The Dowry of the State? The Politics of Abandoned Property and the Population Exchange in

387 Pages·2017·5.14 MB·English

by  Ellinor Morack

9
Bamberger
Orientstudien
The Dowry of the State?
The Politics of Abandoned Property and
the Population Exchange in Turkey, 1921-1945
Ellinor Morack
9Bamberger Orientstudien
Bamberger Orientstudien
hg. von Lale Behzadi, Patrick Franke, Geoffrey Haig,
Christoph Herzog, Birgitt Hoffmann, Lorenz Korn
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