Beyond the Greek and Turkish Dichotomy: The Rum Polites of Istanbul and Athens
2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/13608740500470349
ISSN1743-9612
Autores Tópico(s)Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
ResumoAbstract Rum Polites are a community known otherwise as Constantinopolitan Greeks, İstanbullu Rum or Konstantinoupolites. By combining these two terms—one in Turkish, one in Greek—I examine the wider sense of cultural identity that situates this group beyond any simplistic division between Greeks and Turks. An ethnographic insight into the Rum Polites indicates the importance of the idea of belonging, which is based on an urban cosmopolitan legacy, that of Istanbul, 'the City'. This perspective effectively challenges conventional categories such as minority, diaspora or refugee that are founded on the primacy of the nation-state. Keywords: IstanbulAthensDiasporaMinorityCosmopolitanismCity IdentityGreeceTurkey Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following for giving me feedback on earlier drafts: Dimitrios Theodossopoulos, Penelope Papailias, Iraklis Millas, Michael Herzfeld, Cemal Kafadar and D.W.G. My sincere gratitude goes to Robert Romain for his insightful comments and continuous support during the writing of this article. Notes [1] Rum is the Turkish word for Romios, a derivative of the word 'Roman', after 'Eastern Roman' or 'Byzantine'. I have privileged Rum over its Greek or English alternatives in order to avoid a confusion of the term with the widely familiar use of Romios, employed by Herzfeld (1987 Herzfeld, M. 1987. Anthropology through the Looking-Glass: Critical Ethnography in the Margins of Europe, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; 1997 Herzfeld, M. 1997. Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) in his discussion of the Romeic (eastern, Byzantine) and Hellenic (western, classical) aspects of contemporary Greek identity (see the introduction to this special issue). Throughout this paper Rum is employed as an emic category and only in order to refer to the community of Polites. [2] Fanariots or Phanariots: an elite group taking their name from the region of Fanar, the location of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. For more information on Fanariots, see among others Sözen (2000 Sözen, Z. 2000. Fenerli Beyler: 110 Yılın Öyküsü 1711–1821, Istanbul: Aybay. [Fanariots: a 110 Year Story] [Google Scholar]), Clogg (1973 Clogg, R. 1973. "Aspects of the movement for Greek independence". In The Struggle for Greek Independence, Edited by: Clogg, R. 1–41. London: Macmillan Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and Mango (1973 Mango, C. 1973. "The Phanariots and the Byzantine tradition". In The Struggle for Greek Independence, Edited by: Clogg, R. London: Macmillan Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). [3] Karamanlides/Karamanlı are a community of Turkophone Orthodox who had to leave their homeland in the Cappadocia region of Asia Minor to be included in the forced exchange of populations as 'Greeks.' [4] As a movement born in Byzantine Constantinople, the Rum Catholic Church is an interesting case. Although they are Catholics, its members practise not the Latin but the Rum/Byzantine tradition of the Eastern Church. Their website insists that they should not be confused with the Roman Catholics ( < www.rumkatkilise.org>). For a detailed study of some of these communities, see Macar (2002 Macar, E. 2002. İstanbul'un Yok Olmuş İki Cemaati: Doğu Ritli Katolik Rumlar ve Bulgarlar, Istanbul: İletişim. [Two Vanished Communities of Istanbul: the Eastern Catholic Rum and Bulgars] [Google Scholar]). [5] In an effort to make up for the prevailing silence on these events, a growing literature is being produced in Turkey, including Bali (2001 Bali, R. N. 2001. "Toplumsal Bellek ve Varlık Vergisi' [Social Memory and the Wealth Tax]". In Hatırladıklarıyla ve Unuttuklarıyla Türkiye'nin Toplumsal Hafızası, Edited by: Özyürek, E. 87–126. Istanbul: İletişim. [The Remembered and the Forgotten: Social Memory in Turkey] [Google Scholar]), Aktar (2003 Aktar, A. 2003. "Homogenizing the nation, Turkifying the economy: the Turkish experience of population exchange reconsidered". In Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, Edited by: Hirschon, R. Oxford: Berghahn. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; 2000 Aktar, A. 2000. Varlık Vergisi ve Türkleştirme Politikaları, İstanbul: İletişim. [Google Scholar]), Demir and Akar (1994 Demir, H. and Akar, R. 1994. İstanbul'un Son Sürgünleri, Istanbul: İletişim. [The Last Exiles of Istanbul] [Google Scholar]), amongst a few others. Publications in Greece are also limited, with some valuable exceptions such as Christidis (2000 Christidis, Ch. 2000. Tα Σεπτεμβριανά, Athens: Kentro Mikrasiastikon Spoudon. [The Events of September] [Google Scholar]). [6] The use of Rum here is a reference to an entire group of people rather than an aspect of personal or national identity. This is a rather complex point that deserves further discussion elsewhere, but, for the purposes of this chapter, note that the categories in use are different from the Romios–Ellinas (Romeic–Hellenic) distinction. [7] Two conflicting opinions about the name of a city often become a source of tension between Greeks and Turks: Konstantinoupoli (in English, Constantinople) is held to be the original 'Greek' (here, Byzantine or Eastern Roman) name that the 'Turks' (here, Ottomans) replaced with the 'Turkish' Istanbul. Generally speaking, Konstantinoupoli (Poli) is the word used in Greece and in Greek, and Istanbul is the official name used in Turkey and elsewhere in the world today. While this duality can easily translate itself into a patriotic statement of national ownership on both sides, there is no historical or linguistic basis for such claims: the word Istanbul etymologically derives from the Ancient Greek eis tin polin, literally 'in/to the city', referring to the location of the capital on the historic peninsula with the city walls. This word was in use during Byzantine as well as Ottoman times, coexisting alongside other titles of the city. The Turkish Republic reinstated Istanbul as the single official name of the city, which remains in use at present. [8] The claim that the Fanariots are descended from the aristocratic families of Byzantium is well known, but many historians argue against it: the aristocracy in question ceased to exist in Istanbul by the end of the sixteenth century, and the Fanariots arose during the course of the seventeenth century as a new elite of provincial origin (see Mango 1973 Mango, C. 1973. "The Phanariots and the Byzantine tradition". In The Struggle for Greek Independence, Edited by: Clogg, R. London: Macmillan Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Sözen 2000 Sözen, Z. 2000. Fenerli Beyler: 110 Yılın Öyküsü 1711–1821, Istanbul: Aybay. [Fanariots: a 110 Year Story] [Google Scholar]). [9] The biggest migration of the Rum of Istanbul to Athens occurred in 1964, after the sudden and massive expulsion of Greek citizens from Turkey. Other waves, notably after 1923, 1943, 1955 and 1974, were of smaller scale and more gradual in nature. [10] Ezan: the Islamic call for prayer, recited in mosques five times a day. [11] Ayazma/aγια´σμα: holy water. Some springs are considered to be sacred in the Orthodox religion. There are more than 500 ayazma in Istanbul, a number that reaches up to 1,000 in some accounts. See Atzemoglou (1990 Atzemoglou, N. 1990. Tα Aγιάσματα της Πόλης, Athens: [The Holy Waters of Constantinople], Risos. [Google Scholar]).
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