The Asia Minor refugee crisis through the Museum’s telegrams

To mark World Refugee Day, which was established by the UN in 2000 and is observed annually on June 20, the Museum highlights certain telegrams from its collection that shed light on the uprooting and resettlement of the Greeks of Asia Minor.

Following the collapse of the Asia Minor front in August 1922 and the signing of the Population Exchange Agreement between Greece and Turkey in January 1923, more than 1.2 million Greeks from Asia Minor, Pontus, and Eastern Thrace fled to Greece.

Most settled in Macedonia, Thrace, and the islands of the North Aegean, while a significant number established new settlements around Athens and Piraeus. The choice of Northern Greece as the primary settlement area served both to bolster the Greek population in regions that had recently been incorporated into the Greek state and to develop local agriculture and the economy.

Their resettlement, however, often provoked reactions from the local inhabitants, who contested the allocation of land and property that had been set aside for the needs of the resettlement. These were mainly former Muslim properties, but also public, church, and monastic lands that had been expropriated or requisitioned by the state and were often claimed or had already been encroached upon by the local populations.

The tensions between locals and refugees, which in some cases even escalated into bloody clashes, are reflected in several telegrams from that period. The specific telegrams presented here are part of the Museum’s collection of approximately 1,000 telegrams covering the period 1914–1955 and are included, among others, in the digital exhibition “Telegraphy and Telephony. Stories of Communication Before and After the Asia Minor Catastrophe.”

Telegrams from left:

1. 13/09/1922. The prefect of Heraklion issues a press release emphasizing the need to maintain order and social peace, while respect for and compliance with the law by citizens is deemed essential to address the critical situation. (MT-021819)
2. 18/08/1924. Members of the Council of the Domenikos Cooperative in Elassona request that the Ministry of Agriculture complete the division and distribution of land between locals and refugees, as there is fear of serious clashes between the two sides. (MT-023824)
3. 12/10/1924. The associations of Asia Minor, Thracians, and Pontians in the Edessa region protest to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the problems refugees face in cultivating land alongside the local population and demand that measures be taken to prevent clashes. (MT-023698)
4. 14/12/1924. The refugee associations of Lemnos request that the dispatch of new refugees be postponed due to the difficult conditions on the island, such as the lack of housing, fuel, and heating. (MT-023909)