Faith and the sorrow of hometown

Kajakko Yi, the name of a village, is located in the old Lycia province in the southwest of Turkey, about 8 kilometers away from the beautiful seaside town of fethiye and only 5 kilometers away from the lively tourist resort of Saronou. In the middle of the 20th century, it was once prosperous, and tens of thousands of Muslims and Christians lived and worked in peace and contentment. The gathering of various political forces has extremely high strategic and economic value.

However, a few years later, this once prosperous village became a famous "ghost town" in Turkey. Its demise was closely related to the First World War. The post-war population exchange agreement broke the original tranquility of Xanadu, the baptism of years and the destruction of natural disasters, making it a desolate and bleak ruin group, attracting a large number of explorers to explore.

The history of Kajakko can be traced back to 3000 BC. It is said that a group of Byzantine villagers chose to settle in this secret mountain forest in order to avoid pirates. They spoke Greek and believed in Christianity, and the Greek town established by this group was then called "levi".

In the14th century, with more and more people coming here, Levi's has become a considerable settlement with tens of thousands of residents, mainly divided into two religious groups: Christians and Muslims. Most Muslims live around the valley and engage in agricultural activities; Christians, mainly Greeks, live in the inner side of the valley and live by handicrafts. Although they have different beliefs, the two ethnic groups get along well and help each other: whenever there is a wedding or a sacred religious activity, Muslim musicians will appear in Christian celebrations and play beautiful tunes for them, women will share candy and food, men will gather in local cafes, smoke cigarettes, play chess, laugh and solve problems for each other, and children will play together on the roadside ... They will * * * together to safeguard Kayako.

However, the paradise life was broken by a paper agreement of the local government. It originated from the Treaty of Seve signed with the Allies after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. This treaty carved up many territories of Turkey, and Greece intends to cut off two rich regions of Turkey. At this time, the southern part of the peninsula where Levisi is located is the territory that Italy wants. Once the cruel treaty was put forward, it immediately aroused the resistance of the Turkish people, and the second Greek-Turkish war broke out. After the war, the Seville Treaty was invalidated and the two sides re-signed the Treaty of Lausanne. One of them is a population exchange agreement, which stipulates that Greece and Turkey need to exchange people of different religious beliefs. This means that Greek Christian residents living in Turkey must "return to their native land in Greece"; At the same time, Turkish Muslims living in Greece must also emigrate to Turkey.

At Levi's in 1923, more than 6,000 Christian residents were forced to leave overnight, and those who once loved each other said goodbye in a hurry and never saw each other again. A huge population exchange has left endless sadness and desolation.

Christian Greek residents have lived in Levi's for thousands of years. They live in harmony with the local Turkish Muslims. During this period, they have been married many times, and blood is thicker than water. Just because they believe in Christianity, they will leave their homeland for generations and be sent back to "their own country"-Greece. According to records, since the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the fate of about 2 million people has been rewritten. In all, about 500,000 Muslims left Greece and moved to Turkey. At the same time, about 6.5438+0.5 million Christians left Turkey and moved to Greece. As a result of the great migration, the Greek population suddenly exploded, and these "compatriots" who came back from Turkey lacked shelter and were ridiculed by local Greeks as "orientals baptized with yogurt". The two sides were incompatible and once mutually exclusive; Similarly, Muslims who moved back to Turkey from Greece had a hard time, and they were called "pagans" by local Turkish Muslims.

With the passage of time, after Christians left, Muslims engaged in agriculture in the surrounding areas found that they lost their productive value and left here one after another. Later, Levi's Town was gradually abandoned and became an empty ghost town. People call it "Kayakoy (meaning Kayako Stone Village)", which shows that there is nothing here except the stones in the ruins.

Since ancient times, war has not only caused great losses to mankind and threatened human life, but also destroyed civilization and aroused ethnic conflicts. The war between Greece and Turkey intensified the racial division. The destruction brought by the population exchange agreement to Kajakko is irreversible, which directly led to the complete disappearance of this village with splendid civilization in the long history of mankind.

Initially, the repatriation of villagers only led to Kajakko becoming an empty city. Those buildings that record the memory of human civilization still stand there, undergoing the baptism of years. However, the earthquake of magnitude 7. 1957 completely destroyed all the buildings and really turned the village into a desolate ruin. Although the houses around the valley were later restored to a certain extent, the buildings inside the valley were no longer taken care of.

Since then, people can only look for traces of Kajakko's past in historical records and memories of the older generation. As a result, later generations wrote their nostalgia for those years into some literary works, and a story of separation of love and hate was born. In his novel Birds Without Wings, the English writer Bonnier tells a touching and beautiful love story with the background of Yi village in Kajakko: a beautiful Greek girl had to be separated from her beloved Turkish lover because of a dispute between the two countries.

