Livisi

[florence]

Hi Nicholas

I was recently talking to my cousin who said her grandfather, Antonis Gillavis was not a Cassie, rather he was from Livisi. (Her grandmother was Alexandra Economides and they married in Perth in 1918). Today, she said, Livisi is a ghost town.

Can anyone please tell me more about Livisi - its location, was it a satellite Cassie community, the history of the massacre, its relationship with Castellorizo?

Thanks
Florence

[Administrator]

Florence,

The story of Livisi, modern day Kayakoy (literally 'village of stones') is a fascinating one and worthy of a far longer reply!

Like many (predominantly) Greek towns of this section of the Asia Minor coast, Livisi had deep social and mercantile connections to Castellorizo from at least the early 19th century when there was regular movement to and from the island and the mainland. Castellorizo's tax exempt status had encouraged the first movement to the island from the town, but later arrivals were more the product of worsening conditions for Christian minorities with the onset of WWI.

Livisi and its (then smaller) sister town of Makri (now Fethiye) boasted a combined population of over 6,000, most of whom were Greek, but there were also Turks, Jews and even Italians living in the town at the turn of the twentieth century. Livisi's population depended primarily on agriculture, but there were also some traders among them.

From 1914, most Christians began to depart for good, many to Castellorizo, but only after some horrible massacres occurred, some of which are graphically recounted in a well-known text which should be available for you online: The Persecution and Extermination of the Communities of Macri and Livisi, 1914-1918 (1919) . Those that remained until after the War departed with the compulsory exchange of populations between 1923-24.

Many Castellorizian families can trace a connection to Livisi and Makri. Some bore the name Livissianis/Livissianos as a remnant of their place of origin, while others bore names especially characteristic of the town. They were generally well-received on the island, though there are accounts of some discrimination in the early years.

Here is a photo of what Livisi looks like today, a ghostly reminder of what was once a bustling town:



Nicholas