Remembering through Material Culture: Local Knowledge of Past Communities in a Turkish

Black Sea Town

Author(s): Arzu ztrkmen
Source: Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 179-193
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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Remembering through Material Culture:

Local Knowledge of Past Communities in a
Turkish Black Sea Town
ARZU OZTURKMEN

This articlelooks at the interactionbetweennarrativesandmaterialculture

in the studyof the local historyof Tirebolu,a smalltown on the Turkish
BlackSeacoast.It derivedfroma largerprojectwhichhada differentfocus.
The originalprojectbeganin 1994 and continueduntil 2000. Duringthe
first partof the project(1994-96), the focus was primarilyon women's
knowledgeof domesticlife at the turnof the century.'The secondpartwas
undertakenduring2000, and looked at local knowledge,and the role of
'place' in the multiple ways of belonging to a certain locality. After
interviewinga totalof 32 people,2as the managerof the project,I realized
thatthereexisted an interestingdialoguebetweenplaces and people.The
way narrativesandmaterialculturewereinteractingeventuallybecamean
inevitablemethodologicalfocus in the handlingof bothresearchprojects.
At times,it was a narrativethatled me to chasea relic, whilstin other
cases, a conversationabouta neglectedrelic inspireda story to be told.
Women,for instance,talkedhoursaboutthe details of their houses, the
publicareasthey couldaccess, the beacheswherethey could swim, or the
rockswhich hid them.Men talkedmostly abouttheirbachelortimes, the
'youthplaces' such as secretmeetingcorners,old shops, or playgrounds
like cemeteries,hills and beaches. These narrativesrevealed a certain
knowledgeof the town'smaterialcultureandits historicalrelics.They led
the researchertowardsa visualizationof an earlierlife of the town at the
turnof the century.Then,the town had a mixedpopulationthatincluded
Turks(85 per cent), Greeks(15 per cent) and Armenians(one per cent),
with an ethnic division of labouras describedby E. Gellner.3In many
narratives,
thisearlierlife of Tirebolusurfacedas fragmentsof storiesabout
past communities,raisingcuriosityaboutthe old appearanceof the town,
andstoriesof old relics.
Rememberingthrough material culture revealed indeed a local
knowledgeof past communitiesboth Muslimand non-Muslimalike. The
Middle EasternStudies, Vol.39, No.2, April 2003, pp.179-193
PUBLISHED BY FRANK CASS, LONDON

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180

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

local knowledgerelatingto the non-Muslimcommunitieswas particularly

significant,as it illustratedbetter how narrativesand materialculture
interactedmethodologically.In fact, Tirebolu was not one of those
Anatolian towns, densely populated with non-Muslimcommunities.4
Nevertheless,materialremnantsdating back to these communitiesand
narrativesaboutthemstill persistedandwereworthyof beingexplored.As
DavidLowenthalsaid, 'Likememories,relicsonce abandonedor forgotten
may becomemoretreasuredthanthosein continueduse; the discontinuity
in theirhistoryfocusesattentionon them'.'In the case of Tirebolu,objects
of materialculture,such as old houses,churchremains,cemeteries,shops
andgardensbecameimportantelementswhichstimulatednarrativesabout
pastcommunities.However,it was only throughthesenarrativesthatsome
of these materialremnants,hardlynoticeabletoday,becamevisible to the
researcher'seye.
In Turkishnationalhistory,the case of the 'Pontic'6communitieshas been
overshadowedby stories of nationalresistance.7Althoughthe founding
mythof the new nationstatebeganin 1919 in a BlackSea town,Samsun,
the landmarkbattlesthatwerefoughtagainstGreekandFrenchtroopstook
place primarily in western, southern and south-east Anatolia. The
the populationexchangein 1924betweenGreeceandTurkey,
'Muibadele',
was also primarilyassociatedwiththe AegeanandThraciancommunities.8
Althoughthe exchangealso affectedthe BlackSea region,the Aegeanand
Thracianexperiencesdominatedthe publicmemoryaboutthe separationof
thetwo communities,becauseof the largernumberof peopleit affectedand
the geographicalclosenessto modemGreece.
In fact,BlackSea communitieshadexperiencedseparation
muchearlier
thanthose living in the AegeanandThracianregions.Beginningwith the
in 1915,the experienceof separationextendedto the
Armeniandeportation
aftermathof the occupationof Trabzonby the Russianarmyin 1916.When
the Russiansadvancedalong the coast, Turkishcommunitiesbegan to
escape into the mountainsor towardsthe westernBlack Sea towns. In
contemporary
narratives,this periodis called the time of the muhacirlik,
'themigration',whichis markedby the loss of familymembersandhomes
for BlackSea Muslims.Later,afterthe BolshevikRevolution,the Russian
armyretreated,andfurtherclashesdevelopedbetweentheMuslimandnonMuslimcommunities.The periodbetween1914 and 1922 was chaoticfor
bothsides,as Muslimsexperiencedthe muhacirlikandmanynon-Muslims
had to flee to Batumandto Istanbul,or were drivenout by the new state
authoritiesor local forces.Today,mostnarrators
do not recallthe detailsof
the conflicts, nor the ethnic differences among the non-Muslim
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PAST COMMUNITIES

