Levantines never saw religious restriction in Turkey

By Efsun Erbalaban Yilmaz

IZMIR, Turkey

European settlers of the Mediterranean, the Levantines, have never experienced any religious restriction in Turkey, a businessman of Italian origin said Wednesday.

Giuliano Gloghini said they lived in Anatolia and "never experienced any pressure or restriction on religion," he told Anadolu Agency. "I can say it with all my .”

Originally meaning "eastern Mediterranean" in French, Levantines came to the Ottoman lands from Europe after Tanzimat -- the political reform era of the Ottoman Empire, in 1839 -- to trade in Anatolia.

Exchanging culture with Turkish people for centuries, the Levantines are now a small minority in Turkey trying to keep alive the unique culture on a theater stage, books, dining tables and green fields.

Formed by majority of the British, French and Italians, Levantines have rapidly increased their numbers in Izmir, not only made trade agreements, but also created their first football team, played tennis, established friendship ties, and even some of them opened their mansions into service for Mustafa Kemal and his army, who saved Izmir from the Greek occupation.

Gloghini said Levantines brought football to Anatolia.

"Giraud and Whittal families were the first ones to play football here. It was a beautiful and popular sport. Then it spread. The importance of football is great for us,” he said.

The first Levantine football team established in İzmir in the 1910s was named after Garibaldi, the Italian folk hero. The team closed by the Italian Consulate after losing 10-0 to Altay.

Known as "Westerners" in the East and "Easterners" in the West, Levantines became a living example of cultural synthesis in architecture, art, sport trade.

When some new generation Levantines preferred marrying Turks or left Anatolia to different countries, their population decreased in time, which, in Izmir, fell below 300.

Peter Papi, chairman of the Izmir Levantines Association, the main mission of which is to transfer Levantine habits to their children, said young Levantines are not willing to take over the heritage.

“I do not know whether Levantines chose Izmir or Izmir chose Levantines. They chose each other I suppose,” he told Anadolu Agency, adding that Izmir was once the West's door to the East.

Italian founder of Izmir Amateur Levantine Theater, Ugo Braggiotti, 65, said those who found a theater in Izmir were the Levantines who could read books originally written in French.

The daughter of an English father and an Italian mother, Margery Braggiotti, 76, said she raised her children as Turks.

"If you ask where I am from, I say 'from Izmir'. As Izmir is a city in Turkey, then I am from Turkey and I am a Turk.

"If you ask where I feel to belong outside of Izmir, I don't know. I feel like a foreigner in Istanbul, for example."