Arrival in Izmir and May Day Mayhem!

The next leg of our trip will take us to Izmir where we will stay for 2 nights. Although I’m not a history buff, I’ve been interested in recent Greek history and in particular, the events that led up to the great population exchange in 1923. It’s incredible to think that this historical event took place during my father’s lifetime. It was during my visit to Kavala last year and specifically, the Museum of Hellenic Refugees that further compelled me to visit Smyrna, now modern-day Izmir. I’m aware that very little of old Smyrna remains today, but I’m curious to see where events took place in this part of Greek and Turkish history.

I had planned to do this trip independently and although relatively straightforward, I found that it was cheaper to do the trip through Sunrise Tours. I’ve used Sunrise before – they’re the only place to buy ferry tickets for the Oinoussai iii, the local boat to the island of Oinousses. They run day trips to Izmir several times a week and after several email exchanges, I found that it was possible to stay in Izmir for several nights too. They would also arrange our accommodation for us but I decided to do this myself.

As a comparison, to arrange this trip independently, the return ferry journey from Chios to Cesme is just over 60€ per person. The organised trip with Sunrise is 60€ per person and also includes the bus transfers from Cesme to Izmir and a guided tour. This meant that I didn’t have to try and navigate the Turkish bus service so it was a no-brainer. Sunrise were quite clear that the guided tour was a Greek language tour but this wasn’t a problem. Not that I understand Greek very well but the hope was that it would help us get our bearings in the city before we explored it further on our own.

We have been instructed to meet at Chios Customs Office at 0730 allowing enough time for our travel documents to be checked before our departure at 0800. All of the necessary paperwork had been completed by email before we arrived in Greece and so far this has been a very smooth process.

We will be sailing to Cesme on the small boat the San Nicolas, a crossing which takes just 30 minutes – less time than it takes to sail to Oinousses. The trip seems popular but after queuing for around twenty minutes we can board. There is a mixture of Greeks and Turks on board, the latter I assume are returning home after visiting Chios. Just a few months ago, a fast-track temporary visa was introduced. This on-the-spot visa gives Turks the ability to visit the islands that skirt the Turkish coast – Kalymnos, Limnos, Leros, Kos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Symi, and Kastelorizo. High inflation in Turkey means that Greece is a good value destination for Turks. As the ongoing troubles in the Middle East have escalated, visitor numbers to Greece have dropped so this is expected to give a boost to the Greek economy. It may also go a little way towards boosting entente cordiale between the neighbouring governments.

We squeeze onto a bench on the top deck and soon we are on our way. Out at sea, the wind is bitingly cold but I’d rather be up here than in the salon below. We arrive at the harbour of Cesme on time. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of architecture and landscape but it seems that large swathes of coastal land have been allocated to modern development. Rows of cookie-cutter developments stagger down the hillside towards the seafront and there is something that resembles a spaceship close by. Google Maps tells me that these are a series of holiday resorts.

After disembarkation, we follow the crowd into the customs building where our passports are again checked. Once through to the other side, it’s a little unclear at first where to find the coach but we spot someone that we recognise from the boat trip and follow them. This is a bit of a risky strategy as we didn’t know if they had been booked on the coach transfer. Anyway, it worked and the driver checked that we were with Sunrise before allowing us to board.

Ten minutes later our guide Ali arrives and goes straight into his blurb in Greek. Peter and I watch and listen for any clues. Sunrise had emailed me an itinerary for the day which I translated from Greek so I have some notion of what the day will consist of. We set off from Cesme, initially through a hilly landscape and then onto the coastal road towards Izmir. According to the itinerary, we had driven through Alatsata, which until 1922 used to be a purely Orthodox village. We missed it. As Ali spoke at a hundred miles per hour, we didn’t see any pointing or looking out of the window.

The road into central Izmir is modern with broad, tree-lined esplanades. Rows of palm trees planted into the central reservation are surrounded by beautifully manicured flower beds. Running parallel with the road and skirting the coastline is a modern tram system – it all looks very impressive.