In addition, the famous film Spice and Country is also based on the history of population exchange between Greece and Turkey and the personal experience of director Tassos Boulmetis. Also because of the population exchange, the young hero Wanis moved to Greece with his parents, while his Muslim grandfather and his childhood playmate Misha stayed in Turkey. In one scene in the movie, when Vannis's father was expelled, the immigration officer whispered in his ear that if he could give up Christianity and convert to Islam, he could stay, but he hesitated for five seconds, and then it was too late-things had changed. When he set foot on this land again, he attended his grandfather's funeral and his childhood playmate was married.

Nowadays, if people want to explore history, they just need to walk through the dense trees and see Kayakoy built on the mountain. When the weather is cloudy, standing at the foot of the mountain, you can see hundreds of dilapidated houses, large and small, scattered on the hillside. There is no roof, only a lonely wall, a pillar or a stone pier. No one lives there, and it looks particularly desolate. Of course, although it is called a "ghost town" by the locals, nothing supernatural has actually happened.

Failure was originally a depressing scene, but Kayakoy has an alternative magnificence. Climbing up along the gravel road and ramp, you can see Kajakko Iraq more clearly. The house is built on the mountain with unique design, and the landscape and lighting do not interfere with each other. All kinds of broken walls are layered on both sides, silently guarding this place like a hermit. The more you go up, the more serious the damage to the stone pavement and the more serious the collapse of the house. Under some collapsed houses, some stone articles used by Greeks, such as stone stoves and stone benches, were abandoned there. The weeds and cactus growing on the wall and in the wall add a little vitality to the vicissitudes of life.

After the erosion of war, population migration, geographical environment and other multiple factors, Kajakko and Iraq presented a dilapidated scene. But it is gratifying that at the end of the 20th century, with the assistance of the local government, this forgotten small village was restored and renovated. It bears a heavy cultural history and symbolizes the peace and friendship between Turkey and Greece. Therefore, the government attaches great importance to it and lists Kajakko and its surrounding areas as Turkey's third-class protected areas and archaeological sites.

According to statistics, about 4,000 stone houses and other buildings have been preserved, including 4 small churches 14, 2 cathedrals, 2 school guilds and 0 customs building 1 4, among which 760 buildings are included in the scope of cultural heritage protection. In recent years, reconstruction projects developed by Turkish Travel Agency Association, Turkish-Greek Friendship Association and Turkish Architects Association will also restore the remaining houses, churches, schools, libraries, hospitals, shops and other facilities.

Nowadays, with the support of the government, Kajakko has gradually become a small town with Turkish characteristics, and the development of tourism has revived it. Visitors can stroll on the gravel streets, walk between the pillars and arches of the church, and pursue their past fame through the broken buildings. Because devout believers once lived here, the churches in the ruins are relatively complete, with three for tourists to visit. In addition to the ruins of the church, signs with names written in English and Turkish were set up. Most of them were built in17th century. Under the erosion of sun and rain, the original bright colors of murals have faded, and the Gothic arched roof is not as gorgeous as before. Mottled corrosion is like the vicissitudes of aging people, standing alone in the desolate "ghost town", recording the sad past. In the long river of history, it used to be bright, spacious and magnificent, and it was crowded with believers who came to pray. But under the plunder of nature and war, the beauty gradually dissipated, leaving only a trace of disappointment.

However, sometimes fate is so interesting. In fact, not all the towns after the Greeks left became "ghost towns". In Turkey, there is also a small town with a similar history to Kajakko, but it has been completely preserved.

Near the famous ruins of Ephesus in Turkey, there is a small town that has existed for thousands of years. Because it means "sweet" and "lovely", it is also called "sweet town". It was built in the 6th century. A group of Christians from Greece stumbled upon this treasure trove of geomantic omen and lived a quiet life without competition. When the Second Turkey-Greece War broke out, Hillings was also affected. The population exchange agreement forced the Christians in Hillings to return to Greece, while the Muslims in Greece "returned to their homeland" and became the new owners of the town. Dramatically, under the same history, Hillings and Kajakko Yi went to the opposite fate: the newly moved Muslims did not refuse and complain, but rebuilt their Greek houses, merged into the Ottoman style and lived a happy new life.

Now, Hillings, hidden in the mountains, has become a popular tourist attraction because of its unique architectural style and historical culture. There are all kinds of shops all over the narrow streets, and the goods are dazzling, gathering tourists from all corners of the country. Greek houses with red roofs and white walls are scattered halfway up the mountain, hidden among the fruit trees all over the mountain, and look like a landscape from a distance.

In contrast, Kayakoy does seem a little quiet and sad. Walking on the mountain road next to the ruins, the tourists are very quiet, and everyone tacitly protects the tranquility of this place. After all, the "beauty of ruins" needs to be experienced, and it needs to be immersed in it in order to feel the incomplete regret. When the warm sunshine dispels the haze in the mountain forest, you can feel the shocking experience from the vision when you reach the summit; Close your eyes again and listen to the whispers of the lost years in the wind. ...