South West Turkey

Ahmet Gonul, grizzled proprietor of the Oracle Pansiyon, was telling me how his people had fetched up in Didim. His parents, caught up in the geopolitical upheavals of the 1920s, were among many thousands of Muslims ordered to leave their homes in Greece for new ones in Turkey. The town which the couple finally reached, travelling by cart, freighter and camel, was wholly abandoned; Didim's Christian population, exiled in the same exchange of minorities, had lately set out on the same journey in reverse. The new arrivals had their pick of the houses, choosing one hard by the heap of old stones in the centre of town, where they set about making Turks of themselves.