Losing a Homeland, 1923–1924 Intended along with the population exchange was a wealth and prop-
erty exchange. Although hardly a majority in the city’s population, es-
pecially after 1912 , Muslims and Dönme had owned the most property
in Salonika. Seeing that most of the Dönme men, whether Karakaş or
Kapancı, were listed as merchants or bankers by profession in the docu-
mentation of the Mixed Commission for the Exchange of the Greek and
Turkish Populations, this would be a complicated affair of disentangle-
ment. In theory, the population exchange appeared to offer a smooth
transition for the migrants. They were free to transfer their moveable
goods; those they could not transport, they were to leave where they were.
Local authorities were charged with evaluating their worth and giving the
migrants a form stating their estimate of the value. In addition, migrants’
immovable goods were also to be evaluated. Each migrant family would
arrive in Turkey with a copy of a document listing the amount and value
of its property in Greece filled out by the family head, signed by the local
committee, and approved by the Mixed Commission of Turks and Greeks
as well.^47 The exchangee was to receive the equivalent in his or her new
domicile.^48 Thus if a Dönme owned a home in Salonika valued at 10 , 000
gold Turkish lira, in theory, when he arrived in Istanbul, he was to receive
an equivalent home of a deported Orthodox Christian, who one assumes
would receive the Dönme’s home in Salonika. Again, in theory, seen from
the Turkish state’s perspective, this process would kill two birds with one
stone.^49 Anatolia had been devastated by over a decade of war and dislo-
cation of the population. The reconstruction and repair of the country,
and the replanting and tending of its land, was to be undertaken by the
migrants who would settle in the ruined and abandoned homes and fields
of the departed Orthodox Christians.^50 The Aegean and Black Sea regions
were especially in ruins, and it was to these areas that the migrants were
to be sent.^51 In the eyes of Mustafa Necati, head of the Turkish parlia-
ment’s population exchange and settlement committee, the aim was to
promote the national economy; the country would be rejuvenated by co-
religionists, whose prosperity would make Turkey prosper.^52
Despite the best-laid plans, however, problems immediately arose.
Plans of settlement could not be implemented in part because the gov-
ernment did not have available sufficient formerly Orthodox Christian
homes and fields, most of which had already been occupied by migrants
or displaced locals.^53 According to a member of Necati’s committee, even
after the war had ended, even in the new national capital of Ankara,