IN A TURKISH BLACK SEA TOWN

181

communities.Often,these experiencescome togetherto pointto a single

conflict.The differentphasesof the regionalhistory,suchas the Armenian
deportation(1915), the muhacirlikexperience(1916-23), the powerof the
local militias (1916-22), and the Miibadele,the populationexchange
betweenGreeceandTurkey(1924), areremembered
as one majorconflict
betweenthe Muslimsandthe non-Muslims.
This article aims to explore how materialculture and narratives
interactedin rememberingthose times, and notablyin remembering'the
others'. The focus here is on developing a methodology,going from
materialcultureto narrativeand from narrativeback to materialculture,
ratherthan on rewritingthe history of ethnic relationsin this part of
Anatolia.Needlessto say, the narrativescollectedfor this researchreflect
theMuslim-Turkish
experienceonly.Theyare,however,mostsignificantin
stressingtheimportance
of comparative
oralhistoryresearch.It is important
to pointthatthey shouldbe readwithinthe contextof othernarratives,like
those of the PonticandotherAnatolianGreeksandArmenians,andof the
Muslim communitiesremoved from the Balkans,the Aegean Islands,
Crimeaandthe Caucasussincethe FirstWorldWar.9
The pursuitof local historyresearchin the BlackSea area,focusingon the
communitystructureof the late nineteenthand early twentiethcenturies,
requiresa close look at personalnarrativesand the remainsof material
culture.Writtenrecordsdatingbackto Ottomantimesinformus aboutthe
numbersof differentcommunities,the scope of their trade and their
properties.However,they do not give us an image of how the social and
culturallife was structured
betweenthem.Especiallyin a contextwherethe
materialtracesof earliercommunitieswere washedout by the wild Black
Sea climate,and wherethe appearanceof traditionaltowns and villages
underwentradicalchangesafter 1923 by the forces of modernization
and
nation-building,
oralhistorybecomesthe only significantapproachto learn
more aboutthis particularperiod.Althoughmost of the narrativesdating
backto the Ottomanpastare second-handstories,theyneverthelessremain
the only availableverbalsourcesin Turkishaboutearliercommunities.
Theoriginaloralhistoryresearchprecedingthis studywas conductedin
Tirebolu,at differenttimesbetween1994and2000. Thirty-twopeoplewere
interviewedthroughoutthe research;17 of thesewerewomenand 15 were
men,rangingbetweenthe ages of 40 and90. Althoughthelife historyof the
individualsconstitutedthemainframeof the interview,it was observedthat
the narrativesdid not remainwithinthe boundariesof the personal.During
the interviews,theconstruction
of thelife historywas notmuchinterrupted,
leavingroomfor the interviewee'schoice of emphasizingpartsof his/her

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182

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

life. Thismadeit possibleto focuson differentpocketsof time,invitingthe

intervieweesto talk more about their formersocial lives, to remember
individualneighbours,enemies or best friends,and to refer to various
places,rites of passagesor landmarklocal events.In this way, one could
observethat the narrativeoften extendedto what CliffordGeertzcalled
'localknowledge'.Geertzusedthe term'local'in a broadersensethanjust
to referto 'a place, time, class, anda varietyof issues, but as to accentvernacularcharacterizations
of what happens connectedto vernacular
imaginingsof whatcan'. He illustratedthis idea with the notionof 'law',
arguingthata locallydevelopedlegal sensibility- whichin ourcase would
be a locally developed sense of history - was 'a complex of
characterizations
andimaginings,storiesabouteventscastin imageryabout
theprinciples'.10
Theway ourmemorystoredandselectedknowledgeabout
pastcommunities,andhow thisknowledgewas usedto shapeone'srelation
to his/herpresentlocality,emergedas an importantthemeof this study.
In theirnarratives,the intervieweesreferredto the Armenian,Greek,
Turkish or Muslim communities as 'Ermeniler', 'Rumlar', 'Tuirkler'or

'Miisliimanlar' respectively. They used 'Greeks' and 'Armenians'

