Are there any small towns/villages in Turkey that still speak Greek?
Posted by NoItem5389@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 42 comments
Many people know that cities such as Izmir, Istanbul, Trabzon, etc were historically Greek cities that at one point in time spoke Greek. Obviously now it is majority Turkish, but I wonder are there any small towns/villages in Thrace, the Aegean, or Black Sea that still speak Greek?
Virtual-Athlete8935@reddit
As I know only a few Muslim Greek villages in the Black Sea, there are also several videos on Youtube
rydolf_shabe@reddit
muslims that speak greek sounds so insane to me
Djlas@reddit
If some Slavs and Albanians became Muslims, why not Greeks?
rydolf_shabe@reddit
just in the modern day when i think of greece and greeks i think of orthodoxy too so knowing theres muslim greeks sound weird to me
Djlas@reddit
There are also some Catholic Greeks :) Mostly on islands formerly under Venetian/Genoese rule.
NoItem5389@reddit (OP)
I’ve seen some of those, didn’t know how common or prevalent they are. Surprised that the Greeks that surrendered their identity still speak the language. I figured after they became Turks, they just completely discard their Greek roots.
triple_cock_smoker@reddit
yall can take trabzon back i fully consent to that
NoItem5389@reddit (OP)
Aegean, Istanbul, and cappadocia too😂?
princeintheangel@reddit
Fking racist
PotentialBat34@reddit
lol no. Trabzon in exchange of Selanik. That's the deal
MegasKeratas@reddit
When you are in a name-butchering competition and your opponent is turkish :
Djlas@reddit
Don't look up the Slavic name then 😄
PotentialBat34@reddit
I think both languages are cool, but for the sake of argument, at least Turkish does not sound like a Russian trying to speak Spanish.
/s
kinda..
TheBr33ze@reddit
Sudden_Shock8434@reddit
I can't understand the hatred for Trabzon. They are more secular than those in central Anatolia and the eastern region.Also Ekrem is from Trabzon. Erlik is from Trabzon. There are many heroes from there in the Turkish-Greek war, many writers and singers are from Trabzon. etc
Theodore_Butthole@reddit
Lmao
Renacimiento1234@reddit
Fuck erlik
flmsavage2@reddit
We dont you can keep it
Ok-Amount6679@reddit
Please take Trabzon I don’t want or need anything else in turn you can keep it all to yourself lol.
AMagusa99@reddit
Not sure it was a case of completely discarding anything really. They held on completely to their culture, language, music, you name it- they just changed religion.
It's remarkable they still speak Greek considering they converted 100s of years ago, if they'd discarded anything they would have abandoned the language long ago
NoItem5389@reddit (OP)
They identify as Turks and they have altered the tempo/rhythm of their music. As a Pontic Greek I can easily tell the difference between Pontic Greek and Pontic Turkish music. I do agree though, it is remarkable they kept the language, though a lot of Pontic Turks converted more recently than you think.
AMagusa99@reddit
Definitely they all identify as Turks, that's a given- but I think the idea that they discarded something can blind us to how much of their culture they retained- and still retain, that community produces some amazing singers as you must know
WorldBiker@reddit
Nah, I've seen it...AFAIK (I never asked) they identify as Turkish but speak Greek...not so long ago in Faliro you could hear Turkish on the street (there were a couple of families from Smyrna in my building) who identified as Greek but still spoke Turkish among themselves. Sadly, they've all died out though, it was a different generation.
princeintheangel@reddit
Was this post made in reaction to the earlier post about Turkish/Bulgarian speaking minorities living in Greece?
japetusgr@reddit
Are you historically aware of what happened at the beginning of the 20th century and the exchange of populations? All ethinically greeks from Turkey were forced to move to Greece and the same happened for ethnically turks from Greece who were driven to Turkey.
From this population exchange the only parts that were excempted were the western thrace region in Greece and in Turkey, Istanbul and the islands of Imvros and Tenedos (Gokceada and Bozcaada). At these parts, you can still hear greek be spoken, although the greek speaking population nowadays is just a tiny fragment of what it used to be. These people are greek orthodox turkish citizens.
