Population
At the beginning of the 20th century the kaza of Bünyan had 23,953 inhabitants, of which 11,830 were Armenians, 10,848 Turks and 1,275 Greeks.[1] According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, the kaza’s pre-war Armenian population was 4,781. They resided in five of the kaza’s 91 villages, maintaining six churches[2]: 500 Armenians lived in the administrative seat, the village Bünyan, in Gigi (pop. 350), Sanoğlan (pop. 336), Seveghen (pop. 829), and Ekrek/Akarag (pop. 2,700).[3]
Destruction
In the beginning of July 1915, some 6,000 people were deported from the neighboring kazas Bünyan and Aziziye via the Gürün route to Akdağ, then to Fırıncılar, by the head of the CUP at Aziziye, Haci Hüseyin Havasoğlu, who was supported by the kaymakam, Hamid Nuri Bey, and the sub-prefect of Bünyan, Nabi Bey.[4]