The Sounds of Silence VII

For over a century, Kınalıada has been a much favored recreation area for the Armenian community in Turkey. The settlement of Armenians on the island dates back to the first quarter of the 19th century, with the history of the first religious and educational institutions dating back to the middle of the same century. On the island, where for many years the majority of the population was composed of Armenians and Greeks, a serious demographic change was experienced through the expulsion of Greek citizens from the country in 1964; population growth accelerated after the construction of new buildings on the abandoned properties of the former Greek inhabitants of the island in the 1970s. This book, like the other books in the Sounds of Silence’ series, was prepared with the aim of making visible and heard the stories Armenians in Turkey and abroad, whose roots are in the various regions of Turkey’s geography. Within the scope of this study, oral history interviews were conducted in Kınalıada, one of the rare settlements where Western Armenian culture and language are still kept alive in the public sphere, shedding light on the cu lture’s past and showing the importance of the island for the Armenian community, and the transformation it has undergone in the last fifty years.