Between Empire and Nation-State
Thessaloníki that they had to add additional paper affixed to the bottom
of the form to cover it all and then described in detail the confiscation
of their properties and their demands for compensation, underlining
the monetary value in blue pen.
The Mixed Commission Records offer more evidence that the Kapancı
and Hasan Akif families resided as close together as possible in the same
district of Hamidiye until they were forced to depart the city. Ahmet
Kapancı’s wife Nefise resided in the four-story home at 87 Hamidiye
Boulevard and owned other parcels of land and a factory on Teşvikiye
street in the same district.^37 Yusuf Kapancı’s son İbrahim, a commis-
sion agent, had resided at number 79.^38 After he passed away, İbrahim’s
sister Emine, his merchant brother İsmail, and the commission agent
siblings Firuz and Osman, were still residing there.^39 Mehmet Kapancı’s
daughter Safinaz resided at number 102.^40 Hasan Akif ’s son Osman Nuri
owned the homes at number 82 and 118 ;^41 his daughter Emine and the
family had a connection to Burmalı Han at number 124 , where some of
them notarized their power of attorney letters after being ordered ex-
pelled in 1923 ;^42 and his daughter-in-law owned the three-story building
at number 141.^43 Hasan Akif ’s daughter İnayet, who signed her property
estimate form both in French and in Ottoman script, owned a two-story
home in Hamidiye.^44
Despite all of these challenges, as late as the eve of the establishment of
the Turkish Republic and the ensuing population exchange, the Dönme
maintained an economic role in the city. A Greek-language commercial
guide of 1921 lists the firm “Yousouf Kapandji et Fils” as a representative
of foreign and Greek commercial houses.^45 The following year the firm
was included in the list of major importers-exporters.^46 Yet by 1922 , local
newspapers advertised Mehmet Kapancı’s and Ahmet Kapancı’s proper-
ties among vacant houses to be taken over by refugees.
In 1923 , in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne, the Feyziye and
Terakki schools were not allowed to reopen, and in 1929 , the Terakki
school sold off the remaining land it owned in Thessaloníki.
A crudely cropped, spotted, and stained passport-size photo of Meh-
met Kapancı shows him near the end of his life in Greek Thessaloníki.
His face is thinner and longer, but he still sports a bushy mustache. Wear-
ing a three-piece suit, with a lightly crumpled fez atop his thin gray hair,
he sits slightly stooped forward. His eyes are slightly glassed over trying
to focus on the photographer, and he looks shocked, stunned, perhaps ill