A musical band, Bilecik, early 20th century (source: https://armenianweekly.com/2015/10/22/on-the-road-to-exile-100-years-later-in-bilecik/a-photograph-of-the-bilecik-band/) Toponym The Greek placename Belokoma (Βηλοκώμα) appeared in the 1308 enactment of Georgios Pachymeris (1242-c. 1310), a Byzantine-Greek historian and philosopher, born in Nikaia. The place-name goes presumably back to one of the Serbian settlements established by Byzantine rulers in this region in the late 12th century (‘belo’ meaning ‘white’). The Greek version of the placename should have taken the form of Vilegüme (Tr: Veligöme). The Turkish version Bilecük goes back to the year 1484.[1] The Thrakian toponym was Agrilion. Population While most of the Armenian population was concentrated in the kaza’s capital town Bilecik, [...]
Archives: Regions
Our CPT for the regions
Sancak Ertuğrul
The 13 Armenian villages of the sancak had been founded at the turn of the 17th century.[1] According to the Ottoman census of 1914, they had a total Armenian population of 25,380, whereas the statistics of the Armenian Patriarchate at Constantinople mention a higher figure of 28,629. Most of the sancak’s Armenians were Turkophone, unlike the Armenian population of the sancaks of Izmit and Bursa.[2]
Kaza Gemlik / Kios – Kίος
At the end of the 19th century, the Gemlik kaza was a predominantly Christian administrative unit with a population of 16,000 Armenians[1], 12,000 Turks and 6,000 Greeks. Many of them engaged in greengrocery. The Greek Orthodox Diocese of Nikaia comprised 26 communities with a population of 33,470. “What brought about the ruin of this diocese (…) commercially and economically was the severe boycott carried out in Guemlik [Gemlik], the seat of the department, as well as in other communities of this region. The hatred that sprang up against the Greek element, specially after the two Balkan Wars, intensified, and resulted in [...]
Kaza Bursa / Προύσα – Prousa
Retreat to a Holy Mountain: The Bithynian Olympos and the Byzantine monasticism The Bithynian (Mysian) Olympos (Trk: Uludag; Source: By Bicounet – Originally uploaded by Bicounet on 15:22, 25 September 2007, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3169918) (…) Mount Olympos is with more than 2500 m above sea level the highest mountain of northwestern Asia Minor at all. In the summit regions there are high alpine conditions. From Prousa at the north-western end of Mount Olympos, the mountain range extends [...]
Sancak Bursa / Προύσα – Prousa
The Cryptic Knowledge of Silkworms: A View on Bursa in 1922 The view was impressive. A thousand feet below lay the old Ottoman capital of Bursa, like a backgammon board spread out across the valley’s green felt. Red diamonds of roof tile fit into diamonds of whitewash. Here and there the sultans’ tombs were stacked up like bright chips. Back in 1922, automobile traffic didn’t clog the streets. Ski lifts didn’t cut swaths into the mountain’s pine forests. Metallurgic and textile plants didn’t ring the city, filling the air with smog. Bursa looked – at least from a thousand feet up [...]