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 greater and more arbitrary contributions, to which the Greeks were subjected, owing to the fact that Guemlik was essentially a Greek town.[2]

As early as May 1914, “systematic persecution” was started in Gemlik town and the Nikaia Diocese respectively. During the First World War about two thousand Greek orthodox peasants of the Diocese of Nikaia (Nicea; Iznik) starved, because “they dared not venture out into the fields and olive groves owing to danger both to their property and lives”.[3] However, the “return of Venizelos to power in August, 1915, disturbed the Turks so much that in the 10th of September the Turkish Government ordered the Vali of Broussa to put a stop to the deportation of the Greek population of Ghemlek and the country around it.” [4]

In the course of the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the Greek population had to leave Gemlik. A large part moved to the Peloponnese and founded the city of Nea Kios (New Kios) in the Argolis.

There were three Armenian villages in the Gemlik kaza, including the big village of Beyli (pop. 7,000), whose inhabitants were blacksmiths, animal breeders, farmers, and craftsmen; their ancestors had come from Agn and settled there around 1600. Two kilometes farther south, Karsak had an Armenian population of 5,000. The three villages were deported at the same time as the Armenians of the neighboring kaza of Bazarköy, in mid-August 1915.[5]

Gemlik_Kios
Kios / Gemlik (source: http://www.eskiturkiye.net/3212/gemlik-bursa#lg=0&slide=0)

Gemlik Town

Situated not far from the provincial capital Bursa at the Mediterranean, the history of the town goes back to the year 630 B.C. The name Kios (Greek Kίος or Kείος – Keios, Latin Cius) is already mentioned in the Argonaut saga and by Strabon. Aristotle praised the laws of Kios (Kionion Politeia). In Roman times the city was called Prusias ad Mare (Prousa at the Sea). In times of the Silk Road, Kios was one of the richest cities on the Mediterranean, as the end of the trade route to China was not far from today’s modern free port of Gemlik. The Ottoman toponym Gemleyik, mentioned as early as 1484 as Gemleyük, is preferred in the written language until the beginning of the 20th century. During 1920/21, most of the Gemlik region was occupied by the Hellenic Army, which took Kios (Gemlik) on July 3, 1920, and Lefkes on March 10, 1921 and again on June 27, 1921. The front line from Kios to the southern shore of Askania Lake and Nikaia was held until the Hellenic Army’s defeat in late August 1922. From July 1920 to early summer 1921, Gemlik became headquarter of the 10th Division of the Hellenic Army.

Of the former Greek settlements, only dilapidated houses and a mosque converted Orthodox church are preserved.

Population

In the early 20th century, Gemlik was still „basically (a) Greek port“, with „barely 100 Armenians“.[6]

Ecumenical Patriarchate: Anti-Greek Boycott (May 1914)

“(…) The Turks sought every opportunity in order to justify their attitude. The murder of a policeman by some miscreant offered them a good opportunity for arresting numerous Christians and ill-treating them. A false charge of high treason was brought against the Christians for having conspired against the Government. Their calumniators did not hesitate to accuse the Christians of having instituted a Greek revolutionary committee, in consequence of which Anastasse Pinatsis, Achille Karakassis, Elias Politis, and others were thrown into prison. As, however, this accusation proved groundless, Turks, with the aid of false Turkish witnesses brought a fresh accusation against them of a still graver nature, in order to justify the daily increasing persecutions of the Christians of Guemlek [Gemlik].

Some imaginary crime had been committed. The authorities must take action to prevent its repetition. The domiciles of the accused, amongst whom were some of the most peaceable of inhabitants, were violated, and private letters and other documents etc., were seized.

The life and property of the Christians daily became more precarious at the hands of miscreants. Murder, and acts of incendiarism were frequently perpetrated without any effort whatsoever on the part of the authorities to suppress this abominable state of affairs. If anything, the Turkish officials appeared to encourage it, judging by the intensity of the boycott against trade with the Christians.

Not content with having completely ruined the trade of Guemlek, which was in Greek hands, the Turks went so far as to damage the goods they imported, such as vegetables, fruit, etc., while on the other hand they destroyed the orchards and gardens of the place. To this end they employed the wildest anti-Greek elements, such as Kurds, Circassians, Albanians, Lazes, and others. Greek boatmen were replaced by Turks, and the poor fishermen were obliged to give up their trade, as they were often attacked whilst fishing. (…)”(7)

An Armenian Survivor’s Testimony

Hike Semerjian, born in Gemlik, and his family were deported via Kütahya and Eskişehir in 1915, but he escaped to Constantinople, from where he emigrated to the United States in 1923: https://vhaonline.usc.edu/viewingPage?testimonyID=56635&returnIndex=0

1. Index Anatolicus, https://nisanyanmap.com/?y=Gemlik&t=&lv=1; according to R. Kévorkian, the Armenian population of the kaza was 12,100; cf. Kévorkian, op. cit., p. 561
2. Ecumenical Patriarchate: Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey, 1914-1918. Constantinople 1919, p. 53. - https://archive.org/details/persecutionofgre00consrich
3. Ecumenical Patriarchate, op. cit., p. 51
4. Ion, Theodore P.; Brown, Caroll N. (Carroll Neidé): The Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey since the Beginning of the European War. New York: Pub. for the American-Hellenic Society by Oxfort University Press, American Section, 1918, p. 72
5. Kévorkian, Raymond: The Armenian Genocide: A Complete History. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2011, p. 561f.
6. Ibid.
7. Ecumenical Patriarchate: The Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey, 1914-1918. Constantinople (London: Hesperia Press, 1919), p. 54