If you ask a Turkish person about his or her family's migrations, there's a good

likelihood that the family migrated from somewhere else. At least in Anatolia, from one
city to the next. However, stories about the Balkans, Crete, Rhodes, North Africa,
Crimea, Cairo, Damascus, and other cities are more likely. The problem is that
enormous borders are shrinking. Every country that obtained independence from the
Ottomans expelled its Turkish neighbors from the newly formed state. My family, on the
other hand, is not in this situation. We happened to be in the same spot at the same
time, which was fortunate.

My forefathers have lived in the same place for 300 years, according to my family tree
documents.