A SONG THAT TELLS AN INTRIGUING STORY
GREEK-SPEAKING REFUGEES
It is a fact that mass human migration has occurred throughout history, and that displaced people soon regroup and begin building new lives in the aftermath of often-tragic events. It is also a fact that these journeys often spawn several stories that are then often forgotten over time. As years go by, tributes to these people, the world over, are rare, but this is not the case for some of the Greek-speaking refugees of Asia Minor, who are remembered in a renowned Greek song known as Drabetsona.
A SONG OF REMEMBERENCE
The song recounts their journey from war-torn Turkey to their resettlement in Greece at the end of 1922. It also identifies with their new lives and their struggle in the poverty-stricken makeshift shelters of Drabetsona, in Greece.
THE AFTERMATH OF A WORLD WAR
The aftermath of World War I had a significant impact on the Ottoman Empire after its defeat in 1918. The war had directly led to the dismantling of what remained of this once great empire. Things were made worse when what remained of the fragmented empire found itself under attack from neighbouring Greece. This new conflict marked the beginning of the Greco-Turkish War, which broke out just 6 months later on May 15th 1919.
A WAR FOUGHT IN ISOLATION
This war was fought in isolation between what was to become Turkey and Greece. The war was initially successful for the latter, who managed to gain huge swathes of territory. Things, however, changed when the conflict gave rise to the ‘Turkish National Movement’. They aptly turned the war into a new ‘Turkish War of Independence’, which seemed to galvanise the Turkish nation. This ultimately led to a change in the narrative and saw Turkey victorious in the end.
AN ARMY REBUFFED
Viewed as the aggressor nation, Greece would see its army rebuffed by 1922. External pressures directly led to the end of the war on October 14th of that same year, when all Greek forces were ordered to return to Greece. The end of the war saw the new modern-day nation of Turkey emerge from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. The Greek disaster was slightly averted, however. Although Greece lost the greater part of the war and the territories that were initially taken on the mainland were recovered by Turkish forces, Greece did manage to secure control of several islands, some of which remain just off the coast of Turkey today.
A NEW NATION
The new Turkish administration soon implemented new ethnic policies. These new directives led to the displacement of thousands of Greek-speaking people from Asia Minor. These people who had lived in Turkey for thousands of years now found themselves not only homeless, but also stateless. These Greeks of mainly Romani and Pontic origin were mostly resettled in Greece by the end of 1922. Several also arrived on Cypriot shores seeking not only refuge but also a new life.
NEW SETTLEMENTS FOR REFUGEES
Cyprus, which was still a British colony at the time, began accepting several of these refugees. Unlike in Greece, however, Cyprus soon integrated them into the greater Cypriot social fabric, and they soon embraced everything that Cyprus had to offer them. Things, on the other hand, were not as easy for their compatriots in Greece. Displaced from the Ottoman Empire, thousands of refugees were forced to settle in rudimentary makeshift shelters on the rocky, previously uninhabited western coastline of the port of Piraeus, near Athens. This newly formed settlement that emerged became known as Drabetsona, and it grew into a vibrant, distinctly working-class community that fundamentally reshaped Greece’s social and cultural fabric.
A SLOW INTERGRATION
The integration of these people in Greece proved to be much slower and more difficult than that of their compatriots in Cyprus. The new settlement of Drabetsona was essentially a shantytown, rife with crime and squalor. It did, however, become a base for a strong and reliable Greek workforce. This allowed Drabetsona, along with the rest of Greece, to eventually become a centre of major social and economic shift as Greece began to swiftly advance into the modern age.
A SONG THAT TELLS A STORY
The song, originally sung by Grigoris Bithikotsis, takes its name from the Drabetsona settlement. It tells of the plight and hardships that its people faced, and also tells of their lives of abject poverty that followed. The song also identifies how these people strived to overcome adversity and how they helped forge a future for Greece in the modern age. The main message of the song goes on to say that the people of Drabetsona created a world of their own at the end of the world!
A deciction of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919
Greek gains depicted in blue, during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919
HISTORICALLY DEFINING SANCTUARY FOR OVER A MILLION DISPLACED GREEKS
Drabetsona became a crucial, historically defining sanctuary for over a million Greek Orthodox refugees fleeing the Greek catastrophe in Asia Minor in 1922. Shaping the neighbourhood’s identity, refugees lived in rudimentary, hastily built wooden constructions for decades. This made Drabetsona a famous hub for the development of the raw, urban style of Greek music, known as the REMBETIKO movement, which expresses the struggles and nostalgia of displaced populations.
DRABETSONA & CYPRUS
Historically, both Drapetsona and the surrounding areas of Piraeus and Cyprus are heavily intertwined through the shared plight and displacement of Hellenic populations in the 1920s. Cyprus experienced a surge of Greek Cypriot national consciousness and political activity during this era as the broader Hellenic world responded to the trauma of the 1922 Catastrophe. Furthermore, many Asia Minor refugees or Cypriot sailors passed through the very port of Piraeus that Drapetsona overlooked.
