Umit Sang Into to Crete Water; Crete to The Heart of Cretans

Year 2007, Volume: 6 Issue: 14, 185 - 192, 01.09.2007

Kemal Arı

Abstract

Every Craetan were proud of to be a Cretan. Cretans had Created common behaviors, common senseful positions and a common body language in this area that was close to outside by some contents. Surely, there had been pecularities and clothing styles which were separating a Roum from Turks, but uniting pecularites were more than separating pecularities. The familiar living like that and common culture had been broken up with the decision of exchange( barter). The army of Mustafa Kemal, according to the agreements (contract) which had been made with the conclusion of removing of Greek forces from Anatolia, excluding the west thrace, like Greek Muslims, Cretan Muslims had been subjected to the exchange, too. A lot of ships had been dutied by Seyr-İ Sefain to carry the Cretan Muslims who had been waiting for exchange. One of these ships were the “Ümit” which was 55 years old and had successed seious works in Turkish Liberation War. Ümit was an old, and worn out ship, it was deserving of retirement already. For all that, Ümit had been used in the work of carrying the migrants. Ümit had been driven about from one dock to another ceaselessly. The tired body of Ümit, finally, had been unable to overcome this dynamism and had left itself to the cold water of Cerete. Hereby, Crete had stayed in the hearts of Cretans and Ümit in the cold Crete water. The aim of this study is; to introduce this ship, named “Ümit”, and to tell the difficulties of the people who had been pressed to leave from the people whom they had lived a common culture with and from the lands in which they had borned, by means of migration.

Keywords

Migration, Exchange, Umit, Seyr-i Sefain(an instituition which had been watching(controlling) all of the ships of that area(land)), Ship