Dimitris (Vafiadis) Daravanoğlu is a member of the Greek Community of Istanbul but also has Armenian and Italian roots in his family. He still lives in Istanbul. He is in his 30s and working as an electrical engineer.
He has been interested in his family history and developing his own museum with his family history from 1800s, their objects and a large photo archive. He wants to tell the story of non-Muslim communities of Istanbul through his family history and share it with wider audiences. To do this, he has established a website called 2mi3museum. He talks about family members, the souvenirs that they bought on their trips, stories of weddings, baptisms, and some of the difficult experiences that they faced, including the Wealth Tax, the incident of the Twenty Classes – (Yirmi Kur’a Nafıa Askerleri – “Soldiers for Public Works by Drawing of Twenty Lots”) and the 1955 Pogrom that profoundly affected the future of the non-Muslim communities of Turkey.
You can see and read about 2mi3museum here: https://www.2mi3museum.com


Left: Photo of Hurmuzios in 1941. He sent this to his family.
Right: Hurmuzios’s postcard to his family in 1941.
The postcard says “I put on weight from 93 kilos to 98 kilos. I found a wrestler and we wrestle every day. Tell Aleko to train. If I come, I will throw him to the ground like Çim (Jim) Londos [a famous Greek wrestler of the time]. And if he is mischievous, I’ll beat him. Special Greetings to Mrs. Ashen.”
Although the postcard is jocular, in fact Hurmuzios was hiding his suffering and the harsh reality of forced labour. This is also why he chose a photograph in which he is smiling.

I thank Dimitris (Vafiadis) Daravanoğlu for his time in talking to me and giving me permission to use this material.