At the Trabzon region mentioned, where romeika is still spoken, the people there are muslim turkish citizens who although they spoke this dialect for generations at home, were excempted from the exchange because of their religion.
At several cities of coastal western Turkey, although not spoken at home anymore, you may still hear greek and greek visitors being addressed in greek by certain Turks, as these were descended from Crete mainly, ethincally turks that spoke greek at home, and were forced to leave with the population exchange.
Aquila_Flavius@reddit
I'm from west coast and my grandpa(born in 1920) and his generation could speak. They didnt teached younger generations and then its lost when all they died. 🤷🏻♂️😞
NoItem5389@reddit (OP)
Rip the last of the Greeks in Anatolia. At least their bloodline lives on.
Mucklord1453@reddit
I randomly met one by accident once on a visit, it was the strangest thing. I mean, what are the chances the random person you stop to ask a question of happens to be a native Rum.
Selimyldrm0@reddit
I am from east black sea and some of the villages still know how to speak romeika which is greek language. The rest of population does not know how the speak it but our dialect in turkish consist too many greek words from village names to animal names etc.
Also fun fact president erdogan also the black sean and his village name is potamya which means rivers in greek.
Pristine_Toe_7379@reddit
Erdogan is the biggest self-denying Greek Erdoganoupoulos.
WorldBiker@reddit
Well, as a Greek who has spent a lot of time in Turkey, there are a lot of Greeks in Istanbul (ok, we can have the argument if they are Turkish of Greek descent or Greeks of Turkish descent...AFAIK they identify as Turkish)...I mean, go to the Patriarchate, for one (and not just the visitors). Or go to either of Imbros or Tenedos...or just to Prince's Island and there are some there. Just a litlte research and you can see there are pockets like Catalca, and this is also very interesting.
AntiKouk@reddit
As in there's Greek speaking Turkish citizens in Istanbul that stayed after the pogroms?
Virtual-Athlete8935@reddit
There are more than 2,000 for sure. I have met with several of them, there is no chance they are only a few if I could meet with more than one. HOWEVER, after the progrom most of them registered themselves as Muslim Turks on governmental papers for their safety. Probably that’s why most of them are not officially known.
Mucklord1453@reddit
That is so sad they had to do that. You witnessed the same process that transofrmed all of Asia Minor over the centuries. The slow steady conversion, followed by fast mass conversions after periods of pogrom.
WorldBiker@reddit
Yes, and I've met a few of them in my travels there. And look, it's not as if I go around saying stuff like: didn't your family get wiped out and you lost everything so why would you stay?, sort of thing. I was more like: wow! cool! good for you! I can only imagine that there were some families who were well enough integrated and had both the financial and political clout to carry on doing their thing...I mean, there were three prgroms AFAIK...the 1920s exchange, 1950s, and again in the 1960s...and again AFAIK (or understand) there remained after all of that something like 20,000 Greeks in Istanbul alone. Many of those in the 1960s came to Faliro or Nea Smyrni (north of Faliro), and I heard a lot of Turkish when I first moved in and, like I said, there were a couple of families who have since passed away sadly.
bluepilldbeta@reddit
Yes, but very few afaik.
AMagusa99@reddit
People speaking about a few villages, there were whole districts which would have majority Pontic Greek speaking probably until the 1970s or 80s
NoItem5389@reddit (OP)
Is there still anti-Greek sentiments in those areas? A lot of Pontic Turks became grey-wolves as a way to “prove” their Turkishness
AMagusa99@reddit
I wouldn't say explicitly anti-Greek. If anything those communities have taken part in alot of cross-cultural exchange with Pontic Greeks in the last couple of decades. But is there a strong general nationalist sentiment- yes, that's common to all the communities in the Black Sea. Those Pontic Turk communities are just as nationalist as Laz, chepni turks, georgians and anyone else in the region- and sometimes that might manifest itself as anti Greekness
CypriotGreek@reddit
Not as many as they used to be but there are some Greeks in Imrbos and tenedos, the Constantinople patriarch and in the far regions of Trabzon
TheeRoyalPurple@reddit
yes
https://youtu.be/7JWBnS67Jc8?feature=shared
ZhiveBeIarus@reddit
There are a few villages around Trabzon that speak it afaik.