interchangeably,
oftenmixingthemup, or essentiallyreferringto a concept
of 'gavur', the 'non-Muslim',regardlessof their ethnicity.The terms
'Turks'and 'Muslims'were also interchangeably
used. The issue of past
communities,andin particularstoriesaboutthe non-Muslims,oftenraised
discomfortwith the male informants.Comparedwith many women who
sharedstories about old non-Muslimcommunities,men expressedtheir
uneasiness about being taped on these issues. The majority of the
informantsgave permissiononly to use theirinitials,a conditionwhichwill
be respectedthroughoutthis article.
Tirebolu, originally Tripolis, was an importantsettlementbefore the
Ottoman conquest of the area in the fifteenth century. The Turkic
population,the (7epnis,hadbegunto settlein the BlackSea areafromthe
thirteenthcentury,but Tirebolucame under Ottomanrule only in the
fifteenthcentury,probablybeforethe conquestof Trabzonby MehmetII in
1461. The settlementwithin the town shiftedin time from the Hamam
neighbourhood
to the (arpn area,allowingnewcommunitiesto makehomes
in differentpartsof the town. The economyconsistedof fishing,copper
mining,andhazelnutfarming,allowingthe townto have a prosperousand
lively sociallife fromthe fifteenthto the nineteenthcenturies."However,to
an outsiderwithno knowledgeof its history,today'sTireboludoes not give
manyhintsaboutthis earlierlife. Like any otherAnatoliansmalltown,it
displays old and neglected houses, half-finishedand unpaintednew

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PAST COMMUNITIES

IN A TURKISH BLACK SEA TOWN

183

buildings,minormunicipalservicesand an unemployedmale population

strollingthroughthetownduringtheday.In thepastdecade,however,there
has been a suddenboom in the numberof new enterprises,especiallyin
buildings.
construction,
replacingold housesby new panoramicapartment
'Change'is a significantandpejorativetermsurfacingin the narratives
of theelderlypeopleof today'sTirebolu.In contrastwithsomeothercoastal
towns of the Black Sea, they see their town as having deteriorated
significantlysincethe 1930s.Mostelderlypeoplereferto the pastwiththe
nostalgiaof a bettersocial life ('Eskidenya$antlqoktu').In theirwords,
Tireboluis nowa 'fallentown'whencomparedwiththeactualstateof other
nearbylocalities,or withits late OttomanandearlyRepublicanpast.
Nostalgiafor the past often surfacesthroughnarrativesthatemphasize
thetown'sregionalimportanceas anactiveportandits prosperityattheturn
of the century.Contactswith other culturesform the highlightof the
Ottomanpast, such as the trade with Russia, where golden dowry,
chinawareor simplywood were exchangedmainlyfor hazelnuts.It seems
in Russiancircles,like
thatsome familieshadeven establishedtrademarks
thatof O.X'sfather's'M.N' referringto MustafaNiyazi.
Onthe otherhand,the memoryof the earlyRepublicanerais associated
withimagesof the modernityof the 1930sandthe 1940s.Thisperiodkeeps
a specialplacein the collectivememoryof Tirebolu'slocals.In theireyes,
it is thesepastimagesof modernitythatdistinguishtheirowntown'sculture
from that of neighbouringtowns and villages, like Espiye, Bulancakor
Gorele.Forthem,Tirebolumayhavedecayedin recentdecades,butit had
beena townof 'finetaste',whencomparedwiththe 'vulgar'(kaba)culture
of other towns. Womenwearingelegant hats in the streetsof Tirebolu
duringthe 1930sforma strongimagein the mindsof thetownspeople.This
image is also recollectedas an importantsymbolof modernity:the town
once had an elite interestedin art, people who playedthe piano and the
violin, made modernoil paintingsfor the walls of theirhouses, attended
theatreperformancesandjoined 'gardenparties'in the Cumhuriyet
Parki
(Parkof the Republic).Thefactthatthe smalltheatrehadprivateboxesand
thatthe Parkhad a 'dansing',a danceplatform,is still rememberedand
inducesa certainsense of pride.Both the dansingand the theatrehave
survived,but they are usually passed by, unnoticed.Had they not been
mentionedin thenarratives
of N.M.,$.K. andI.S.,one wouldnothavebeen
awareof them.
Somewomenwhowerebornin this 'fallentown',butwho grewup with
of thegoodold days,relatetheseearlyimagesof modernityto the
narratives
town'sGreekandArmeniancommunities.N.K., for instance,explainsthis
relationshipas follows:'2

