Revisiting Lausanne: the Greece-Turkey population exchange

In the first part of this two-part series, we examine the historical context of the Greece-Turkey population exchange, focusing on the emergence of national identity as the dominant way in which to identify and govern populations, and the ascendancy of the racialised meaning of nation. It is in this context that the exchange of minority populations emerges not only as a possibility, but in fact, a necessity. As such, the context is crucial to an understanding of the nature of the minority question in contemporary Turkey