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• 4 An Exercise in Population Management, 1919–1925 The Black Sea town of Mesemvria was in turmoil in the summer of 1925. Following the arrival of Bulgarian refugees, many Greeks received threatening letters, became victims of extortion, or saw on their homes black crosses or inscriptions that read “you shall be killed if you stay.” Some moved in temporarily with relatives in nearby cities, and others sold their properties and prepared to leave their native town for good. In a matter of months, almost the entire Greek population departed for Greece, using the provisions of the Convention for Voluntary Emigration of Minorities that Bulgaria and Greece had signed in 1919 to arrange their relocation . Then, “one melancholic day...a steamboat weighed anchor in the port of Mesemvria. The Greek government had sent it to take the inhabitants of Mesemvria on a far-away, painful trip. Everyone gathered onshore with their luggage. A mute, harrowing drama unfolded in every house [as] all inhabitants left with tears and sighs from the homes where they had been born and where they had lived. Several hours later the unfortunate emigrants had boarded the boat. The farther away they sailed, the worse the pain of Mesemvrians who were departing from their beloved motherland. The town, with its long Greek history and numerous Byzantine monuments, remained without its soul.”1 In October 1925 some 350 Greek homes were empty, awaiting their new Bulgarian residents.2 This dramatic departure was surprising, given that in the previous five years the inhabitants of Mesemvria had resisted all promises that the Greek government had given them in exchange for permanent resettlement in 1. TsDA, f. 176k, op. 4. a.e 2885, l. 219. MVRI to MVRNZ, 8 August 1924; Konstantinidis, I Mesemvria tou Evxeinou, 59–61. 2. IAIE, 1925, G/63.5. EPP to IE, 20 October 1925. 118 | Chapter 4 Greece. In 1919 and 1920 Greek officials had classified them as unlikely emigrants, since the population appeared extremely devoted to its traditions but firmly refused to emigrate despite the financial assurances of Greek agents. Because of this unwavering decision to remain in Bulgaria, Greek diplomats, in the early 1920s, had hoped to secure minority rights for the vibrant community that boasted numerous Byzantine churches.3 A similar radical shift in attitudes to emigration was evident in other Greek communities during the mid-1920s; from Plovdiv/Philippoupolis to Varna to Burgas/ Pirgos, many reluctant individuals uneasily decided to resettle in Greece. This chapter examines how, despite the desire of many Greeks to remain in their native land, various events intervened between 1920 and 1925 that convinced many members of the minority to abandon their homes and become refugees. The relocation of the Greeks occurred pursuant to the provisions of the Convention for Emigration of Minorities signed by Bulgaria and Greece in 1919. Unlike other cases in eastern Europe, in which the option of emigration was outlined in clauses of the peace treaties concluded following the Great War, a separate Convention detailed the voluntary emigration of minorities between the two Balkan countries. This was the first experiment of controlled “ethnic unmixing” implemented by the newly constituted League of Nations after the war, and the stakes were high to demonstrate that a peaceful emigration of minorities, based on “the desire of those interested,” could occur.4 The agreement targeted approximately 350,000 individuals in both countries , and half of the minority populations were expected to emigrate. These included roughly eighty thousand Bulgarian Greeks, some of them already in Greece and others still in Bulgaria.5 The League of Nations boasted that, after six years of prolonged military conflicts and recurrent refugee crises in the Balkans, it had discovered the mechanism for both solving the minority question and satisfying the refugee populations. The Mixed Commission in charge of emigration insisted that the Convention did not sanction a population exchange but instead created an “individual contract between [the Commission] and each applicant” that guaranteed to fulfill the voluntary desire of each person regarding place of residence.6 This was the first precedent of voluntary emigration based on individual rights, and the task of the League of Nations was to persuade the two countries, which had been fighting over territories, to prioritize the interests of their citizens. Following the war Bulgaria signed the Treaty of Neuilly of 27 November 1919, which sanctioned further territorial losses and included numerous 3. IAIE, 1919, A/5/II, 4. ESA to IE, 5 February 1919 and 8 February 1920...

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