In 1920s Sinasos, now Mustafapaşa, was a Cappadocian town with a population of 3.000, mostly made up of Greeks. Located five kilometers south of Ürgüp, the town was known as the pearl of the east for its peculiar architecture, educated and talented inhabitants. Greek inhabitants of the town forced to leave their homeland in connection with the population exchange between Turkey and Greece did something unprecedented before evacuating their beloved town: They hired two photographers to take the photos of their town and eternalized it by collecting the photos into an album. Including the churches, mansions, schools, bridges and fountains the album reflected the scenes of daily life, entertainments, local costumes and various aspects of the community of Sinasos. This book by Evangelia Balta who has a deep knowledge about the history of Greek communities in Cappadocia enriches the album with the visuals from private and institutional archives in Greece and combines them with the accounts by the old inhabitants of Sinasos.
An abstract from the foreword by the editor, Evangelia Balta: The photographing of Sinasos, in July 1924, constitutes a unique phenomenon in the behavior of the Cappadocian population during the dramatic period of the Exchange of Populations. The place is printed on photographic paper, in order to immortalize as image and memory the immaterial essence of time and place, in order to transfer it and to safe-keep it together with the other heirlooms in the new homeland.
Greek refugees who visited the land of their fathers 25 or 35 years after the Exchange are photographed in embrace with their Turkish compatriots, friends from the old days, who wander companionably with them through Sinasos and its environs, as if the tragic event of the Exchange had never happened, as if life was re-mustering its forces.
Today, locals and refugee Macedonian Turks, and I with them, we feel, we dream that this whole 'world' is truly ours. All emanate an uplifting human warmth. Memories of living and dead compose a thrilling whole. Wise is the maxim that still adorns the doorway to the Rizos house: "Today mine, and tomorrow someone else's and never no one's". ( Kitap Arkasından )
