Explore The North Aegean
Hovering just northwest of the Dardanelles, GÖKÇEADA (known as İmroz until 1970) is tantalizingly visible from the Gelibolu battlefields. Scenic, fertile and volcanic, with healthy pine and kermes oak forests in the west and pure springs to drink from, it’s big enough to make bringing your own vehicle a must, as sparse local dolmuş services only serve the populated northwest.
İmroz was taken by Greece in the 1912–13 Balkan Wars, and during the Gallipoli campaign served as British commander Sir Ian Hamilton’s headquarters, and as an important way-station between Límnos and the battlefields. Today its main claim to fame is its superb, organic produce, especially olive oil, tomato jam, honey and cheese. Its summer tourist trade comprises some Romanians and Bulgarians, but mostly consists of thousands of returned Greek islanders and their descendants, especially around the main Orthodox panayır (festival) of August 14–16, when beds are at a premium.
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The Greeks of Gökçeada
The Greeks of Gökçeada
After reverting to Turkish sovereignty in 1923, the island’s population of 7000 Orthodox Greeks (down from over 9000 in 1912) was more or less left to itself for forty years, save for a couple of hundred gendarmes and officials. But when the Cyprus conflict re-erupted in 1964, the Turkish government decided to “claim” the island more pointedly by garrisoning troops, imposing Turkish place-names, closing all Greek-language schools, settling Turkish civilians from the mainland and establishing an open prison, whose inmates terrorized the locals. These measures had the desired effect: today there are only about 250 full-time ethnic Greek residents.
Since the 1990s thaw in relations between Greece and Turkey, however, many Greek islanders have returned seasonally to renovate their previously abandoned houses and keep at least some of the many churches functioning. But the older generation remains wary, dependent as they are on the good will of the authorities and resentful that their children, born elsewhere, don’t qualify for Turkish citizenship and thus can’t own real estate in this military zone.
