Excesses of nationalism: G reco‐ T urkish population exchange

This article studies 1923 compulsory population exchange between G reece and T urkey through a case study of its experience in I zmir. It traces the ways the early R epublican state engaged in the project of reshaping the population by eliminating the non‐ M uslims who were rendered as ‘excesses’ in the spatial and discursive matrices of the nation‐state. Through the experience of the exchange in I zmir, it argues that the process of the accommodation and assimilation of the exchangees played a significant role in shaping the modalities of T urkish nationalism by creating new lines and fissures, further dividing the ‘ M uslim brethren’ into ever restrictive constructions of T urkishness. It also underlines that this forced displacement is not just a significant episode in G reek and T urkish histories but that it represents a turning point in the project of nation formation in general.