Born 1917, Mrs Filipuci lives with her daughter Jacqueline and her husband. His grand-father came from Sicily as a cotton merchant and was successful. Mrs Filipuci’s father (George Raul) had 3 houses in Alsancak and first worked for the English railway company O.R.C. and later as a manager of Standard Oil based in Turan [Trianda near Bayraklı]. Until 1922 they lived in the present day fair site of Alsancak. The majority of the population of that neighbourhood were Orthodox with a minority of Catholics amongst them. After the fire when she was 5 years old the family moved to Turan.

The majority of the 15 brothers and sisters died as children, presently 3 sisters are still living and the name Stano does not exist anymore in Izmir. As far as she knows the family through emigration, does not exist also in Sicily.

Her father establishes a 250 acre farm in Turan, complete with olive groves, vineyards and a bakery. Raul used to supply and distribute water to Turan through wells and a pool and distributed bread to the poor from his bakery. Her father being a benefactor of the needy also sheltered many Turks during the Greek occupation [1919-22]. Their house was not by the sea, but along the railway line, that still exists, on the seaward side. Turan used to have a train station and was used for shopping trips in Karsıyaka or for Sunday service in Bayraklı [archive views]. Apart from a corner store there were no shops in Turan. In Turan there were both Greeks and Turks following different professions. The pre 1922 name for this place was Trianda and despite not remembering it well she recalls an Orthodox church in the hillside above.

Mrs Filipuci for primary education went for 5 years to the Italian nuns school in Alsancak. For secondary school went to the Catholic Italian / French school in Greece and when her grand-father had died her grand-mother moved near her sons in Athens, in whose house Mrs Filipuci stayed. At the age of 19, following 9 years of education returned to Izmir in 1936 and lived with her family for 3 years in Turan. Amongst the families of Turan she remembers are the Protestant Giraud (their house was the first one along the coast from the Karsiyaka side and 2nd from the Alsancak side) and the Paterson’s and the Catholic Kaleya who lived further inland. Compared to Bayrakli Turan was a neighbourhood of the better off and for many was their summer retreat. These families frequently went to Europe on business trips. The Giraud family had 3 factories, basma (printed textiles), yün mensucat (woollen) and the still existing pamuk mensucat (cotton textiles). Joseph, the husband of Catherine worked for 56 years as the chief accountant at the pamuk mensucat factory. He was born and raised in the Donanmaci quarter of Karsıyaka and when they got married in 1943 they moved to Alsancak. They met at a party given in Catherine’s father’s farm. She is related to Maria Filipuci with whom I also conducted an interview, since her husband Niko is the younger brother of Joseph.

Just before the Second World War in 1939, the military on the pretext of building shelters, sequestrates both the house and farm in return for a symbolic compensation. Later a high ranking officer arriving from Ankara tells them the ground was unnecessarily taken as the hilly ground above, in the vicinity of Tahtacıköy would have been more suitable.
Today the house should still be in the military zone, but cannot be visited as it is forbidden.

 Notes: 1-Catherine had difficulty recognising the recently taken pictures of the houses of Turan, believing they were altered. According to her the house now being used as the neighbourhood mare (muhtar) office was in the past the house of the Greek Xenopoulos.
2- Unfortunately Mrs Filipuci died in Nov. 2006, may she rest in peace.

interview date 2001