Cretan Turks

Anatolia has witnessed lots of migrations from ex-Ottoman territories throughout history. Especially the ones happened from the end of the 19th Century to the Republican Period played an important role to shape the social structure in modern Turkey.


It is aimed in this study to explore Cretan immigrants who had to migrate from the Island of Crete in 1890s and came to -relatively- a foreign cultural, linguistic, economic and political environment in Anatolia.


Research area of the study is Osmaniye Neighborhood, Davutlar where Cretan immigrants were settled in special houses built in 1902 for the refugees. Those Greek speaking immigrants mostly belonged to Bektashi sect that is one of the varied interpretations of Islam and had lots of cultural differences from local inhabitants of Anatolia like way of life, dressing and food.


This study is an exploration of an immigrant community’s memories and the cultural identity they have experienced through history, language, beliefs and food culture.

Λίγοι μουσουλμάνοι έχουν αφήσει τόσο έντονα το σημάδι τους στη λαϊκή παράδοση και την ιστοριογραφία της Κρήτης όσο ο περίφημος «πυργοδεσπότης» Ιμπραήμ Αληδάκης, αγάς του Αποκόρωνα. Η ιστορία του έχει διασωθεί χάρη σε ένα δημοτικό τραγούδι που περιγράφει τη σύγκρουσή του με τους Σφακιανούς και αποδίδεται στον Γιώργη Πάτερο,  ενώ ιδιαίτερα γνωστός στους Σφακιανούς και Αποκορωνιώτες είναι ο πύργος του, ο οποίος σώζεται σε καλή κατάσταση στη νότια πλευρά του Εμπρόσνερου, στη γειτονιά Μεσοχώρι. Ο πύργος εκτιμάται ότι χτίστηκε κατά τη Βενετοκρατία -μάλλον τον 15ο ή 16ο αιώνα- ως έπαυλη κάποιου τοπικού άρχοντα, αλλά στα μέσα του 18ου αιώνα πέρασε στον γενίτσαρο και αργότερα «μαλικιαναγά» (τιμαριούχο) Ιμπραήμ Αληδάκη, ο οποίος τον χρησιμοποίησε ως προσωπική κατοικία και έδρα των οικονομικών και στρατιωτικών του δραστηριοτήτων.

The Cretan Turks (and now their descendants) are a group of people who originally had lived in the Island of Crete till 1923 when the Obligatory Population Exchange Agreement signed between Turkey and Greece. Through almost the entire 19 th century, as a result of Greek revolts one after another in different times in history and the public order on the island was disrupted, the Cretan Turkish population in fear of their lives left their living places, became refugees and the demographic structure of the island changed in favor of the Orthodox Christians. Among those migrations, the biggest and the most decisive on the political future of the island is the Heraklion Events that started in 1897 which resulted in the migration of at least 40,000 Turks.

This population movement is particularly important as it caused the expansion of Cretan Turks to very different regions. The present existence of a Cretan community in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, the Rhodes and Kos Islands of Greece, along with (albeit few) Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, the Island of Cyprus and Palestine happened due to this immigration movement. This article approaches the immigration and settlement process that happened at the very end of the 19 th century as a result of a revolt in Crete, in a sudden and involuntary manner, in a period where the Ottoman Empire suffered from political, economic and social difficulties. Tracking the official records and by fieldwork where and how immigrants settled, how many and where new settlements were founded for them were analyzed with the methodological approaches of history and historical anthropology.