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184

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

GreeksandArmeniansherewereunveiled;just the way we walkout

today,theywerealso like that.At weddings,brideswouldcome with
theirfaces uncovered,like ourbridestoday;they wouldwalkarmin
armwiththe groom,andourpeoplewouldgo out to watchthem.
This comparisonof 'us' with the 'others'surfacesonly when asked.The
collectivememoryholds and storesthese types of stories,but it uncovers
themonly whenthey are searchedfor.The 'richlife' of one Greekfamily,
the Mavridis,came out, for instance,when half of the interviewswere
alreadycompleted.Whenthe subjectwas pursued,the laterinterviewees
revealedeloquentnarrativesaboutthe family: The Mavridishouse was
situatedat a strategicpoint of the town, now called the HiikiimetDuzii
(Government Square), and looked just 'splendid'. The community
discoveredthe detailsof the housewhenit was sold to a Turkishfamilyin
Republicantimes. Mavridis,it is told, had a centralheatingsystemand a
beautifulgardenwith a privatehamam,a Turkishbath.Whentheirfather
got sick,theywereableto afforda tripto Londonto get himgoodtreatment
(A.H.).Yetthe familyturnedoutto be thepoorestamongthe PonticGreeks
now living in Greece,becausethey had no skills to make a living there
(K.A.).In fact, the wealthof the Mavridisis describedin the contextof a
grandnarrativeof how Tireboluwas prosperousand progressivein the
oldentimes.The housewas demolishedin the earlyyearsof the Republic,
butits memoryperpetuated
the familyglamour.
To a carefuleye, the town still offerssome othermaterialsigns of past
communities:the facades of old houses and shops, and the remainsof
churchesare among them. The locals particularlyemphasizethe stone
craftsmanshipat the front doors of two differentbuildingsas 'from the
kalma').Tracesof the threechurchesare
timesof the Greeks'('Rumlardan
harder to find. They are either fully invisible or disguised as an
unrecognizedruin.The Armenianchurchwas locatedin the centreof the
town. It was sold in the earlydays of the Republicas 'emval-imetruke',
abandonedproperty.Thechurchwas halfwaysunkintothe groundandwas
partiallyused as a dumpingarea,yet its outerstructureremainedin one
piece untilvery recently.As its locationbecamein time morefashionable,
its currentownerdemolishedthe outerwalls in the summerof 2000, but
could not replaceit with a new buildingas the mayoropposedany new
constructionon the site.'3The churchbell was kept until recentlyon the
it was usedduring
highestpointof the town,the Ayanaheight.Apparently,
the Second WorldWar to be rung in an emergency.It also became a
anda well-frequented
settingfor
panoramicframefor familyphotographs,
picnicsand children'sgames.The bell was finally sold in 1963 by one of
the mayors,still criticizedfor his decisionamongthe locals who believed
the bell was an 'original'partof the local heritage(H.E.,N.M.).

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PAST COMMUNITIES

IN A TURKISH BLACK SEA TOWN

185

One of the two Greek churches completely disappeared in time,

although no one remembershow and when. Some believe that it was in the
centre of the town, and others say that it was on top of the Ayana height
(A.Y.). The other Greek church is disguised in a private property in
'Kirseburnu'(the ChurchPoint). Kirseburnu,very much like Ayana, was a
frequently visited setting for public picnics, especially during the spring
festivities of Hzdzrellez,celebrated both by Muslims and non-Muslims,
although on different days. Next to the relics of a half-demolished Greek
church, there are holes in the rock for storing wine, surroundedby olive
trees planted by the priests. The family which now owns the land had
problems in the past with burglarswho broke into the church to search for
gold or other precious material. That most Greeks hid their precious
belongings near the church walls has been a common belief. This belief
became much strongeras the grandchildrenof TireboluGreeks paid regular
visits to the town after the 1950s, asking about the location of particular
houses or rocks around the church. To deal with such nuisances, the new
owners decided to build a wall on the demolished part of the church and
began using it to lodge the maraba, the temporary workers employed in
hazelnut farming. But they had a special attachment to the wine storage
wells, which they think, deserved an archaeological excavation, 'just like
they did on the Aegean coast and the Mediterranean'(T.H.).
If Kirseburnuis rememberedfor its lively picnic scenes, the memory of
the Armenian church came out in the narrativesabout the lively social life
of the early Republican days. This building initiated many townspeople to
the cinema. An entrepreneurby the name of $akiroglu convertedthe church,
in the late 1940s, into a cinema and a wedding hall. Ironically,the building
continued to have 'Sunday visitors' on Republican days, as special
screenings, restrictedto women and children, would only take place on that
day. These 'Sunday visits' would usually be preceded by a pide (Pita) party,
which still continues to be a local tradition in the town. Given that Greek
masters operated most bakeries, one can argue that today's tradition of
eating the pide as a family brunch on Sundays, is somehow connected to a
much earliertraditioninitiatedby the non-Muslim communities of the town.
While the relics of the two churches (the Armenianand the Kirseburnu)
inspired narrativesto come to the surface, narrativesabout the third church
invited one to imagine and visualize its physical existence. Was it built on
top of the beautiful Ayana hill, or was it located at the centre of the town?
Researchershave no choice but to pursueboth directions in orderto picture
the older state of the town with its former communities: from material
culture to narrativesand from narrativesto materialculture.Each way helps
them to search for the meaning of these places and stories in the present
discourses about the 'good old Tirebolu'.

