Turks to return historic carpet to Greek owners

Agence France-Presse

The 40-square-meter carpet had been ordered by a Greek family in İzmir -- which was occupied by the Greek army at the time -- shortly before the city fell to Turkish forces, the prefect of Lesbos island Pavlos Vogiatzis told AFP. The name Ekaterini Lazaropoulou and the year 1922 are woven into the carpet.

The Turkish family had tried to locate Lazaropoulou's relatives in Greece without success, Angelioforos daily reported. But they now have the option of gifting the carpet to a Greek refugee museum on Lesbos.

Thousands of Greeks at İzmir, members of a once-flourishing class of traders and artisans, were massacred while fleeing victorious Turkish forces who took the city in September 1922 at the end of a three-year war with Greece. The city was known under its Greek name of Smyrna at the time. Memories of the "Smyrna Catastrophe" still run deep in Greece.