From: eerginel@unix.amherst.edu (ERDEM ERGINEL)
Subject: Re: Linovambakoi
Organization: Amherst College
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL7]
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 16:02:31 GMT

Gregory  Dandulakis (gd8f@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU) wrote:
: In article <C1BsBq.Hrv@unix.amherst.edu> eerginel@unix.amherst.edu (ERDEM ERGINEL) writes:
: >
: >In short, I don't believe that there was a great number of Greeks who
: >converted to Islam and then became internal parts of the Turkish Cypriot
: >society. The claim that they constitute "the majority of the Turkish
: >CyhCypriots", as was claimed certain sources, especially the Greek Cypriot
: >churc, is far from truth.
: 
: 
: I cann't tell about Cyprus, but on Crete the 20% of muslims who were
: exchanged in 1922 were *all* from ex-christian origin. No turkish
: population had moved there. It is well documented in many history
: books, as well as the reasons for their conversion (reaction to the
: ruthless Venetian rule).
: 


Good point. Except that I suspect there were some Ottoman officials sent
to the island and it is likely that their families had mixed into the
muslim population of the island. In any case, there is no evidence of a
big population movement of Turks to Crete, and the claim that the muslim
population of the island was of Greek origin, remains a very valid one.

Since we are talking about Cretans, let me tell the story of a man I met.
This person was living in Athens, but was originally from Crete. Before
the Ottoman conquest of the island his family belonged to the Jewish 
community of the island. After the Ottomans took over, for all sorts of
reasons, his ancestors had decided to convert into Islam. Thus they became
"Turks". His ancestors lived as Turks for as long as the Ottomans were
there. Once the Ottoman rule ended and the island came under Greek
administration, his family converted again - this time to Christianity.
Thus they became Greeks and members of his family were living thus since
that time. He knew of his family history very well, and had an interest
in both the Jewish and Turkish aspects of his family story. I believe he
was involved in Jewish organizations in Athens and he also could speak
Turkish. He did not want neither his family history nor his knowledge of
the language to be public, but he admitted that he spoke to his dog in
Turkish :-)


: 
: >There is also the flip side of the coin: There were many Turkish Cypriots
: >who converted into Christianity and thus became Greeks. This mainly happened
: >through the efforts of the church. The priests actively looked for isolated
: >Turkish Cypriot villages, especially during the British era, and built 
: >schools there and gave education to the local population.
: 
: 
: If this is true, then this happened *only* during the british rule, thus
: exact numbers should be available. Under the ottomans the conversion from
: islam to anything else was equivalent to capital (death) punishment for
: the people who promoted the conversions. And the registars were keeping
: good accounts for both muslims and nonmuslims because of the implications
: in the taxes collected and the conscripts.
: 
: 
: Gr

Another good point. I believe that there is a potention in this issue
for further research, something I am unable to do right now. I have
based the information I have presented, on what I have heard from several
Turkish Cypriots. It was repeated to me so many times by so many different
sources, that I have little reason to doubt this information's validity.

Thanks for the comments.


Regards, 

Erdem Erginel

----
E-mail : eerginel@amherst.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.greek