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186

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

In telling their life histories,many intervieweesplaced their childhood

houses at the centre of their narratives.Especiallywomen's narratives
offered detaileddescriptionsof the domestic life that evolved in their
houses.Theyalso transmitted
storiesheardfromtheirin-laws,informingus
abouttheformerinhabitants
of thesehouses.Manyof theold housesdidnot
survive,but the storiesof how they weredemolishedor repaired,andwho
theoriginalownerswere,continueto live in the mindsof peoplewhoreside
in them(O.X.,M.N., N.M.).
This
Amongmanysuch houses,N.M. recallsthatof her grandmother.
house,once ownedby a Greekcaptainby the nameof Yorgi,was builton
fromRussia.N.M.remembers
the shore,standingon largestiltstransported
the houseas a 'magnificent'building,standingup to the harshwavesof the
Black Sea for years,and makingits inhabitantsaddictedto the soundof
these waves. The so-called'DirekliEv' (The Houseon Stilts),was lately
demolishedby its inheritorsto be replacedby a modemapartment
building,
allowingeachresidentto havehis or herown flat
Storiesof the old housesareoftenlinkedwiththe muhacirliknarratives.
Muhacirlik,as explainedearlier,refers in the region to the temporary
migrationof the Muslimcommunitiesto westernBlack Sea towns, like
Samsun,Gerze,Sinop, Orduor Giresun,fleeing from the Russianarmy,
which occupiedTrabzonin 1916. Accordingto the locals, the Russians
advancedto the HarpitRiver,nearTirebolu,but they could not cross it.
However,theybombedthe townfromthe otherside of the river,as well as
fromthe sea. Manybelievethatthe tombsof the saintslocatedby the river
and 'theirghosts appearingin theirturbans'scaredthe enemy away and
protectedTirebolu(M.N.,N.K.). The intervieweeswere very youngat the
time. Some were bornduringthe muhacirlik,outsideTirebolu.However,
they preservedthe stories of the houses they inhabited.Women, in
were the ones who listenedto andbecamethe tradition-bearers
particular,
of storiesthattheirown familiesor theirin-lawsusedto tell. M.N.wasborn
duringthe muhacirlik,and ironically,in a Greek woman'shouse. Her
narrativegave an insider'saccountof the experience:
I was born in Gerze. My motherused to say: 'You were born in
Despini'shouse'.Threeor fourfamiliestogether,they wentto Gerze
in one month.[All they had was] one bag of dry beans.They sailed
duringthe day andspentthe nighton the riverbank.In port,theydid
not let theTirebolupeopleenterthe town.Therewas cholera... They
stayed there for four years ... Then there was peace, there came

Ataturk.I was two months'old whenI camebackhere.TheRussians

had bombed[the town],thathouse was burneddown.My father-inlaw, however,placed a Koranon the ceiling beforehe left, so this

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PAST COMMUNITIES IN A TURKISH BLACK SEA TOWN

187

housewasnotdestroyed.My motherusedto say 'Beingwithouthome

is worsethangoingwithoutbread.'
As narrativesabout the old houses inspired the muhacirlikstories,
intervieweesgave accountsof hardships,deprivationand loss of many
familymembers.Thesenarrativesalso openedthe way to explanationshow
the Greeksand Armenianswere expelled.Manyof such narrativesbegan
with an accountof how the non-Muslimcommunitiesof the town cooperatedwith the Russiansafterthe occupationof Trabzon.Accordingto
M.N.'s 'narrativein rhyme',the Greeksof Tireboluhad sent a messageto
the RussiansaboutfleeingTurks:
Therewere lots of Greekshere,my motherused to say. The Greeks
senta messageto the Russians[saying]:becauseof the war,the town
has emptiedout. Theysaid:
'Come!
Whatthey [theMuslims]burnis brushwood,
Whatthey eat is maize,
Whatremainsarewidows!
Don'twait,come', they said.
Theco-operationof thenon-MuslimswiththeRussiansemergedas a strong
belief expressedin other narrativesas well. S.M., for instance,told a
second-handnarrativeabout Tirebolu'swell-knownArmenianmerchant
DavidAga. Apparently,
DavidAga was in Batumwhenthe Russianarmy
occupiedTrabzon.Followingthe Russians,he arrivedat Trabzon,wherehe
metHasantheporter,anothernativeof Tirebolu.HasanreportedthatDavid,
walkingalongsideRussiansoldiers,stuckout his tongueandmockedhim.
this story,S.M. addedthathe met DavidAga in Istanbul,in
Remembering
the 1930s,wherethey bothfrequentedthe 'Tirebolucoffee house' located
in Karakoy.
Whenthe Turksreturnedfromthe muhacirlik,they foundmostof their
housesbombedby the Russiannavy,or burnedby the fleeingnon-Muslims
afterthe Russianarmy'sretreat.The stateof muhacirlikis recalledin the
folk songs,as muchas in the local narratives:
Thismuhacirlikhas brokenmy back.
My homein Polathana,I wantit back
CruelMoskof(Russian)burnedit down,
He burnedmy homeanddestroyedit.
Later,in the earlyRepublicandays, some of these burnedandabandoned
houses were put on sale as 'emval-imetruke',abandonedproperty.S.1.

