Imbros

Gökçeada
Imbros / Ίμβρος
—  Town  —
Mountains of Imbros
Gökçeada
Location of Imbros within Turkey.
Coordinates:
Country  Turkey
Province Çanakkale
De jure Semi-autonomous district of Imbros and Tenedos[1]
Government
 • Mayor Yücel Atalay (AKP)
Population (2000)
 • Total 8,894
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Website www.gokceada.gov.tr

Imbros or Imroz, officially referred to as Gökçeada since July 29, 1970[2][3] (older name in Turkish: İmroz; Greek: Ίμβρος – Imvros), is an island in the Aegean Sea and the largest island of Turkey, part of Çanakkale Province. It is located at the entrance of Saros Bay and is also the westernmost point of Turkey (Cape İncirburnu). Imbros has an area of 279 km2 (108 sq mi) and contains some wooded areas.[4]

According to the 2000 census, the island of Imbros had a total population of 8,875.[5] The same census also reported 7,254 people in Cinarli, and 1,621 in the remaining villages.[5] The main industries of Imbros are fishing and tourism. The population is predominantly Turkish but there are still about 250 Greeks on Imbros, most of them elderly. The island was primarily inhabited by ethnic Greeks[2] from ancient times through to approximately the middle of the twentieth century, when many emigrated to Greece, western Europe, the United States and Australia, due to a campaign of state-sponsored discrimination.[2][6][7] The island is noted for its vineyards and wine production.

Contents

Geography

Çınarlı 
Çınarlı is the main town on Imbros, known as Panaghia Balomeni (Παναγία Μπαλωμένη) in Greek. Most of the settlements on Imbros were given Turkish names in 1926. Çınarlı is in the middle of the island; there is a small airport under construction nearby.
Bademli köyü 
Older Greek name is Gliky (Γλυκύ). It is located to the northeast of the island, between Çınarlı town and Kaleköy/Kastro.
Dereköy 
Older Greek name is Schoinoudi (Σχοινούδι). It is located at the center of the west side of island. Due to the emigration of the Greek population (largely to New Zealand and the USA; some to Greece and Istanbul before the 1970s), Dereköy is largely empty today. However, many people return on every 15 August for the festival of the Virgin Mary.
Eşelek / Karaca köyü 

It is located at the southeast of the island. It is an agricultural area that produces fruit and vegetables.

Kaleköy 
Older name is Kastro (Κάστρο) (Latin and Greek for castle). Located on the north-eastern coast of island, there is an antique castle near the village. Kaleköy also has a small port which was constructed by the French Navy during the occupation in the First World War, and is now used for fishing-boats and yachts.
Şahinkaya köyü 
It is located near Dereköy.
Şirinköy 
It is located in the southwest of island.
Tepeköy 
Older Greek name is Agridia (Αγριδιά). It is located in the north of the island, and is home to the largest Greek population on the island. Barba Yorgo' is a well-known inhabitant of the island. An extinct volcano is located south of village which is the highest point of island.
Uğurlu köyü 
It is located in the west of the island.
Yeni Bademli köyü 
It is located at the center-northeast of island, near Bademli. It has many motels and pensions.
Yenimahalle 
Older Greek name is Evlampio (Ευλάμπιο). It is located near Çınarlı Town on the road to Kuzulimanı port.
Zeytinli köyü 
Older Greek name is Aghios Theodoros (Άγιος Θεόδωρος). Demetrios Archontonis, known as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, was born there on 29 February 1940. It has a famous café where Madam Dibek (elderly Greek lady) used to serve her special Turkish/Greek style coffee which is prepared in a hand mortar. After she died, her husband is now continuing her legacy.
Others 
Yeni Bademli köyü, Eşelek / Karaca köyü, Şahinkaya köyü, Şirinköy and Uğurlu köyü were established after 1970.

Places to see

History

In mythology

According to Greek mythology, the palace of Thetis, mother of Achilles, king of Phthia, was situated between Imbros and Samothrace. The stables of the winged horses of Poseidon were said to lie between Imbros and Tenedos.

Homer wrote:

In the depths of the sea on the cliff
Between Tenedos and craggy Imbros
There is a cave, wide gaping
Poseidon who made the earth tremble,
stopped the horses there.

