Kayakoy

Fethiye is ; The common name of sadness and hope at the deserted houses at the Kaya Village...

Imagine a town where people in thousands of years lived in peace without any strife, clamour, bickering or fighting to seize power. Furthermore, these people came from different cultures, beliefs and religions...

Imagine a town where these people having different traditions and customs lived always in peace, solidarity and brotherhood. Furthermore they succeeded in creating a common course of existence, "mutual interaction" and "growth hand-in-hand"...

Imagine a town where when some go hungry, the rest lose sleep; when some are unhappy, the others cannot enjoy themselves. Furthermore, this state of affairs was due to an unavoidable consequence of a social problem brought about by a merciless war...
           
Imagine a town where, when some of the people were banished from their homelands because they were "different", the others wept for them. Furthermore, both those that departed and those who were left behind never forget one another in generations to come and talked of each other with yearning and love...

Imagine a town which lived with its people and turned into a ghost town when they went, but its memory lingered. Furthermore, it became a model throughout the world by lessons displayed here in the past for humanity...
           
This town is the Kaya Village.
           
At the time when Fethiye was referred to as Makri, the Greeks called this town Levissi in their own language. It was founded over the ruins of Karmylassos, a Lycian settlement during the Antique Period. You reach this proud and noble village at a distance of 7 km from Fethiye by a road through a forest. Once there, you perceive the clouds of sadness surrounding its habitants and the stone houses on the slope of a hill, deprived of human breath.

In 1924 these clouds overshadowed Levissi and the Kaya Plains, which inspired tales of friendship, peace, brotherhood and solidarity for hundreds of years. Pursuant to the First World War and the Lausanne Peace Treaty executed in 1923, an agreement was signed between the governments of Turkey and Greece for a population exchange whereby it was decided to exchange the Orthodox Greeks in Anatolia with the Moslem Turks in Greece. Approximately 2 million people were forced to migrate within one year. People were not given a chance to have a say in the matter. On both sides in some villages people claimed to be happy where they lived and did not wish to be a part of this migration. The greatest opposition to this population exchange in Anatolia was displayed by the habitants of Makri (Fethiye) and Levissi (the Kaya Village). They informed the Ankara Government that they did not want to participate in the exchange. However, in line with the agreement, their claim was refuted.

When the day came to say goodbye, they first of all cleaned up their houses with great care. Then they took whatever possessions they could carry and started to walk towards the Harbour in Makri. Upon arrival at the harbour, the authorities helped them board on the vessels anchored at the landing stage. The ships were packed with people. When the last passenger boarded, the ships departed from the landing stage one by one. The people left behind not only the white foams of the blue waters of the Mediterranean, but also their homeland...
          
Some of the passengers got off the ships at Rhodes and some others got off at Crete. After a long voyage which lasted days, the remainders arrived at the Harbour of Piraeus. Like those leaving Anatolia, those that were deprived of their homes in Eastern Thrace had stated migrating towards Anatolia. The fate of these people, suffering from the similar pains, sadness, bewilderment and worries was the same as those landing at the Pireaus Harbour...
           
Those coming from Makri and Levissi roamed all over Greece for months and finally decided to settled on the northern cdoast at 55 km from ASthens. They called their newly established village Nea Makri (New Makri = Fethiye) and the settlement on the slope immediately behind it Nea Levissi (New Levissi = the Kaya Village). The migrants from Thrace were settled at the houses they abvandoned at Levissi. However, the new settlers could not get used to the conditions in this region. Therefore, within a year they abandoned the village and settled in other towns in northern Aegean. Pursuant to this second migration, the Kaya Village took on the appearance of the "ghost town" TODAY.
           
The exuberant life on the "rocks" and "stones" of this village was the subject matter of the book entitled "Birds without Wings", published in 2005 and written by Louis de Berniere, the author of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"
           
Since 1924, some of the habitants of the Kaya Village live on the other side of the Aegean. Exactly like an Anatolian-Levissian, with the traditions, customs, sorrows and exuberance they have brought along from the Kaya Village years ago.. Those that have remained behind are looking forward hopefully for a world embracing friendship, peace, brotherhood and solidarity, just like an Anatolian-Kaya Village habitant...

The Kaya Village is a village worthy of seeing and leaning a lesson...