The most famous modern Greek writer is probably Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957). He came of age during the long, bloody divorce between Turks and Greeks. It seems to have given him a negative view of Türkiye, as evidenced by his autobiographical writing as well as his never having visited the country on his extensive world travels. This, despite the fact that the outcome of the Turkish-Greek conflict for his homeland of Crete was for that island to be united with Greece and thus remain forever open to him. His contemporary, George Seferis (1900-1971), was born in Izmir, yet due to another chapter in the conflict was forced in 1922 to leave his native city, which was it was forever lost to him as a home. It might therefore be surmised that Seferis would take an even more negative view of the Turks than Kazantzakis. This does not, however, appear to have been the case.
Seferis did return to Türkiye as a diplomat for the Greek state in 1948-50 and traveled within the country during this time. One trip, in 1950, took him eastwards from Ankara into Cappadocia. His subsequent account of this journey, the book "Three Days in the Monasteries of Cappadocia," is particularly focused on the region’s Byzantine rock-hewn churches and concerns about Greek art. However, it also reveals a man with no nationalistic rancour towards the Turks, who instead appears to have enjoyed their company. Seferis states in this book that the Turks he met across the country “touched me with their kind hearts and their honesty.”
