The Greek version of "Exiled for Peace," a documentary by Journalist-Writer and Director Osman Okkan about the population exchange between Turkey and Greece, is being screened in the Aegean Islands. The first screening, organized by the Federation of Greek Historians (FIMPOD), took place on Leros Island, attended by Hasan Cemal, Murat Belge, Cengiz Aktar, Nilüfer Göle, Asaf Savaş Akat, Hale Soygazi, Faruk Günaltay from Turkey, and Can Dündar from Germany.
FIMPOD will continue its screenings, organized in cooperation with the Cologne-based "Turkey-Europe Culture Forum" and the "Turkish-Greek Peace Initiative." The documentary will also meet audiences in Nea Fokea, Attica, Plomari, Antissa, Nea Philadephia, Kalamata, Chios, and Kos islands.
The Greek version of the documentary, which Osman Okkan prepared in 2003 with his wife Simone Sitte, who passed away in 2006, was first screened last August at the "Peace and Friendship Festival" on Lesbos Island. The production also met audiences in Athens, Piraeus, and Thessaloniki in March 2026, in cooperation with various universities and institutions.
The documentary was primarily filmed on Lesbos and Crete islands in the early 2000s. The production addresses the reciprocal forced migration in 1923, which involved approximately two million people from Turkey and Greece. It examines the effects of this exile policy and how it continues to shape the lives of those exiled even today.
Prepared for the Franco-German joint television channel ARTE and the West German Broadcasting Corporation WDR, the documentary includes interviews with survivors of the tragic events. The production also features the experiences and views of contemporary witnesses from both countries, as well as Mikis Theodorakis, Yaşar Kemal, Zülfü Livaneli, and Maria Farantouri, regarding this process.
The documentary "Exiled for Peace – When Greeks and Turks Were Separated" received the "Mahmut Tali Öngören Democracy and Human Rights Award" at the Nuremberg "Turkey-Germany Film Festival." Osman Okkan, the producer of the documentary, will personally attend some of the screenings on the islands.
The forced migrations, which are the subject of the "Exiled for Peace" documentary, occurred in July 1923. In these migrations, implemented under the name of "population exchange" between Greece and Turkey and stipulated in the Treaty of Lausanne, approximately 1.5 million Greeks were relocated from Turkey to Greece, and 500,000 Turks were relocated from Greece to Turkey.
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