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MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

recalled the trips that her husbandmade to Bursa to trace the Greek
ownersof Tireboluhouses which were up for sale. Admiringthe energy
of herhusbandin makingso manytripsunderdifficult
anddetermination
roadconditions,S.t. describedhim as 'diligent' and 'hardworking'.For
others, however, people who sought such fortunes, be it houses or
hazelnutgroves ownedby non-Muslims,were men of no education,who
endedup beingjust merchants,'haramis'[peopleliving by illicit gains]
of the town. Even today,one can hear stories how such property,once
belongingto non-Muslims,was spent as fast as it was acquired,or else
broughtunhappinessto families who owned it. Thereis also resentment
for the prominentiof the early Republicanera, who developed close
relationshipswith the local state officials in charge of the sale of
abandonedproperty(M.T.,H.E.).
thenarratives
If the memoryof old housesleadsto narratives
of muhacirlik,
of muhacirlikeventuallyend up revealingmemoriesof the momentof
separationbetweenMuslimsandnon-Muslims.Thefigureof TopalOsman,
a controversialcharacterin Turkishnationalhistory,often comes up with
mixedfeelings.TopalOsmanwas the leaderof militiaformedaround1916
in the BlackSea area.In the beginning,he foughtthe Russianinvasion,but
later he targeted both the non-Muslims, whom he framed as the
collaborators
of Russians,andthe Muslimswho protectedthem.In fact, a
rhetoric of 'good neighbourlyrelations' ('iyi komWuluk
yaparlarmin')
amongboth communitiesstill prevailed;N.K.'s accountbeing a case in
point:
Thisis the way theywereborn,grewup,togetherwiththem[thenonMuslims],seeing one another,neighbouringone another,causingno
harmto one another,butwho knowswhethertheyhadotherthoughts
in theirheads.
Othernarratives,
however,pointedto anotheraspectof thatrelationship:
how the GreeksandArmeniansleft thetown.Theywerenarratedas normal
happenings,andthe ease of tellingthe storywas often mixedwith a sense
of pity followed by a statementof justification.Some intervieweesgave
accountsof theverymomentof separation.
N.K.narrated,
forinstance,how
of herneighbourwho told her:
hermotherrecalledthe departure
Hatcanim[HaticeHanim],Hatcanim,don'tyou eat oureggplants,we
aregoing to the mountains,we'll come back,don'tyou breakin into
ourgarden,don'tyou eat oureggplants.
But theydid not come back.

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Similarly,M.N. imitatedhergrandmother's
neighbourwho shouted:
hideme, hideme, theyare
Rahimanim[RahimeHanmm],
Rahimanim,
takingus away.
was scared:'I was scared,how couldI hide her,
My grandmother
the governmentwouldburnme out too', she usedto say.
Hukiimet,'the government',was of courseTopalOsmanhimself.S.I., the
wife of the wealthiestman of Tireboluin the early Republicanyears,
expressedmixed feelings aboutTopalOsman,althoughher family owed
theirfortuneto theirinvestmentin abandonedproperties:
OsmanAga was the king of this area.He could cut and hang as he
pleased,and nobodyquestionedhim. He was one who turnedout a
villain;his brotherHaciEfendiwas a truegentleman.
This narrative,despisingTopalOsman,was neverthelessaccompaniedby
another,whichlegitimizedhim:
He cleanedup Giresunfrom the Greeksfor instance;therewas no
otherway the Greekswouldleave.Mostof themfled at night,renting
boats ... Could you say what you thought?Everybody kept silent.

how her
S.S., whosefatherknewTopalOsmanpersonally,remembered
childhoodfriendMariahadone day 'disappeared'.
Oneday,afterbreakfast,
she wentas usualto herfriend'shouseandcalled 'Maria,Maria'.Thenshe
sawthatMaria'sfrontdoorwas open.As she walkedin, she sawthatall the
furnitureof the house was overturned.Scared,she ran away.Despiteher
young age, she was awarethat somethingunusualwas happeningin the
community.Alongwithotherchildren,she quicklyrealizedthatthe family
hadgone for good.The firstthingthatthe childrendid was to breakin into
the bakeryownedby Maria'sfather:
Weopenedthe littleshop,we pushedthe doorandit opened.Wetook
the money.Therewere two scales, we took the scales. 'I'll sell the
I said ... Temelarrived,tookthe scalesawayandthe money
simits',4
too. My mothersaid,'Aie,thesearegavurthings,theyarenotedible',
andwe distributed
themin the neighbourhood.
In fact, S.S.'s mother,who preventedher childrenfromprofitingfromthe
last simitsof the bakery,anddid not let herchildrenenjoythe confiscated
goods,seemedto havehadmoreof an ethicalconcernthana religiousone.
This bakery still stands at the bottom of the steps leading to the
The traditionaloven does not operateany
Mezarlhkbapzneighbourhood.
more,but the shop is kept as a locationwherebreadcoming from other
bakeriescontinuesto be sold. Yearslater,Maria'sbrotherKosti visited
TireboluandupdatedS.S. on how the wholefamilywas doing:

