A few years ago, when I told a taxi driver in Athens that I was going to Nea Smyrni, I will never forget the expression on his face. "You know, the name really comes from Izmir," he said. At that moment, I realized that dozens of place names starting with "Nea" that I kept encountering while traveling on the map of Greece were actually the written form of a great trauma that occurred in 1923. In this article, I want to tell the story of these settlements established by Greeks who went from Turkey to Greece and bore the names of old Anatolian cities, based on historical facts.
The Compulsory Population Exchange Signed in Lausanne
The story begins with the "Agreement Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on January 30, 1923. This agreement came into force on May 1, 1923, and triggered one of history's largest forced population movements. The agreement's first article clearly defined the criterion for change: religion. In other words, the exchange was applied according to religious identity, not ethnic origin—Greek Orthodox in Turkey and Muslims in Greece were to be "exchanged" populations.
The figures show the scale of this movement: Approximately 1,221,489 Greek Orthodox from Anatolia, Eastern Thrace, the Pontus region, and the Caucasus were sent from Turkey to Greece. In return, between 355,000 and 400,000 Muslims from Greece were transferred to Turkey. An interesting detail is that before the agreement formally came into effect, approximately 900,000 Greeks had already left the region during the 1919-1922 Greek-Turkish War—in other words, the exchange was merely placing a legal framework around a migration that had already begun in practice.
The process also had an international dimension. Fridtjof Nansen, the League of Nations' first High Commissioner for Refugees, was the architect and overseer of the settlement process. The agreement had two important exceptions: Istanbul Greeks and the Greeks of Gökçeada (Imroz) and Bozcaada (Tenedos) were excluded from the exchange; similarly, Muslims in Western Thrace remained in their places. However, those who had previously fled from these areas were not allowed to return.
A New Homeland with an Old Name: The "Nea" Tradition
Hundreds of thousands of refugees who reached Greece, most often with nothing, began a new life with only a homeland name in their memories. The state established new settlements to house these people, and the refugees, almost without exception, gave these villages and towns the name of the city they had left behind—by adding "Nea" (Νέα), the Greek word for "new." This was not merely a nostalgic gesture, but also a declaration of identity and continuity: "We are here, but we came from there."
Today on the map of Greece there are dozens of settlements with the "Nea" prefix, each bearing the name of a specific Anatolian, Thracian, or Pontus city. Let us examine some of these with concrete examples.
Nea Smyrni—New Izmir in the Heart of Athens
Approximately four kilometers southwest of central Athens, on the street stretching toward Faliro, Nea Smyrni was established, directly taking its name from Izmir (Greek: Smyrna). Construction began in 1926 on this settlement established to house refugees who were forced to leave the region after the 1922 Izmir Fire. The municipality was officially established in 1944. While its population was only 210 in 1928, it reached 6,500 in 1933 and 15,000 in 1940. According to the 2021 census, 72,853 people live there today—having become one of Athens' most vibrant and upper-middle-class neighborhoods.
Nea Ionia—Ionia's New Address
Located seven kilometers northeast of Athens, Nea Ionia has an interesting naming story. The first refugees who settled in the area came predominantly from the Pisidia region of Anatolia, so the settlement was initially called "Nea Pisidia." However, as refugees from different parts of Ionia gradually began to arrive, the settlement's name was changed to "Nea Ionia." The refugees who settled in this area, previously known as Podarades, brought with them carpet-weaving skills, and this craft formed the economic foundation of the town.
Nea Karvali—From Cappadocia to Kavala
Located within the Kavala municipality in northern Greece, Nea Karvali tells a somewhat different story: the refugees there did not come from Ionia or Thrace, but from the Cappadocia region in Central Anatolia, today's Güzelyurt (formerly Karvali). The settlement, established after the 1924 exchange, is home to the descendants of Cappadocian Greeks. According to the 2021 census, Nea Karvali is home to 1,925 people, and with the affiliated settlements Lefki and Ano Lefki, the total is 2,003 residents.
Nea Alikarnassos—Bodrum's Echo in Crete
On the northern coast of Crete, Nea Alikarnassos, affiliated with Heraklion, was established in 1925. It takes its name from refugees coming from ancient Halicarnassus—today's Bodrum. The settlement began as a public housing project built to accommodate refugees at the time. Today, this district that hosts Heraklion's Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport keeps alive the memory of the ancient city it is named after—the city where the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus stood.
Nea Efesos—From Ephesus to Macedonia
The story of Nea Efesos, located in the Pieria region of Central Macedonia, is somewhat more layered. In 1924, the first group of refugees from Ephesus settled around Toumba Hill; a second group joined in 1927. The settlement initially bore the name Stoupi; however, in 1953 it officially adopted the name Nea Efesos. An interesting historical coincidence: this area is where the mound of the ancient city of Akesamenai and where 25,000 Macedonians who died in the Battle of Pydna were buried—a piece of land carrying history in layers.
Other Examples of the Same Formula
This naming tradition is not limited to isolated cases. North of Athens, Nea Filadelfeia, neighboring Nea Ionia, takes its name from the former name of today's Alaşehir, Filadelfeia (Philadelphia), and was established by refugees of Anatolian origin. Similarly, dozens of settlements like Nea Chalkidona, Nea Michaniona, Nea Peramos, and Nea Kios repeat the same pattern: the name of the old homeland, transferred to new lands along with the "Nea" prefix. This is a pattern that can be found in almost every region of Greece—from Attica to Macedonia, from Crete to Thrace.
What Do These Cities Tell Today?
What struck me most while visiting these settlements was that the names remained alive even a century later. While sitting in a café in Nea Smyrni or heading to the airport in Nea Alikarnassos, you are actually walking the same streets as the descendants of families who once lived in Izmir or Bodrum. These cities are concrete evidence not merely of geographical displacement, but of a community's effort to reconstruct its collective memory.
The 1923 exchange was a traumatic and complex historical event that fundamentally changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on both the Turkish and Greek sides. In this article, I tried to present documented facts without taking sides. But as a traveler, I can say this: whenever you see a place name starting with "Nea" on a map of Greece, there is definitely a story there about someone who moved from Anatolia, Thrace, or Pontus. These names stand like silent but persistent memory stones on the map, bearing the weight of history above them.
