Posted by Alexander from 92.52.26.24.cfl.rr.com (24.26.52.92) on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 8:48PM :
It was a mild day, and the family was moving to Greece- Yunanistan, as called by the Turkish speaking people they had grown up with in the country. Grain fields of brown and yellowish colors filled the slightly sloping hills around the few scattered houses under the clear blue sky.
The boat was not a big boat, but it would suffice for them to get to a nearby island, and from there they would try to ferry to Hellas.
The war was a low intensity type, and it was uncertain the outcome would be positive for them, regardless of who succeeded.
So off they planned to go, to settle in Athene. Their ancestors had lived there for more than 3,000 years. All their ancestral claims to the land were met with war and constant suffering, from the first days of settlement, to the last days of independence. The members of the family had curly black hair, brown eyes, and thick black eye brows. One of them looked slightly Greek, with blonde hair and brown eyes, and a slight protruding chin.
They towed their two donkeys and one horse. They had a wagon, but it had broken on their way to the shoreline. As they walked, the father of the family told fo some stories he had heard. They approached the shore steadily, and as they did, he recounted some things he had either read or heard from others concerning the land they were now leaving forever.
This country had been settled, and since it was first colonised, it was ever against aggressive nations and empires, from internal civil wars to being invaded by Lydians and Carians and Persians and Medes and Cimmerians and a whole lot of other invaders after that. Since the first cities were settled here, there was war. A civil war broke out, and the cities all fought aggressively with one another, forming alliances occasionally, and breaking alliances as well, until foreign issues caused them to cool their feuding. Lydia was ever pressing on their northern border, and the Lydian cavalry would charge the Ionian people and try to weaken their hold on the land. Lydia also proceeded to wage a war against Miletus. An embargo was made on Miletus, and its crops and fields and farmlands burned every year, for fourteen years, until eventually a marriage sealed an alliance between the two nations.
Cities that were once great, still are- Ankara(Ancyra), Ismir(Smyrna), Istanbul(Byzantium), and others. Eventually, the yoke of power fell to other foreign nations, from Medes to Persians and on and on, until the Turks came in the land. It is this identity of the "Turkey" people refer to nowadays that people percieve. It is incorrect. Turkey is a nation of nations, of races, of religions, of tolerance, and just because the government and some of its nationalistic counterparts give the country a negative image, one cannot overlook the fact that the overwelming majority of Turkey is not Turkish, but a breed of other races, of Lydians, of Ionians, of Lycians, of Kurds, of Assyrians, of Hittites, of Milesians, of Ephesians, of Phrygians, of Carians, of Cappadocians, of Cilicians, of Armenians, of ethnic Turks, of Persians, of Greeks, of Phoenicians, of Ukrainians, of Georgians, of Cimmerians, and on and on.
So, as they passed the old Miletus outcrop by the water, where the city once stood, by the yellow grain fields swaying in the wind, the father recounted a story of Kroisos and how Kroisos was supposedly a very rich man. They got to their boat a few hours later, and proceeded for a nearby island. The boat rocked away softly and quietly, in the blue warm sea.
[Note: Four million "Turks"(Greeks as they are referred to) left Turkey during this time, from what I have heard. If anyone has any info on this migration, please let me know.]
-- Alexander
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