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190

MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

Theycame,theylookedaround,theyleft;theyalsotalkedwithus. They
recognizedme.TheywereolderthanI was.Theyaskedaboutmyfather.
My friendMariahaddied.Kosti(herbrother)came,lookedat theplace
of theiroldhouse,andleft.Herecognizedme,I couldnotrecognizehim.
'I am Kosti'he said.Untilthe dayshe [Maria]died,he said,she called
'My sisterS., my sisterS'. Eliza [Maria'ssister]had also married.I
askedaboutmy AuntBini. 'She diedlong ago' he said.She too, died
remembering
'Mybrother$iikru,my brother$ukrii[S.S.'sfather]'.
S.S.'s father,who was close to TopalOsman,helped some of his Greek
friendsflee Tirebolu.He distinguishedbetween'good' and 'bad' Greeks,
S.S. tells, and saved some, while not protectingothers.Amongthose he
protected,was this old Greekwoman,whomthe whole familycalled 'Bini
Hala' (AuntBini):
Biniwas like a sisterto my father.Theywoulddrinktogether.Shewas
his best friend.Theywouldcome andgo together.
AuntBiniis theheroineof a storyvividlykeptin S.S'.s repertoire.
The story
was abouta controversial
Easterdinner(Kizil YumurtaCemiyeti),to which
otherTireboluGreekshadinvitedS.S.'sfather.S.S.believedthattheyintended
to kill herfatherthatnight,andthatit was AuntBiniwhoprotectedhim:
Onenighttheyhavea gathering,an Eastergathering,theyalso invite
my father ... While they were sitting and drinking together, all the

otherGreeksfromthe Iferi neighbourhood

came to Bini's house ...
they were going to kill my father.This time, my fatherunderstands,
he pretendedto be drunkof course,they were going to shoot my
father... 'I will ruin you all', she [AuntBini] said, '$0krdis my
brother',she said, 'you cannotdo this' she said.My fatherhearsthis,
and gets up as if he is awakening from drunkenness ... My father

listensto them.This time, he says to Bini, 'My sisterBini', he says,

'Letus go down,Asiye [S.S.'smother]mustbe readyathomeby now,
she will waitfor me, she will not go to sleep'he says.Fromthere,she
shouts, 'My brother $iikrii is a little drunk, come' she says ... My

mothershootsone shot as she comes, 'I am comingAuntBini' she

says. She comes, she takesmy father,so does Bini, they sit together
... My fatherhelps Bini flee becausehe liked her, he took her to
Istanbul.Muchlater,Kostis,Dimitris,Binis, they all sentnews from
Salonicato my father,tellinghim 'Wearehere'.It is my fatherwho
helpedsome of those,they had a boatfurtherout, so they took them
away ... They placed cotton bags on the sides of the boat against

the bullets.'
AuntBini was a furrierandit seemedthatshe was in businesswith S.S.'s
father,who providedher with fur animalsfrom surrounding
villages.S.S.

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191

remembered
the detailsof a furcoatthatAuntBini madeforher:'smallfur
collar,fur cuffs, sewn on a burgundyvelvet'. Althoughno materialrelic
survivedfromthe timesof theseneighbours,exceptperhapsthe old bakery
shop,andthe lively imageof a little fur coat, S.S.'s memoryof themwas
very vivid: 'We called her 'Hala' (paternalaunt)',she said, 'together,we
would eat at her house, and she would eat in ours ... She was older.We
wouldcall herAuntBini. Evennow,I love heras AuntBini. So didMaria,
so did Eliza.'
Nevertheless,while telling these stories,S.S. did not forgetfinally to
side with her father,who used to say 'Hadwe not done this to them,they
wouldhave doneit to us'. The deep sense of distrustrootedin the clashes
of the earlynineteenthcenturyoverpowersall othermemories.S.S. was a
first-handnarratorof what she had heard and witnessed.Her account
differedfrom othernarratives,which were told with a sense of distance
from'theothers'andthedramaembeddedin themomentsof separation.
As
second-handnarratives,they were framedas stories and experiencesof
formergenerations,words about a remote past, spoken from a certain
distance,and easier to tell. The narrativesof N.K. and of M.N. at the
moment of separationare illustrativeof such second-handnarratives.'5
Collective memory keeps these narrativesfor at least two or three
generationswithoutexaggeratingthemmore.Theyarealso retrospectively
reconstructedstories, therefore told within a nationalist framework,
followingeightdecadesof separateexistencein nationstates.
In the age of nationstates,we have a tendencyto take appearancesfor
granted.Followingeightdecadesof nation-building,
smalltownsin Turkey
look the same,with theirpublicoffices, signs of a nationaleconomyand
centralizedhighwaysystem.The Republicanoutlookdominatesthe first
impressionof thesetowns,buta carefulobservationof theirmaterialculture
reveals importantclues for furtherhistoricalresearch.The individual
historyof the towns carriesparticulartracesof deeply rootedtraditions,
which distinguishthem from or connectsthem to otherlocalities.As the
Tirebolucase shows,personalnarratives
oftensupporttheknowledgeof the
materialcultureof a particularlocality.Rewritinglocal historiesthrough
oral historyand materialcultureresearchoffer a new perspectivein the
evaluationof nationalhistory.It is also importantto note how personal
narrativesexpose past experiencesin a varietyof ways, often conflicting
with one another.To Tirebolupeople,theirGreekand Armenianheritage
was now a remotepast.The absenceof these communitieslookednormal,
but fortunesmade by acquiringtheir abandonedpropertywere not well
received.Theirremainingrelicswereneglected,buttheirmemorywas kept

