Malkara is located in the agricultural center of Thrace. The landscape is partly wooded and hilly. The main products are cheese and wheat.
Toponym
The ancient Persian place name Malgara (Trk.: Malkara) is derived from the Persian word margaar (‘cave of snakes’). Alternatively the town may be named after the general Malgar in the army of Alexander the Great who built a fortress here after they had succeeded in bringing to an end the Persian 30-year occupation of Thrace. These fortifications remained in use up until the Byzantine period.
History
Thrace was the scene of fighting during the Persian Wars. The ancient Thracian-Greek city Malgara was occupied by the Persians under Xerxes I.
Once the area had been brought under Ottoman control in 1402, it was settled with Turks from Anatolia and a Turkish town emerged which thrived supplying the Ottoman cavalry regiments. Malkara was then used as a place of exile for those out of favor in the Ottoman court.
The 17th-century Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi described Malkara as a tidy, hard-working town of 150 houses of tiled roofs noted for production of honey, cheese, and leather.
At the end of the 18th century Malkara was the scene of an uprising by the Jannissary troops in protest against plans by Sultan Selim III to replace them with a new model army.
Malkara was occupied by Russian troops in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, again by the Russians in The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and most painfully by the Bulgarians for 8½ months during the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913.
During World War II, the Greek part of Thrace was occupied by German and Bulgarian troops, and when Turkey was preparing for a possible entry into the war against the Axis powers, refugees from Greece were briefly housed in Malkara for their safety.
Population
“In 1914, some 3,000 Armenians lived in the town of Malgara, which lay northwest of Rodosto. Almost all were descended of natives of Pakarij [Bagarij/Pakaric] (a district of Kemah) [in kaza Tercan/Mamahatun of Erzurum province]. They (…) had settled in the region in 1606.”[1]
Destruction
In the aftermath of the 1913 coup d’état of the Young Turks, Malkara was re-occupied by Ottoman troops. According to historical sources, immediately after the executions of Greek and Armenian individuals began.
The market district, which was inhabited mainly by Greeks and Armenians, was set on fire and those who were trying to escape the flames were shot on sight. This was followed by the destruction of dozens of other Christian villages in the area, especially in the kaza of Hayrabolu. There, the massacre caused the death of many Greek and Armenian inhabitants. Most remaining Greeks were expelled to Nea Malgara in Greece following the 1923 population exchange.
Persecution in 1914
“At the time of the re-occupation of Thrace, the village and district of Malgara were plundered and destroyed. Two were murdered: Hadji Costantis Kolymbrianis and Dhimos Almaliotis.
- HASKEUY [Hasköy]. — The peasants suffered all manner of persecution when the village was re-occupied by the Turkish Army. The greater part of it was plundered and destroyed by fire. An officer, revolver in hand, ordered the muhtar of the village to bring him three Christian girls. The order not having been complied with, the men were imprisoned and the women conducted to a square, where the soldiers vented their bestiality on girls from eight years upwards, not sparing even women of seventy-five years old. Their shameful conduct lasted for twenty-four hours, until escaping finally from the brutality and persecutions of the Turks the inhabitants fled to Greece.
- KALIVIA. — The re-occupation of this village was attended by the usual murders and plunder on the part of the Turks. Amongst others, the head of the Monastery of Ibenes, Eudokimos, Pope Panayiotis and his servant were killed. A young girl, chased by a Turkish soldier, committed suicide by throwing herself out of the window rather than be raped; but even then her dead body was not respected by this brute.
Its inhabitants dispersed. Part of them emigrated to Greece.” [2]
Deportations during the European War
“(b) Malgara Region.
- KARYA. — Before the emigration of the inhabitants of this locality, forty-two peasants were, by order of the Government, expelled via Enos. In April, 1915, twenty mounted brigands entered the village, and summoned the peasants to hand over to them all their cattle and pay a ransom of £1000. They ill-treated the women and children, and carried away seventeen men and an old woman.
The plundering of the village lasted three days. A young girl of fifteen years old, Nerandja Anastassiou, was raped. After further ill-treatment the whole population of this village was expelled.
- SULTANKEUY [Sultanköy].— In April, 1915, the notables of Ipsala asked the peasants of this village to sell them their flocks. In the mean- time the sub-governor sent four gendarmes to protect the villagers. They, however, joined the Turks from the vicinity, who invaded the village during the night, ill-treated the Christians, and exacted a ransom; plundered the village, carried away 6,600 sheep, 3,000 lambs, and 800 ploughing cattle, and outraged thirty men, of whom five were found murdered. Two of them had been shot dead, and three decapitated.
The following are the names of the latter: Dimitrios Stathis, Christos Pravitzos, and Nicolaos Dirdjalis.”
Excerpted from: Ecumenical Patriarchate: Persecution of the Greeks in Turkey, 1914-1918. Constantinople [London, Printed by the Hesperia Press], 1919, p. 35
After the Armistice (Nov 1918-1920)
“On this region there never was a state of order and of safety. Since the first days following the conclusion of the armistice [30 Oct 1918] the Turks of the place were seen preparing to own several fanatics of their own group and form bands which would soon fall on the Christians. One Albanian, Moustapha by name, recruited twenty individuals from Constantinople who were known for their fierceness and led them to Malgara to serve his bloodthirsty designs.
About the middle of April, 1919, four Turkish constables entered Calyvia [Kalivia] village at night and surrounded Evanghellos Kehayias’s home, asking him to give up to them whatever he possessed. The man was compelled thus to give them 200 liras in gold. A little later, gun-reports were heard in the village. Next morning the peasants found Evanghellos’ house thoroughly pillaged and him, his wife Helen and his son-in-law, Yannakis, mangled and gashed most pitiably.
On July 10th, 1919, armed Turks of Tsaousli [Çavuşlı], Harmanli, Halitsi and Demirjili [Demircilı] village, seized whatever they could from the belongings of their Christian fellow-inhabitants. The value of the articles stolen amounted to several thousand liras.
On the 13th of the month, fifteen armed Turks, of whom twelve wore the Turkish soldiers’ uniform, gravely wounded (? Text missing).“[3]