FEAR AND LOATHING IN “GAVUR” IZMIR: EMOTIONS IN EARLY REPUBLICAN MEMORIES OF THE GREEK OCCUPATION (1919–22)

Abstract

AbstractBased on a series of recollections published between January and April 1926 in the Izmir-based daily newspaperAhenk(Harmony), this article explores how individual Muslim Turks remembered their emotional responses to the Greek occupation of that city (May 1919–September 1922). Analyzing these recollections, it considers why certain events were remembered while others were almost completely left out. By studying how Muslim Turks described their feelings towards the occupying forces, local non-Muslims, and the eventually victorious Turkish army, the article makes an initial contribution to the history of emotions in early republican Turkey. I argue that the composition and consumption of memories were avenues for connecting emotionally to the Turkish nationalist project. This finding challenges the widespread notion that the early republican period was characterized by collective amnesia of the immediate past, and contributes to the growing body of scholarship on popular participation in early republican nationalism.