1
ASPECTS OF THE LITERATURES OF THE
TURKISH WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE AND THE GREEK ASIA MINOR DISASTER
Anastasia Aglaia Lemos
Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD
2018
Department of the Languages and Cultures
of
the Near and Middle East
SOAS, University of London
3
ABSTRACT
The thesis examines literary works in Greek and Turkish inspired by the war of 1919-
1922 and the subsequent exchange of populations, the most critical years in the recent
life of both nations. It focuses on the early period, particularly the works of Yakup
Kadri Karaosmanoğlu and Halide Edip Adıvar in Turkey and Elias Venezis in Greece.
It seeks to show the way themes were selected and then used or adapted to reflect more
contemporary concerns. For this purpose successive variants
of the same work are
examined. Attention is drawn to the importance given in both literatures to victimhood
which explains their quite divergent emphasis on different events which has resulted
in the readership in each nation being largely blind to the view held by the other.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
4
Page
Title Page
1
Declaration
2
Abstract
3
Table of Contents
4
Dedication
5
Acknowledgements
6
Chapter 1 Introduction
9
Chapter 2 Historical Background
30
Chapter 3 Some Topoi in the Kurtuluş Edebiyatı
80
Chapter 4 Halide Edip and Yakup Kadri
102
Chapter 5 Two Shirts of Flame
161
Chapter 6 Vurun Kahpeye!
192
Chapter 7
Ergenekon
201
Chapter 8
Yaban
, Kadro,
Ankara
233
Chapter 9 The Greek Case: Venezis
280
Chapter 10
Conclusion
298
Appendix 1 Yakup Kadri’s
Ateşten Gömlek
301
Appendix 2 Yakup Kadri’s
Ateşten Gömlek
Translation
311
Appendix 3 Yakup Kadri’s 1964 Preface and Epilogue
to
Ergenekon
323
Appendix 4
Yaban
Textual variants
329
Bibliography
435
5
To my Greek and Turkish families
George
Zerrin
Dimitris Christos and Koula
Zeynep
and Salih Zeki
Takis and Katerina
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
6
From the time I started my research for this thesis many unforeseen events in my life
delayed it and postponed my attempts to complete it. Over the years a number of
people, friends old and new,
kindly helped me, each in his or her own way, and
contributed to its progress. I am grateful to them all. I would like to thank Ourania
Bessi, Erol Köroğlu, Yalçın Armağan and Kesibe Karaosmanoğlu who very kindly
provided me with useful material and information and facilitated access to research
material.
Special thanks also are due to
Zeynep and Salih Zeki Sayar, Katerina Drossou and
Takis Koutsoyiannopoulos and my children Dimitris, Christos and Koula for their
support in so many different ways as well as to Sibel Kocaer for helping me to
decipher the manuscripts at the early stages of my research.
At the Gennadius Library I am indebted to Maria Georgopoulou,
Natalia Vogeikoff-
Brogan, Leda Costaki and Eleftheria Valeziou for making the Myrivilis and Venezis
archives available to me and for their personal interest in my research.
I am also grateful to Sevengül Sönmez for entrusting me with original material from
the vast Karaosmanoğlu archives relevant to my research and to my special interest
in Yakup Kadri. I am also indebted to my friend Polymnia Athanassiadi for reading
the
whole draft of my thesis, for her corrections and valuable suggestions.