In antiquity

In classical antiquity, Imbros, like Lemnos, was an Athenian cleruchy, a colony whose settlers retained Athenian citizenship; although since the Imbrians appear on the Athenian tribute lists, there may have been a division with the native population. The original inhabitants of Imbros were Pelasgians. Miltiades conquered the island from Persia after the battle of Salamis; the colony was established about 450 BC, during the first Athenian empire, and was retained by Athens (with brief exceptions) for the next six centuries. It may have become independent under Septimius Severus.[8]

Ottoman era

Between Turkey and Greece

Between November 1912 and September 1923, Imbros, together with Tenedos, were under Greek administration. Both islands were overwhelmingly Greek, and in the case of Imbros the population was entirely Greek.[2]

Because of their strategic position near the Dardanelles, the western powers, particularly Britain, insisted at the end of the Balkan Wars in 1913 that the island should be retained by the Ottoman Empire when the other Aegean islands were ceded to Greece. However, the islands remained under Greek administration.

In 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres with the defeated Ottoman Empire granted the island to Greece. The Ottoman government, which signed but did not ratify the treaty, was overthrown by the new Turkish nationalist Government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, based in Ankara. After the Greco-Turkish War ended in Greek defeat in Anatolia, and the fall of Lloyd George and his Middle Eastern policies, the western powers agreed to the Treaty of Lausanne with the new Turkish Republic, in 1923. This treaty made the island part of Turkey; but it guaranteed a special autonomous administrative status for Imbros and Tenedos to accommodate the Greeks, and excluded them from the population exchange that took place between Greece and Turkey, due to their presence there as a majority.[9]

However shortly after the legislation of "Civil Law" on 17 February 1926 (Medeni Kanun), the rights accorded to minorities in Turkey were revoked, in violation of the Lausanne Treaty. The first concrete sign of Turkification policy was undertaken in 1946, where the Turkish authorities installed the first wave of Turkish settlers from the Black Sea region.[10] Massive scale persecution against the local Greek element started at 1961, as part of the Eritme Programmi operation that aimed at the elimination of Greek education and the enforcement of economic, psychological pressure and violence. Under these conditions the Turkish government approved the appropriation of the 90% of the cultivated areas of the island and the settlement of additional 6,000 ethnic Turks from mainland Turkey.[11] Additional population settlements from Anatolia occurred in 1973, 1984 and 2000. The state provided special credit opportunities and agricultural aid in kind to those who would decide to settle in in the island.[12] On the other hand the indigenous Greek population being deprived of its means of production and facing hostile behaviour from the government and the newly arrived settlers, left its native land. The peak of this exodus was in 1974.[13]

Population

The Greek population

The island was primarily inhabited by ethnic Greeks from ancient times through to approximately the middle of the twentieth century. Data dating from 1922 taken under Greek rule and 1927 data taken under Turkish rule showed a strong majority of Greek inhabitants on Imbros, and the Greek Orthodox Church had a strong presence on the island.

Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) exempted Imbros and Tenedos from the large-scale population exchange that took place between Greece and Turkey, and required Turkey to accommodate the local Greek majority and their rights:

The islands of Imbros and Tenedos, remaining under Turkish sovereignty, shall enjoy a special administrative organisation composed of local elements and furnishing every guarantee for the native non-Moslem population insofar as concerns local administration and the protection of persons and property. The maintenance of order will be assured therein by a police force recruited from amongst the local population by the local administration above provided for and placed under its orders.

Thus, under the Turkish Republic, the islands were to be largely autonomous and self-governing, with their own police force. This provision was not guaranteed by anything more than the faith of the Treaty.

Human rights

The Greek émigrés from Turkey assert numerous violations of the religious, linguistic, and economic rights guaranteed as matters of international concern by the Treaty, including freedom of the Orthodox religion and the right to practice the professions. Leaders of the Greek community in Turkey "voluntarily waived" these rights in 1926; but the Treaty provides (Article 44) that these rights can only be modified by the consent of the majority of the Council of League of Nations. The émigrés assert that the signatures to the waivers were obtained by orders of the police, and that Avrilios Spatharis and Savvas Apostologlou, who refused to sign, were imprisoned. The Greek government appealed this action to the Council and was upheld, but Turkey has not complied.

