The trauma of this great sad movement of people is hard to imagine. Most arrived with nothing than what they could carry. Many suffered cruelty and worse on their journeys to safety.

Lesvos is the third biggest island in Greece. And you certainly get that feeling when you drive across the island.
It’s not your typical Aegean Island. Yes, it has the beaches and bars, and the little seaside villages. But it has a lot more. The overwhelming impression is one of nature. The Island is green and abundant. Its hills are covered in heather or trees. It not only has sheep but cows too.
Australians have a long connection with Lesvos. In 1915 the island was a staging post on the long journey from Egypt to Lemnos in preparation for the Gallipoli landings. It wasn’t used as a major base during the Gallipoli campaign – maybe it was too close to the Asia Minor coast for comfort – but troops did stop here.
Some would remain – if not on the island – then nearby. Over 900 Gallipoli soldiers were buried at sea, having died before being landed at Lemnos or Egypt. One of these was Second Lieutenant Stanley Robert Close, of the 8th Battalion, from Ballarat East in Victoria. This school teacher had been one of the Anzacs wounded on the first day, 25th April 1915. When he died of his wounds, only 20 years of age, on 27th April, he was on board the Transport Ship Lutzow and was buried at sea near Mytilene.
And it’s not surprising the Island played its part in the Gallipoli campaign. Lesvos has two large bays to the south – Kalonas Bay and Geras Bay. As I look down on them, you can see a large tanker making its way across Geras Bay – as no doubt the Allied troopships did in 1915. But from Lesvos, Asia Minor is so close you could touch it.
One celebrated guest was Australia’s official war correspondent and historian, C.E.W. Bean. He records in his history of the campaign of coming to Lesvos for a “holiday” from the front, enjoyed its food and hospitality and making “good friends” amongst the locals. Things haven’t changed.
That was in 1915. Mytilene, the capital of the Island and main port, has many old traditional houses and hotels dating from this period. In fact the hotel I am staying in was established in 1916 – one year after Bean’s visit. The Pyrgos Hotel makes the most of its history; Edwardian style is obvious throughout the hotel. It’s nice that there are some hotel’s which reward you by revealing their history, their part of their community.
My reason in coming to Lesvos is to visit its magnificent Refugee Museum. Located in an out of the way southern Lesvos village, Skala Loutra, this is a gem that should be better known and patronised.
Some 80 per cent of the village is of Asia Minor origin. Yet it is not typical Asia Minor refugee villages in Greece, many of which are laid out in grid pattern, as they were newly established villages. As you gaze across the sea to the visible Asia Minor coast, it is obvious why so many refugees made their way to Lesvos in those dark days in 1923-24.
I am shown around the museum by its engaging director, Thalia. The Museum is dedicated to commemorating the culture of the hundreds of thousands of Asia Minor refugees who fled to Greece following the end of the First World War. What had been a trickle became a flood after 1923, as Greece and the new Turkish state agreed on a population exchange, endorsed by the League of Nations.
Over 1.2 million Greeks were forced to leave their ancestral homes throughout Asia Minor (and Thrace) – as well as 335,000 Muslims from Greece – in the first example of state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.
The trauma of this great sad movement of people is hard to imagine. Most arrived with nothing than what they could carry. Many suffered cruelty and worse on their journeys to safety. The Australian Bean had written in vain of his hope that Allied victory in the war would bring safety to the Greeks of Asia Minor.
And these were communities that had existed for three thousand years. They were cultured people, as the old fading photographs of their weddings and promenades in the lost cities of Asia Minor attest. Their life in the Greece was far from easy. New lives had to be made. New careers and trades established. For some the challenge was too great – 20% died within the first year of arrival.
But those that survived brought to Greece a new vibrancy. For some it was their rembetiko music, singing of happiness and loss. The beautiful voices of Sofia Vembo and Rosa Eskenazi are some of the best examples of this. For others, they brought their entrepreneurial spirit, establishing new businesses. Greek cuisine would be heavily influenced by the flavours of Asia Minor.
The story of this human tragedy has been told in Greek and in English. Two of the best in available in English at the moment are Giles Milton’s Paradise Lost – Smyrne 1922 and Bruce Clark’s Twice A Stranger – How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey. The latter is particularly good at conveying the sense of loss that both these uprooted communities felt in their new unfamiliar homelands.
The Museum in Skala Loutron is fascinating because it documents the cultural life of these communities.
There are the sumptuous dresses, christening outfits, ornate and delicate lacework. Beside one display sits a family’s sewing machine which no doubt produced some of these wonders.
There are coffee pots and delicate glass ware from the homes now lost in Asia Minor.
And there the amazing collection of documents. Ottoman era title deeds to properties long abandoned, refugee documents and identity cards for these new citizens of the Greek State.
On the back wall is a great map of Greece and Asia Minor identifying all the towns and villages from whence the Greek refugees fled. There are hundreds, no thousands on the map. Not just famous cities, like Smyrne, but little villages doted across the map of what is now modern Turkey and beyond.
But most importantly there are the hundreds of photographs visualising the story of these communities.
Some are of soldiers – both Greek and Turkish – during the Greco-Turkish War of 1918-22, that ravaged across these communities.
But most are of life in these lost towns and villages. Of harbour fronts. Of markets and cafes. And family portraits. They beckon one to go closer, to maybe hear the sounds, taste the smells of these lost communities. If only. Of course, there are many excellent recordings of the music of these Asia Minor communities that one can listen to, to get a closer feeling to the lives they lived.
I tell Thalia that not only had Bean visited Smyrne during the war but in 1918 Australian sailors were welcomed by the Greeks of Smyrne. It is a little known fact that Australian warships took part in the occupation of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. On the 13th December 1918, the HMAS Brisbane entered Smyrne harbour along with other Allied warships. The old photographs of the time show the crowds on the harbour looking eagerly to these Allied ships for their deliverance. The Australian sailors would have no doubt have appreciated the welcome after 4 years of war. Sadly, the future for the Smyrniots would not be so happy.
I thank Thalia for her generous welcome – of course including some Greek coffee! I tell her that it is an honour have viewed the Museum’s collection. She is thankful that I have come. If you are coming to Lesvos, I urge you make the trip to Skala Loutra and take in the history and culture contained in the walls of this museum. Many more should visit this place.
Driving around the island is refreshing. Even if you lose your direction, you are not lost for long. You always find yourself in one of Lesvos lovely little villages, with its cobbled streets, square and kafenion.
As I leave Mytilene, thinking of emigration and immigration, it’s a funny coincidence that the car hire company I use is owned by George Sitaras, a native of Ballarat in Victoria, whose father was from Greece. We talk of the connection between Ballarat, the Anzacs and Greece. Many Anzacs who fought at Gallipoli and knew Lemnos and Greece, hailed from George’s home town – like Second Lieutenant Close.
I also tell him of one of Ballarat’s famed sons, Major George Devine Treloar. He was not only a decorated soldier, but he came to Greece in the 1920’s to help with all those hundreds of thousands of Christian refugees fleeing Asia Minor. For his efforts he was given awarded medals by the Greek King and one of the new refugee towns he helped establish in Thrace was named in his honour, Thrylorion.
Ballarat, Asia Minor and Lesvos. Who would have thought they were connected.