As we enter central Izmir, the bus turns onto the busy Fevzi Pasa Boulevard. The traffic is crazy. On either side are multistorey buildings covered in advertising hoardings. This street has an eclectic mix of shops of which a large proportion are wedding dress shops (so many of them) and a large array of hotels. Street traders have set up shop where they’ll get the most footfall. Makeshift stalls made from upturned boxes to display their wares mainly watches and mobile phones . There is a real buzz about the city and I’m excited to explore further.

Curiously, we see a small group of people across the road carrying flags and banners. Maybe not so curiously. Today is May 1st, and recognised in many parts of the world as Workers Day or Labour Day (or for many people in the UK – just a day off!). However, Workers Day in Turkey has a history. It has been celebrated in Turkey since the early 1900’s and evolved out of a fight for the rights of cotton and tobacco labourers. In 1923 Kemal Ataturk was established as the first president of the newly formed Republic of Turkey. The following year a decree was issued banning the event. This didn’t go down well with the workers and violent demonstrations ensued but this was swiftly quashed.

10 years later, May 1st was declared a bank holiday called Spring and Flower Day. Fast forward to 1977 when the first mass Labour Day demonstrations took place in decades. 500,000 people were said to have descended onto Taksim Square in Istanbul. This was the largest gathering in Turkish worker’s history. Unidentified assailants opened fire on the crowd. As the shots rang out, the crowd tried to disperse and exit through any route available. Security forces entered the affray, turning hoses onto the crowd and blocking their exit with tanks. 30-40 lives were sadly lost and many hundreds of people were injured. 4 people died of gunshot wounds and the rest died from injuries when caught up in the stampede created by the brutal assault by the police. The perpetrators who fired into the crowd were never identified or held to account.

Over the subsequent decades and under successive governments, (it all gets very complicated) the Workers Day celebrations were banned and re-established (sometimes illegally), banned again and so on and so forth. In 2009, 30 years on from the Taksim Square Massacre, Labour and Solidarity Day was announced as a public holiday. A fractious relationship between participants of the demonstrations and the government persists but hopefully, today will remain peaceful.

The bus parked midway along the street and people began to climb out. Ali is giving instructions in Greek but we don’t understand what they are. A kind Greek gentleman explains that this is the dropping-off point for people who are staying in Izmir overnight. For people that want to do the guided tour, they must stay on board. We’re a hybrid of the two so we stay put whilst checking that our luggage isn’t offloaded. Once the others have retrieved their luggage from the underbelly of the bus, Ali does a final check of those that remain. He expected us to disembark because the tour was in Greek but we said that we wanted to come along for the ride. No problem.

The bus pulls out into the busy traffic lane and continues down Fevzi Pasa Boulevard towards Basmane Train Station. We head somewhere to the right of here and eventually stop on a quiet side street. Everyone disembarks so we follow. We arrive at the entrance of a large church which Google Maps tells me is Church of St. Vukolos.

Saint Vukolos was one of the first bishops of Smyrna. In the latter half of the 19th century, the Greek Orthodox community built the church and dedicated it to him. The church served the community until 1922 when life for many Greeks in Asia Minor became impossible. The great fire of Smyrna devastated the city and the following year the population exchange was put into force. Saint Vukolos was one of the few churches to survive the fire.

Just a few years later in 1924, shortly after being inaugurated as president, Ataturk requested that the building be converted into the Asar ı Atika Museum which opened its doors in 1927. It became the Archaeology Museum in 1943. When the modern Archaeology Museum opened in 1984 the building was used primarily for storage and occasionally as an exhibition space. Soon after it was allocated to Izmir State Opera and Ballet who used it as an opera study hall. After a fire in the building, it fell into dilapidation, unused for many years.

In 2010, the Izmir Municipality, restored the building and landscaped the grounds and has since served as a multi-purpose cultural centre. Some of the outbuildings were utilised as the Izmir Press Museum and there are some printing presses in the grounds to see. During the restoration of the former church under layers of gold paint, murals depicting Jesus, Saint John with the Golden Mouth and the archangels Michael and Gabriel were discovered.

We’re back on the bus again and heading back into the busy stream of traffic. It seems to have become far more intense during the last hour. The bus is struggling to make much headway and eventually, we pull over and are asked to get off. We are on the edge of 9th September Square (which is actually a large roundabout). If all roads lead to Rome in Italy, then this is true of the roads in Izmir and 9th September Square.

