Thematic analysis of the novels about cretan population exchange in Turkish literature

Since the existence of humanity, the societies that have been constantly migrating due to various reasons or have been exposed to migration, inevitably experienced social, political and economic break downs as a result of these migration fluctuations. One of the closests big immigration in history was realized in reference of signing of the Lausanne Treaty in 30 January 1923, demanding a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in accordance with the Convention for Muslims which foresee the displacement of all the Greek people in Turkey to Greece, excluding the ones in Istanbul, Imvros and Bozcada and all the Turks/Muslims from Greece to Turkey, excluding the ones in Western Thrace. The social, political and economic effects of Turkey-Greece Population Exchange have been ongoing for both communities since many years. The literature showing development along with the history line has not been indifferent to these effects. It is marked by various researches that Population Exchange themed novels are seen during 1930s in Greek literature and during 1990s in Turkish literature. In our study, the Population Exchange novels about the exchange population who came from Crete during the 1920's and about those migrants who came from Crete and settled in Anatolia before the population exchange due to the Lausanne Treaty took place, were examined specifically. Some of the novels were popularized by well-known writers, while others were written by second- or third-generation migrants and in that manner are not very popular novels. While some of the novels have some kind of genre anxiety, fifteen novels have been examined from a thematic perspective. In the "Introduction" section of the study, after giving information about Population Exchange, Crete and the place of the Population exchange in literature, in the first section under the title of "The Reflection of the Cretean Population Exchange in the Turkish Novel and Literature" novels are introduced in terms of place, time, character and incidents. In the second section under the title of "Review of Novels about Crete Exchange Population in terms of Genre", similar and different aspects of novels have been determined under the titles of "Migration", "Alienation and Alteration", "Love and Sexuality", "Migration-Related Economic Problems" topics. In reference of the quotations from the novels it has been revealed how the Cretan Immigrant type, who has been going through various sociological and psychological breaks, was placed and positioned in the Turkish novels. In the result section of the paper, an evaluation of the joint results of the outcome was realized. The study may be of importance in terms of the place of, Population Exchange and Cretan Muslim Turks themed novels which have found its way to the present from 1990s, within the Turkish Literature history.