Remaining refugee houses nowadays at Vlaxernon street in Garitsa.
“Memory hurts wherever you touch it”
George Seferis Μνήμη Α΄, 1955
Memory is closely associated with History. It is dynamic, changing, and it conveys emotions. More precisely, memory usually reflects the way in which the protagonists perceived the events, not only the events themselves.
In this context, this exhibition concludes with the quest for the memory of the refugees in Corfu today.
The 1922 refugees remain ‘alive’ in the memories and in the narrations of their children and grandchildren who live on the island today. Their families remember them with love and recall the moments they lived with them, the songs, the smells, and their stories.
Some refugees never spoke of the traumatic events they experienced. Others raised their children and their grandchildren with stories about life in their homeland and the flight from there, instead of fairy tales. Stories that left an imprint on children’s minds… The trauma of a memory that passes down from generation to generation…
Σοφία Λινάρδου – Καραγιαννοπούλου, Κέρκυρα 23/06/2022, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
It wasn’t just the stories that they were told in their childhood; it was also the songs they listened to hummed by their families. Melodies, rhythms, and lyrics that are sung time and again by the descendants.
Σπυριδούλα Ματθαιοπούλου, Κέρκυρα 17/11/2021, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
Similarly, the smells of the East remain indelible in the memory of the descendants. Favourite food, the taste of which does not fade away regardless of the years that have passed. Besides, as many descendants point out in their interviews, meals were a ritual.
Apart from the childhood memories of the descendants, the presence of refugees on the island is also reflected in the few objects they managed to bring along from their homelands. Those that have survived until today, even the simple objects of everyday use, have unique stories about the families behind them. They are priceless heirlooms that remind the descendants of their ancestry.
"My grandmother had ordered a carpet from a carpet maker right across the street from her house. This carpet was prepared. The carpet-maker gave it to his son (a little boy of about ten or twelve years old) to take it to Mrs. Barbara and be paid. This was done; the boy received the money, and on his way home, the Cetes slaughtered it in the middle of the street. My folks were scared and, as soon as my grandfather went home and they told him the incident, he told them: "Get up, we're leaving tonight! He had a boat, it must have been quite big. And on this boat, sixteen people got in at night. His own family and two of his relatives. They also took with them... the new carpet. And in the carpet they wrapped my father, only two years old! ...this carpet is still today in Corfu and my grandson has it. He plays on it!"
George Kagouridis, second generation descendant, (Chanakkale), Corfu 2022, The Corfu Reading Society Archive.
The need to return to their ancestors’ homelands, in other words, the quest for the places, the houses, and the environment in which their family was born and raised is considered by many descendants a moral obligation and at the same time, a personal need. Some managed to go, others not yet. There were, of course, many who never wanted to make such a journey for sentimental reasons.
Αναστασία Παπάζογλου, Νεοκαισάρεια Ιωαννίνων 17/05/2022, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
Σπυρίδων Μουρατίδης, Κέρκυρα 22/07/2022, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
Εριφύλη (Έρη) Χυτήρη, Κέρκυρα 29/11/2021, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
The memories, the heirloom, the return to the ancestral homelands, preserve family memories and traditions.
But how do the descendants feel about their ancestry today? Their surnames point to ancestry from Pontus and Asia Minor, but do they sense their refugee origins or are they fully assimilated into the Corfiot society? The sense of ancestry is a dominant element in preserving memory.
The historical trauma is sometimes transformed into art. Descendants are inspired by their family stories and express their feelings through art.
It is not only the family memories of the descendants that keep the presence of the refugees of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 in Asia Minor alive on the island. Public memory, although not so distinct, still remains strong.
The refugee clubs, established in the early years, ceased to operate decades ago. Today, the Corfu Pontian Black Sea Club, although not established by descendants of refugees that settled on the island, is the only association in Corfu whose purpose is to preserve the traditions and customs of the refugees.
Χρήστος Χαχαμίδης, Κέρκυρα 21/06/2022, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
A stroll in the refugee quarters of Corfu reveals some of the remaining ‘humble’ houses that have not yet given way to blocks of flats, reminding that the refugees, who permanently settled on the island, built their lives there. The designation of the areas where the refugees who came to Corfu from Asia Minor were given homes as ‘refugee quarter’ has now been abandoned, so people often pass by these streets, unaware of their history.
Very few people also know that the cost for the construction of the fountain in Esplanade square, one of the most iconic places in Corfu old town, was covered by a refugee, i.e. the Corfiot Georgios Vaianos. To honour him, the Corfiots named a cantouni (small pedestrianised street) next to the Holy Metropolis, after him.
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The presence of refugees is also reflected in the burial monuments and cenotaphs in the cemeteries of the island, which in fact link Corfu with dozens of families who live today elsewhere, as they are the resting places of their ancestors.
The cenotaph of Saint Arsenios the Cappadocian in the First Cemetery of Corfu, is a typical example of this, as is the marble plaque in memory of the refugees that died in the 1923 Italian bombardment.
Next to the cenotaph of Saint Arsenios, there is also a marble plaque dedicated in memory of Father Germanos Kyriakidis, placed by his descendants who live in Volos today.
There are also other burial monuments – unknown to the public – that have ‘silent’ stories of refugees to narrate.
Σπυρίδων Μουρατίδης, Κέρκυρα 22/07/2022, Αρχείο Αναγνωστικής Εταιρίας Κερκύρας.
A search is all it takes to find everything reminiscent of the presence of refugees from Asia Minor on the island.
After all, Corfu, being first place where thousands of refugees realised their new life, has also left a strong imprint on the memories of the descendants who live nowadays in other parts of Greece.
“Homeland is now inside each one of us”.
G. Chytiris, Το Μέγα Δρυ [The Great Oak], 2003
It is expressly forbidden to use, reproduce, republish, copy, store, sell, transmit, distribute, issue, perform, download, translate, modify in any way, partially or in summary, the content of the digital exhibition "From Ionia to Ionia" ", without the prior written permission of the Corfu Reading Society.