In addition, the following grievances apply particularly to Imbros:

All of these events have led to the Greeks emigrating from both islands. Before 1964, the population of Imbros was 7000 Greeks, and 200 mainland Turkish officials; by 1970 the Greeks were a minority at 40% of the population, and there remains only a very small Greek community on Imbros today, comprising several hundred mostly elderly people. Most of the former Greeks of Imbros and Tenedos are in diaspora in Greece, the United States, and Australia.[15]

Population change in Imbros

  Turkish people
  Greek people
Town & Villages 1927 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1997 2000
Çınarlı (Panaghia Balomeni) - - 3578 615 3806 342 4251 216 767 70 721 40 553 26 503 29
Bademli (Gliky) - - 66 144 1 57 40 1 13 34 29 22 15 15 15 13
Dereköy (Shinudy) - - 73 672 391 378 319 214 380 106 99 68 82 40 68 42
Eşelek - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 152 -
Fatih - - - - - - - - 3962 45 4284 32 4135 21 4180 25
Kaleköy (Kastro) - - 38 36 24 - - 128 94 - 105 - 90 - 89 -
Şahinkaya - - - - - - - - - - 168 - 107 - 86 -
Şirinköy - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 189 -
Tepeköy (Agridia) - - 3 504 4 273 2 193 1 110 75 2 2 39 2 42
Uğurlu - - - - - - - - 460 - 490 - 466 - 401 -
Yenibademli - - - - - - - - 416 - 660 - 628 - 581 -
Yenimahalle (Evlampio) - - 182 143 162 121 231 81 359 59 970 27 2240 25 2362 27
Zeytinli (Aghios Theodoros) - - 30 507 15 369 36 235 72 162 25 130 12 82 12 76
TOTAL 157 6555 3970 2621 4403 1540 4879 1068 6524 586 7626 321 8330 248 8640 254

Ref: Gökçeada Municipality official page

Ref: Alanur Çavlin Bozbeyoğlu, Işıl Onan, "Changes in the demographic characteristics of Gökçeada"

Notable people from Imbros

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Babul, Elif (May 2004). "Belonging to Imbros: Citizenship and Sovereignty in the Turkish Republic". European Studies Centre. Nationalism, Society and Culture: 4. http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/esc/esc-lectures/babul.pdf. 
  2. ^ a b c d Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities In Greece An Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange Between Greece and Turkey, Berghahn Books, 2003, p. 120
  3. ^ "Hüzün Adası: İmroz", Yeniçağ, July 12, 2007,
  4. ^ Gökçeada", from Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
  5. ^ a b Turkish Istatistic Institute — Population 2000 by provinces & districts (*.xls table)
  6. ^ Hurriyet Daily News. "Greeks look to revive identity on Gökçeada", August 22 2011. [1]
  7. ^ Mohammadi, A., Ehteshami, A. "Iran and Eurasia" Garnet&Ithaca Press, 2000, 221 pages. p. 192 [2]
  8. ^ Oxford Classical Dictionary: "Imbros"
  9. ^ See link to the text of the Treaty of Lausanne, below
  10. ^ Babul, 2004: 5
  11. ^ Λιμπιτσιούνη, Ανθή Γ.. "Το πλέγμα των ελληνοτουρκικών σχέσεων και η ελληνική μειονότητα στην Τουρκία, οι Έλληνες της Κωνσταντινούπολης της Ίμβρου και της Τενέδου". Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης. p. 98-99. 
  12. ^ Babul, 2004: 5-6
  13. ^ Babul, 2004: 6
  14. ^ a b Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. "Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos): preserving the bicultural character of the two Turkish islands as a model for co-operation between Turkey and Greece in the interest of the people concerned". Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire. http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc08/EDOC11629.pdf. Retrieved 18 September 2011. 
  15. ^ Struggle for Justice, pp.33-73; they ascribe the resettlement program to an article in the Turkish magazine "Nokta".

References

External links

Black Sea
Marmara Sea
Aegean Sea
Mediterranean
Muğla Province