I’m conscious that we’ve been dropped in the middle of a heaving throng of protesters. Close to the entrance of Kulturpark is a squad of police officers complete with riot gear and weapons. As if a busy city like Izmir isn’t overwhelming enough, my senses are sent into overload with the sights and sounds of thousands of people streaming across the road in front of us.

Once we’ve regrouped, Ali pulls out his blue and white tour leader’s flag, gives instructions in Greek and marches off. We again follow the crowd, conscious that if we lose Ali, we will be in trouble. We’d have no real way of finding the coach, finding our luggage or indeed how, when and where we are to catch the coach back to Cesme in two days’ time. We stick to him like glue!

We do a quick fly-past two churches. I quickly snap a couple of photographs so that I can identify them later. The first is the Greek Orthodox Church of Agia Fotini. This is a modern church that replaced the one of the same name destroyed during the great fire. The second church is the Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St John. This significant place of worship is the seat of the Archbishop and the congregation is both Catholic and Protestant. The cathedral was opened in 1874 and Pope Pius IX gifted the main altar to the church. Before its opening, Sultan Abdalaziz donated generous amounts of gold to be used in its construction.

We move on and several minutes later we find ourselves standing at a tram stop. When Ali and the rest of the group board a tram, we do the same. All I can do is assume that the tickets have been taken care of. As an independent traveller, this lack of control isn’t a comfortable feeling. Several minutes later Ali signals for us to get off. After another short walk, we are on Ali Ceninkaya Boulevard, a wide pedestrianised shopping street where we are given ten minutes to buy much-needed refreshments.

We are now walking to the bottom of the boulevard towards the harbour front and Gundogdu Square, the meeting place for the protesters. The area has been cordoned off by large metal fences with us on one side and the protesters on the other. I can’t say how many thousands of people have gathered here but it is a significant number which isn’t obvious in the few photographs that I take. Through the crowd, we can just make out a large stage where speeches are being given to rapturous applause from onlookers.

As we watch the parade of marchers enter Gundogdu Square, Ali points out the Greek Embassy and the Ataturk Museum. We plan to visit tomorrow so it’s good to get our bearings. Ali leads us further along Ataturk Caddesi and further into Alsancak, a historical neighbourhood in the municipality of Konak.

Ali is really picking up the pace now and it’s a challenge to keep up with him. We weave in and out of the alleyways whilst I simultaneously snap a few photographs. My instincts tell me that these old houses are what remains of the old district and possibly part of the former Greek and Jewish quarters – though without the expert knowledge I can’t say for sure. This type of architecture with its spectacular array of Sachnisi can be found in the Balkans, Turkey and parts of Greece. If we can find this place again tomorrow we will come back and explore it at a more leisurely pace.

This is the end of the guided tour and we are led back to the point where we originally began on Fevzi Pasa Boulevard. Ali tells us that the bus driver will take us to our hotel and directs us to board the bus. The driver makes a good attempt to do this but once again at 9th September Square, the traffic is at a standstill. There are still large crowds of demonstrators heading towards Gundogdu Square. The hotel where we are staying is close to this but we won’t be able to make it by bus. The driver apologises and tells us that we need to walk. We took our luggage from the store under the bus and thumbed the directions into Google Maps. The most direct route is through the crowd of marchers who are making their way down the main thoroughfare. Peter has a plan. We take a parallel street and then zigzag our way through to the hotel avoiding the largest masses of people. Phew! We made it!

We are staying at Hotel Marla chosen for its central location and its fairly good reviews. I filtered the search for hotels in and around Kulturpark and close to the harbour. Although I usually take hotel reviews with a pinch of salt, I think you can broadly gauge a certain level of the establishment by the ratings. I was surprised by how many hotels had very low ratings – I mean 1 and 2 out of 10. Izmir is a modern city so I was surprised by so many poorly rated accommodations. Let’s see what Hotel Marla has to offer.

After checking in we take the elevator to the 5th floor where we have a large bright room overlooking the city. It will be fine for our 2 nights here. BTW, the sheets weren’t wrinkled like that when we arrived. I was in such pain because of my back that I threw myself onto the bed to rest it for a while before taking photographs of the room. I need to find some appropriate treatment soon.

I’ll continue this post later.