Refugees from Silli in Iconium

The main axis around which the book revolves is the integration of refugees from a small town in Asia Minor into Greece. It is based primarily on interviews with refugees from Sili in Iconium, an interesting material that is cross-referenced with similar information from the literature as well as archival material. The study is divided into three parts: the first part refers to life in Silli (1900-1924), the second to the life of Sillian refugees in Greece (1924-1956) and the third part refers to the refugee consciousness of the first, second and third generations. The relative emphasis in the first part is due to the belief that the adaptation and integration of the Sillae is a function of their life there. After all, the first part attests to the truth of the characterisation of the Sillae as a ‘merchant population’.

Nelly Melidou-Kefala. Born in Thessaloniki to a Sillaean father and a Thessaloniki mother. Graduated from the Archaeology Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with a state scholarship. Postgraduate studies in folklore at the University of Thessaloniki and in social anthropology-ethnology at the Higher School of Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. She worked since 1972 as a researcher at the Folklore and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia-Thrace, which she directed from 1983 to 1991 and from 2003 to 2008 when she retired after 35 years of fruitful service. He has published many studies on folklore, museology and social anthropology and has organized various exhibitions in Greece and abroad.