Description:
Faced with discrimination in Turkey, most of the Greeks of Istanbul and Imbros left for Greece in the years 1955-80, where they received a rather lukewarm reception. This book explores the myriad ways in which these expatriates daily understood their contemporary difficulties through the lens of historical experience, and reimagined the past according to present concerns and conceptions. It shows that in a broad spectrum of different domains - from commemorative ceremonies and the minutiae of citizenship to everyday expressions of national identity and stereotypes about others - the past is a resource that can be deployed to sustain variable and changeable identities, memories, and meanings.