In:
Méditerranée, PERSEE Program, Vol. 103, No. 3 ( 2004), p. 65-74
Abstract:
Among the major islands of the Greek archipelago, Lesbos (1 633 km2 and 90 643 inhabitants in 2001) is, with Crete, the one that has undergone the deepest demographic changes, tied to the obligatory change of populations between Greece and Turkey. On the eve of the Balkan wars, Muslims (18 177 in 1911) comprised 13.1% of the island population; more at the end of the 1920s, they numbered no more than 7 162 (6.3%). The «Catastrophe of Asia Minor» sanctioned by the Lausanne Convention (1923) brought an economic wave of Greek refugees (47 382 in April 1923), whereas in Mytilene, the last Turks had left. Five years later, in the 1928 census, 30 643 refugees were settled on Lesbos where they formed 22.3% of the population; only 87 Muslims then remained on the island. Since this date, population has not ceased to fall (87 151 inhabitants in 1991); the last decade, however, has brought a 4% rise, notably in the city of Mytilene. Communication raises the question of the spatial distribution of communities at the beginning of the twentieth century and those of refugees settled there in 1928. Also analyzed is the population of Mytilene in 1969 by place of birth: one fourth of the adults had still come from Asia Minor.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0025-8296
DOI:
10.3406/medit.2004.3369
Language:
French
Publisher:
PERSEE Program
Publication Date:
2004
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2484048-8
SSG:
14
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