In Thebes, after visiting the Archaeological Museum of the city, you can go down towards the Settlement. It is characterized by a tiled roof and density.

Wooden electric poles with swaying cables define one of the few refugee settlements in Greece that has more or less completely survived from the time of the settlement of Asia Minor.

We walked the streets with Apostolis Dagdelenis, President of the Union of Asia Minor Thebes and Vice President of the Federation of Greek Refugee Associations (OPSE).

Having the experience of a settlement when there was still life of refugees, Apostolis Dagdelenis strives to ensure that the uniqueness of this whole is recognized throughout Greece. “Today, most of the houses are not inhabited by their original occupants, but most of them have survived with minor changes and make up the only surviving refugee settlement in general,” he says.

Indeed, many houses are dilapidated in the center of the old quarter, which was officially established in 1927 by the Committee for the Rehabilitation of Refugees, with a year of foundation of 1923. Several houses have been inhabited in recent years by foreign immigrants and gypsies. . Asia Minor little else survived. They immediately stand out against the backdrop of pastra, curtains, flower pots. But most of the houses are in ruins.

However, walking among the first refugee shelters, which are almost 100 years old, we feel the power of this place. In the offices of the Union of Asia Minor Thebes, portraits of ancestors, maps and relics tell forgotten stories.

Thebes accepted refugees, mostly women and children, who gradually had to integrate into a society with a different organization and stratification. Periodic daily wages and work in the tobacco factories of Boeotia were the first means of survival.

“The settlement housed refugees who were massively engaged in the cultivation of tobacco,” says Apostolis Dagdelenis. According to the records of the Foundation for Great Hellenism (IME), most of the people from Asia Minor who arrived in Boeotia worked in technical professions and traded at home. They didn’t know about agriculture. “The refugees from Thebes were given monastic lands belonging to the monastery of Sagamata around the city,” IME reports.

The housing issue was also resolved over time and not in ideal circumstances. “The refugees spent several years in rented rooms, temporary shelters and countertents near the railway station,” says Apostolis Dagdelenis.

The second settlement that followed was a project of the Ministry of Welfare and the houses were larger with better infrastructure. There is a smooth osmosis with a newer city and a sense of organized neighborhood.

Apostolis Degdelenis does not let us forget that, despite the hardships, the settlement “mainly sheltered the dreams and the will to promote and preserve the values ​​and culture that they brought from Asia Minor. Small houses were decorated with cleanliness, flowers and sociability of their inhabitants. For almost three generations, Sinoikismus has been in full swing with life, being a starting point and a pole of attraction for local residents.”

It would be very useful for Thebes to conduct a study in order to preserve and highlight the settlement. The right proposal can find funding.

“All our efforts are aimed at reviving the memory of the Old Settlement,” says Apostolis Dagdelenis. “We want to put pressure on the state to move forward with a bold project of gentrification, cleanliness and neighborhood protection that will involve young people and creative cultural and social activities.”