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MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

192

The bell of the Ayanaheightandthe splendidhouseof the

andtransmitted.
Mavridisare missingand missed,while old place namesare still used in
daily conversations. Terms such as Ermeni Mezarligi (Armenian
Cemetery),Kirseburnu(ChurchPoint),GogorBahqesi(Gogor'sGarden),
Todor'unYeri (Todor'sPlace), and Yani Yeri (Yanni'sPlace) survived
constructed,narratives
process.Retrospectively
despitethe nation-building
within the framesof the
aboutpast communitieswere re-contextualized
muhacirlikand the nation-buildingexperiences.In this respect, they
illustratehow variousphasesof the past operatedin a cumulativeway to
shapeandto redefinethe local knowledgeof pastcommunitystructures.
NOTES
The research on which this article is based was partially funded by Bogaziqi Universitesi
Aratinrna Fonu (project code 01HB901) and partially by a grant from the ME Awards
Programmein Population and the Social Sciences, the Population Council, WANA Regional
Office in Cairo.
1. The findings of the research were presented to the Oral History Association's Annual
Meeting in Philadelphia,1996, to the AmericanFolkloreSociety Meeting in 1997, and to the
EuropeanScience FoundationMeetings in 1997 and 1998.
2. Fifteen were interviewedbetween 1994 and 1996, and 18 during2000.
3. See ErnestGellner,Nations and Nationalism (Oxford:Basil Blackwell, 1983).
4. According to Faruk Siumer'sarchivalrecords, the total populationof the town in 1893-94
included 34,513 Turks, 5,954 Greeks and 484 Armenians. See F. Siumer,TireboluTarihi
(Istanbul:TurkDiinyasiniArastirmaVakfi, 1992).
5. D. Lowenthal,Past Is a Foreign Country(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press, 1988),
p.240.
6. The term 'Pontic' refersto the Black Sea area.
7. Beginning with the Balkan War (1912) the OttomanEmpirebegan to disintegrate,and was
finallyoccupiedby the Europeanpowersin the aftermathof the FirstWorldWar.TheAnatolian
resistanceled by Atatiurkcontinueduntil the foundingof the TurkishRepublicin 1923.
8. For a detailed survey of the Greek-Turkish population exchange, see K. An, Biuyuik
Miibadele(Istanbul:TarihVakfiYurtYayinlan, 1995). For oral historyresearchon the Greek
experienceof the populationexchange, see R. Hirschon,Heirs of the GreekCatastrophe:The
Social Life of Asia Minor Refugees in Piraeus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989). For a
memoir on the expulsion of Greeks, see Y. Andreadis, Tamama:Pontus'un YitikKizi
(Istanbul:Belge Yayinlan, 1993).
9. The Asia Minor Centre in Athens, Greece offers a wide range of oral narrativeson Greek
communitieswhich migratedfromAnatolia.For a similarexperienceof CretanMuslims, see
K.P.Stathakou,'The CompulsoryExchangeof Populationsbetween Greece andTurkeyafter
1923: The Case of Muslims of Crete', in Crossroads of History: Experience, Memory,
Orality, Proceedings of the XIth IOHA Conference (Istanbul:Bogaziqi University Press,
2000), pp.1066-9. For the experience of BulgarianMuslims, see also F. Saygiligil-Giindiiz,
'1928 Yilinda Balcibiik Koyunden (Bulgaristan)Firuzk6y'e (Istanbul) G6q Edenlerle ve
(CocuklanylaYapilan Sozlu TarihCali*masi'(An oral history study with the migrantsand
their children, who migrated in 1928 from Balcibiik Village (Bulgaria) to Firuzkoy
(Istanbul)',in Crossroadsof History, pp.1042-9.
10. C. Geertz,Local Knowledge:FurtherEssays in InterpretiveAnthropology(New York: Basic
Books, 1983), p.215.
11. Siumer,Tirebolu.

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193

12. Since the informantsdid not sign a form of consent, only their initials are used in this article.
13. The Mayor also statedthat the building was visited and examinedby a team of expertswho
found it of lesser importance compared with other better-kept churches in Trabzon or
Samsun,which have frescoes.
14. Simit is a traditionalsesame bagel.
15. N.K.'s 'Hatcanim,Hatcamm, don't you eat our eggplants, we go to the mountains,we'll
come back, don't you breakin to our garden,don't you eat our eggplants. But they did not
come back', or M.N.'s "'Rahimamm,Rahimanim,hide me, hide me, they are taking us
away." My grandmotherwas scared:"I was scared, how could I hide her, the government
would burnme too" she used to say.'

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