Kastellorizo's Harbor looks like Simi, just with less Traffic and fewer Cruise Boats
About 100 km south-east of Göcek and 2 km from the Turkish mainland, we find three tiny Greek islands: Kastellorizo, Strongyli Megistis and Rho. Only Kastellorizo is permanently settled. On Strongyli Megistis there is the Chapel of Saint Nicholas, the bishop of Myra who became our Santa Clause. The small settlement next to it is occasionally occupied.
The Chapel of Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra
The distance to the next Greek island, Rhodes, is 127 km. On most days, there is a ferry. The crossing takes five hours. There is also a small airport with a few scheduled flights to Greece but none to Turkey. Despite the island’s demilitarized status (will talk about this later), the Greek Armed Forces maintain a small base with trucks and light armoured vehicles. In Nov 2019, Greece carried out military drills here – something that did not go down well with Turkish President Erdogan. Given the island’s distance to Greece and Turkey’s modern Navy and Airforce, the island is impossible to defend.
View South from the Hills down to Kastellorizo - just 2 km off the Turkish Coast
The isolation of these three islands has its roots in 1923, when Anatolia's Greeks were expelled under the Turkish-Greek Population Exchange Treaty. The year before (1922), Greece had lost the disastrous war with Turkey. The "population exchange", the dreadful euphemism for ethnic cleansing, was the immediate consequence. Never again would Turkey tolerate a “fifth column” on its soil. Prior to the “exchange”, there were almost 20’000 native Greek speakers living between Myra and Bodrum (10% of total population). The Greek population lived on the coast, the Turkish mostly in the mountains
The "population exchange" affected Greek and Turks
As a quirk in history, Kastellorizo was not part of the treaty. Whilst the Greek population in Kas had to leave, the people in Kastellorizo could stay. During the Italian – Turkish war in 1912, Italian forces occupied the Dodecanese. Italy promised to return the islands but never did since Italy and Turkey fought on opposite sides in World War I. Kastellorizo was not part of the Dodecanese though. It was occupied by French Marines – together with Kas - in 1915. France needed a deep water naval base to prevent German submarines from operating in the eastern Mediterranean. In 1921, France handed Kastellorizo to Italy. Mussolini annexed it in 1923. The border between Italy and Turkey was fixed in the Convention of 1932. Turkey needed Italy's help to modernise the country. The loss of Kastellorizo was accepted.
Turkish - Italian Border under the 1932 Convention
Italy did not enjoy its most eastern possession for long. Fighting on the wrong side in World War II, it had to concede all its overseas possessions : Eritrea, Somalia, Libya and the Dodecanese. In 1947 Kastellorizo and the Dodecanese were transferred to Greece subject to keeping these islands demilitarized. With both Greece and Turkey being member states of NATO, nobody thought this was an issue. But demilitarization was ignored after 1973 when Turkey invaded northern Cyprus. I remember my discussion with Greek students in 1973 in Thessaloniki. They all predicted that Turkey would occupy Kastellorizo.
The Lydian Theatre with view on Kastellorizo was refurbished in 2008 and has 4'000 seats
That there is now a borderline between Kastellorizo and the mainland is almost a perversion of history. For a good 3’000 years, this part of Lydia formed one geographical entity. Settled by Dorians, Phellus became an important Lydian town. Antiphellus was its well protected port. For centuries, the area was part of the Rhodian sphere of influence. Rhodians laid down the foundation to the Paelokastro which was part of Antiphellus' defence. During Byzantine time, the castle was modernised to hold the port against Arab raids. The Saint Nicholas chapel on Strongyli Megistis is further proof of the strong ties these islands had with the mainland.
Phellus is at a Distance of 2 Miles to the Coast
Sadly, we will not be able to set foot on Kastellorizo this year. Passing immigration is too complicated. We would lose two days. We will have to look at the island from afar and drop anchor in Kas. We are going to enjoy the Greek language next year on our trip from Rhodes to Crete. For this year, Turkish will do. We shall be compensated by the large Greek theatre in Antiphellus and the Lydian tombs and ruins up the hill in Phellus.
Lydian Graves in Antiphellus (illustration from 1843)