The 1923 Exchange of Populations between Greece and Turkey ratified the dislocation of over a million Greek Orthodox Christians from Anatolia and Eastern Thrace to the Kingdom of Greece, while hundreds of thousands of Muslims abandoned their homes on the Greek side to move to Turkey. Resettlement was a massive challenge for both sides; the incoming refugees settled in the homes of the now departed, or lived in sheds and squats until the first housing projects were completed. Gradually they took over to repair, expand and reshape their dwellings, and during the following decades they made a permanent contribution to the rural and urban landscapes they inhabited.

The HOMEACROSS project studies the spatial footprint of the Exchange in the regions of Izmir and Attica, two regions that received large numbers of refugees. It aims to contribute to and complement existing scientific knowledge on the subject, to propose new ways of recording and to bring into dialogue the historiographical approaches of the two countries.

First, it records and studies the urban and rural sites of displacement and resettlement – whether new, re-inhabited or abandoned. Within the framework of this objective, it combines fieldwork, archival research, bibliographic research and digital mapping technologies (GIS) to create a database/register of spatial entities linked to the Exchange, and a digital map of the two regions under study, in which the research findings are visualized for a specialist and general public.

In addition to the basic recording of the Exchange’s footprint, the project also focuses on selected case studies in the two countries, through which it explores issues of memory and identity in relation to architecture and space. Finally, it aims to explore the chapter of refugee settlement within the broader history of social housing policies in Greece in the 20th century.

Host Institution: From February 2021 until October 2024, the host institution of the project was the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). From November 2024 until the end of the project, the host institution is the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), and ELIAMEP maintains the role of Partner.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Kalliopi Amygdalou

Funding Body: European Research Council (Horizon 2020)

Project Duration: February 2021 – November 2026

Third Parties: Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir / Turkey & Center for Asia Minor Studies, Athens / Greece