Toponym
The name of the kaza’s seat was first changed to Hayrı-bol and finally to Hayrabolu; both variants are bastardizations of the Greek place name.
Population
Under Ottoman rule, families chosen from different districts of Anatolia, especially from Kayseri and Sivas, were settled in and around Hayrabolu.
A Greek community, 3,476 strong in 1922, survived in the town until the forcible Greco-Turkish population exchange.[1]
History
Charioupolis is first mentioned with the presence of Theophylact, Bishop of Charioupolis (ἐπίσκοπος Χαριουπόλεως), at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and of Bishop Kosmas at the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 879. Byzantine emperor and founder of the Macedonian dynasty, Basil I, was born to a peasant family in Charioupolis, possibly in 811.
The town is mentioned in the later 11th century as the site of military operations against invading nomadic tribes: the general Nikephoros Bryennios campaigned against the Pechenegs in 1051; in 1087 the town itself was sacked by a host of Pechenegs, Cumans, and Magyars; and in 1090 the Pechenegs defeated a Byzantine force in its vicinity.
On 15/16 April 1205 Geoffrey of Villehardouin spent the night there, after the disastrous Battle of Adrianople. In the aftermath of the battle, Charioupolis and other nearby towns were conquered by the Bulgarians under Tsar Kaloyan; a large part of the population was forcibly deported and resettled along the Danube.
In 1322, Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos led his army to the town, where he dismissed up to a thousand of his men. In 1344, Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos briefly took up residence in the town.
In the later 1350s, the Ottoman expansion into Thrace began, under the prince Süleyman Pasha. After Kantakouzenos’ abdication in 1354, Süleyman conquered many cities “up to Charioupolis”, establishing the first Ottoman province on European soil. If Charioupolis was not conquered in this first wave, then it definitely fell to Süleyman between 1359 and 1362.
The traveller Evliya Çelebi visited the town in the mid-17th century, describing it as prosperous, a “little Edirne”, with much water and beautiful gardens. According to Evliya it was a favored residence of Ottoman aristocrats. He also reports that the town was a center of extensive animal husbandry, with large flocks, including camels.
Destruction
1913-1914
In July 1913, the Ottoman Army massacred Greeks at Gönence, Tekirdağ, Hayrabolu, Hasköy, Hemit, Kürtüllü and Bayramtepe and committed widespread looting and rape.
“Harioupolis Region.
- HASKEUY [Trk.: Hasköy]. — This village suffered a veritable martyrdom during its re-occupation by the Turks, especially at the hands of the troops from Adana. In 1914, under persecution and threats, its inhabitants left for Greece.
- REPETSI. — The inhabitants of this village expatriated under similar conditions. The Mudir of Sakim-Keuy [Sakimköy] robbed them of their cattle and other goods, and sold them for his own benefit.”[2]