PHOCAEA 1914

An interactive documentary about the 1914 forced displacement of the Greek population of Phocaea, a coastal town on the Aegean coast of Turkey in the then Ottoman Empire.

A project developed as part of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the Department of Communication & Journalism, Faculty of Media & Communication, Bournemouth University.

BRIEF HISTORY

A few weeks before the beginning of WWI, in the early summer of 1914, a series of violent attacks took place in hundreds of towns and villages along the Aegean coast of Turkey, in what was then the Ottoman Empire. The perpetrators were gangs of irregular bandits (called çete and başıbozuk in Turkish), armed with government-issued Martini rifles and other weapons. Their modus operandi was to surround and attack villages and towns, loot all that was valuable, and drive away the population. Their targets were the Greek-speaking, Christian citizens of the Empire – referred in this documentary as Ottoman Greeks. In Turkish, their designation is “Rum” (a leftover from the word “Roman”, as this was once part of the Easter Roman Empire, aka Byzantium) and is to be distinguished from “Yunan” (“Greek”) who are the Greeks of Greece. 

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NAVIGATION GUIDELINES

MAPS

Click on the large maps to travel back and forth to the past or the present. Let’s call these the Past and Present Universes.
From within them you can access testimonies from residents who witnessed the 1914 events, as well as recent interviews with their descendants in Greece or current residents of Foça, Turkey.
Bonus item: At any time during your journey, you can access a collection of maps available for perusal, by clicking a button that looks like the one above and it's located on top of your screen

HOTSPOTS

Map hotspots mark significant locations in the past or the present. Click on their icons to see where each one may lead you.

MULTIMEDIA

Every hotspot offers rich content in form of videos and galleries. Discover what happened in 1914 and what people have to say today about those traumatic events.
Want to watch/listen/read something again? There’s a permanent link to an index of all multimedia at the bottom of every page.

INTERACTIVE
VIDEOS

Click on the thumbnails that pop up during video play to watch related videos or to find out more about a subject.
Do not worry, all thumbnails stay visible even after the end of each video, so relax and navigate through this multimedia experience at your own pace.
At the end of certain videos you will also be given specific recommendations on how to continue your journey. Choose and click how you want to proceed.

EXPERTS’
MENU

A drop-down menu full of experts’ information can appear on your screen at all times. Just click on the above button to access it.
It’s there to give you a broader and more objective perspective on what happened.

It contains interviews and archival documents on the 1914 events in Phocaea, the General Historical Background, the relationship between Memory Studies and History, and the Research conducted by our experts.

Unlike the Past and Present universes, it moves away from Phocaea, towards a larger picture of the events – and of the way to think about them. Consider it a chance to peek into the fascinating world of academic History!

NAVIGATION
HELP

Did you get lost?
Don’t worry! At any time and on any page you can either click on “Phocaea 1914” (at the top left corner of the screen) to go back to the home page, or on the navigation icon you see above, to open this help screen. You will find it on the top of every page.

YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE