 224 4.4 Squatting and resistance to exchangee settlement .......... 231 4.5 Transport and settlement .................................................. 238 4.6 Laws for property compensation: 1924 – 45 ..................... 239 5 The politics of property compensation in İzmir: 1924–34 ............ 249 5.1 Property allocation (tefviz) from 1924 onwards ............... 252 5.2 Contested categories .......................................................... 255 5.3 The importance of class ..................................................... 267 5.4 Allegations of corruption and fraud .................................. 273 5.5 Voluntary and involuntary cohabitation ........................... 274 5.6 Squatting ............................................................................ 280 5.7 Citizens as customers? The “temlik” law of 1928 ............ 287 5.8 The issue of debt, old and new .......................................... 302 5.9 The official end of the compensation process .................. 311 5.10 Compensation for non-exchangees ................................... 312 5.11 Compensation policies for “non-exchangees” .................. 316 6 Conclusion ....................................................................................... 323 6.1 The emergence of “abandoned property” ......................... 325 vi 6.2 (Absent) Christian property owners, Muslims, and the nation state ...................................................................................... 327 6.3 The impact of the 1923 exchange convention .................. 332 6.4 Nation, state and people .................................................... 335 6.5 Abandoned property as a commodity ............................... 340 6.6 Prospects for future research ............................................ 342 Bibliography ............................................................................................. 344 Index ......................................................................................................... 367 vii Note on transcription and names Many of the Ottoman Turkish sources cited here (such as the parlia- mentary minutes) are available as transliterated texts. All of these are cited in accordance with the respective publication. Only those sources that I cite directly from the original Ottoman text in Arabic script are transcribed using the system of the İslam Ansiklopedisi, at times with some minor modifications that correspond to modern Turkish usage (vergi instead of vergü etc.). Ottoman and Turkish terms that appear in the main text are written without diacritics, apart from those used in contemporary Turkish (“Kâzım Paşa” etc.). There- fore, it is “tefviz” in the main text and “tefvīż” in the footnotes when the term appears in an Ottoman Turkish document, but “teffiz” when cited from an early republican law. Names are spelled according to modern Turkish conventions, unless when cited from other works . ix Acknowledgments This book is a revised and updated version of my PhD dissertation, which I defended in 2013 at Freie Universität Berlin. Throughout the years that I spent researching, writing, and revising, I have received unconditional emotional support from my mother and sister. Without them, writing this book would have been much more difficult. I am also grateful for the help and support I received from various institu- tions and individuals. In the course of these seven years, many people in Germany, the US, Turkey and Israel (friends, family, colleagues, and occasionally complete strangers that I met at parties and on trains) have shared their thoughts and their knowledge with me. These countless informal conversations have contributed to this book in many ways that I cannot even begin to list. A great deal of public funding has made this endeavor possible. I have been fortunate to receive various scholarships, both at the undergrad- uate level (Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst), and throughout my time as a graduate student (Exzellenzinitiative des Bundes, DAAD) and postdoctoral researcher (Bundesministerium für Bildung