Crossing the Aegean: Episode 10 – “Stories from the Inheritors of the Exchange”

Tenth episode of #CrossingtheAegean is out! In this episode, we continue with “Stories from the Inheritors of the Exchange” by hearing from individuals who have family members that were involved in the population exchange of 1923. With today’s guest Vicky Aggelidou, we aim to discuss and understand what it means to carry the legacy of the Exchange in one’s lineage and how it influences people’s way of relating to migration today.

Vicky is a criminal lawyer currently working with the Legal Centre Lesvos, where she primarily focuses on the cases of criminalized migrants who are systematically jailed under the European Union’s smuggling laws. Both of Vicky’s grandparents were directly or indirectly affected by the population exchange, with some making several trips between today’s Greece and Turkey to reach their final destination. Vicky shares how present the Turkish language was in her life when she was young, how her memory often recalls the food and smells of her grandparents’ household, and what it means for her to see “history, unfortunately, repeating itself.”

This episode’s interview was conducted by Ozan Mirkan Balpetek in English. Merve Bakdur summarized and interpreted Vicky’s remarks in Turkish and our friends from Community Peacemaker Teams did the same in Greek.