My mother the Angel (Melek) - II

Year 1913, at the wake of the French revolution, national uprisings have been tearing apart the Ottoman Empire. Balkan wars are over leading the way to World War One. Grece and more so Crete, which had never fully submitted to the Ottoman invaders are in turmoil, "boiling over". Greek nationalists, who had suffered under Ottoman fist for centuries are rising up in revolt. There is the Ottoman clergy, who had controlled and converted masses of Greek peasants to Islam. There is the diminishing Ottoman miletary, which is being pulled out of Crete and Greece leaving those fought against local nationalists or collaborated with the Ottomans to their own destiny. The Greeks, who had converted to Islam under the sometimes brutal pressure of Ottoman ck=lergy and miletary have come to be known as Turkos. Akthough Turkoi Greeks and christian Greeks, when left to their own devices had lived side by side as good neighbors, times have changes: The loyalists, never converted to Islam, ousted and brutalized by Ottomans, stood their ground no matter what and have been massacered in scores in their monesteries and forts they tried to defend time and time again. The British certainly sees a great opportunity in these local uprisings. At least in the Aegean region in Anotolia, British aircraft drops agitative flyers against Turks over Greek villages, and against their Greek neighbors over mainly Turkish villages to trigger Greek Ottomans to turn against the Turks and sharpen fear in the hearts of Turks to turn against their neighbors. Why wouldn't that have happened in Crete. Many books and films have been created by both Turkish and Greek authors and fil makers, sometimes in collaboration to share wiht the world what autracities and miracles of humane care came out of that time on both sides. Roles had changed in Cretenat the turn of teh 20th century. The once in danger Greek loyalist nationalists are now getting stronger and stronger, when the Ottoman clergy and the converted Turko-Greekss find themselves in danger of massacre. Both my mother's and father's people happened to be Turkos and Ottoman clergy. My father's entire ancestry and my mother's paternal side were all Turkos, descendents of Greek peasants converted to Islam. My maternal grandmother's lineage on the other hand consisted of Ottoman clergy, assigned to Xhania by the Ottomans. They all fell into the two groups that had to leave Crete. , otherwise... I grew up hearing stories from the paternal side of my family that had they not left Crete right away, the loyalists would have "cut our throats". Irony is that, their christian Greek neighbors told my Turko ancestors thay had better leave that night "tomoorrow, they are coming to cut your throats". So they leave, on a ship in 2013 heading to the other side of "The Water", meaning The Aegean. My father's family finds their way to Torbali and Izmir, my mother's to Ayvalik and Edremit, all along the Aegean coast. My paternal grandparents and maternal grnadfather were adolescents when they completed the voyage in probably British ships! My mother's mother was a 10 month old infant. Their parents were all given land equivalent to what they had in Crete to farm. They all go into olive farming. My mother's maternal side turns out to have the largest land given to them, considering their clergy background, they must have served themselves well in a land they were occupying. Yet, the pain of having to leave their own land, moving to foreign land under pressure and crisis circumstances, and world war I that follows their voyage leave such drastic scars on all of them, even the fourth generation of my ancestry is still dealing with this intergenerational complex trauma. And this blog will be the story of this multigenerational journey on both sides of The Water for some time...