Cultural and social life in Antalya (1923-1932)

In this thesis cultural and social life of Antalya in the early period of Republic was examined. During the first years of the twentieth century, Antalya was a little port city which located on the Mediterranean coast of the South Anatolia and had not more than 20.000 population. But in this period the city's population structure suddenly changed with the arrival of Cretan immigrants. From 1900 until 1908, 4.690 Crete emigrants came to the Antalya. After that, during The Balkan Wars also 4.000 emigrants came to the city from Thessalonica. However, these mass migrations have not been the last population movements in Antalya. By the protocol prepared between Turkey and Greece in ?Lausanne Treaty? Greeks living in Turkey and Muslims in Greece had to leave their homes and migrate. In fact nearly 7.000 Greeks of Antalya had migrated to Greece in 1922. According to this agreement 3.828 Muslims people in Thessalonica and Aegean Islands migrated to Antalya between 1924 and 1933. Due to these population movements, Antalya was called as ?city of refuges? (muhacirler kenti) by official records in the early period of Republic.Finally by the 1920?s the city's population had changed dramatically. This radical change of the city?s population also had impact on the cultural and social life of Antalya. The hypothesis of this thesis is cultural and social life of Antalya was affected mass migrations and after the appearance of emigrants as new actors in the city changed significantly.At that period besides educational widespread, great effort was shown to develop modern culture among people. Civilian society organizations are established. Therefore this thesis also examines the processes of implementation state-initiated reforms in the first decade of the Turkish Republic in Antalya and explores how people received, reacted and experienced to these reforms starting from 1925?s in their everyday lives.The survey depends on primary sources. Both oral and literal research methodology was utilized in this study. It is possible to separate the main source of this thesis into third different groups. First group is consisted of both central and local archive documents, second group is consisted of local newspaper and Greek, Turkish memories book, third group is consisted of oral testimonies.