and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Early migrations The area known as Cappadocia today was known to the
Ancient Persians as
Katpatuka, a name which the Greeks altered into
Καππαδοκία (Cappadocia). The word is essentially of unknown etymology, but some have argued that it means "the land of beautiful horses". Before Greeks and Greek culture arrived in Asia Minor, the area was controlled by another
Indo-European people, the
Hittites.
Mycenaean Greeks set up trading posts along the west coast around 1300 BC and soon started
colonizing the coasts, spreading Hellenic culture and language. In the
Hellenistic era, following the conquest of Anatolia by
Alexander the Great, Greek settlers began arriving in the mountainous regions of Cappadocia at this time. This Greek population movement of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC solidified a Greek presence in Cappadocia. As a result, Greek became the
lingua franca of the region's natives. It would become the sole spoken language of the region's inhabitants within three centuries and would remain so for the next one thousand years. and this region would become popular for the recruitment of soldiers. Unlike other regions of Asia Minor where Greeks would settle in cities, most of the Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other interior Anatolian regions were villages. The Hellenistic Kings would make new Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other surrounding regions in order to secure their hold on this volatile region; under their rule Greek settlements would increase in the Anatolian interior. He was predominantly Greek by descent; his father
Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia was half
Greek Macedonian and
Persian, and his mother was
Antiochis, the daughter of the
Seleucid Greek King Antiochus III of the
Seleucid dynasty. By the 1st century BC, regions of Cappadocia had been ravaged by Armenian King
Tigranes the Great, who had relocated a great number of Cilician and Cappadocian Greeks to
Mesopotamia (geographically in modern
Iraq, eastern
Syria and
south-eastern Turkey.)
Roman period (1st century ad), a Greek
Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of
Tyana in
Cappadocia Archelaus, who was a Roman client prince, was the last to rule as a king of
Cappadocia. He was a Cappadocian Greek nobleman, possibly of
Macedonian descent, and was the first king of Cappadocia of wholly non-Persian blood. The region of Cappadocia produced some notable Greek individuals in antiquity, such as
Apollonius of Tyana (1st century AD) who was a Greek Neo-Pythagorean philosopher who became well known in the Roman Empire and
Aretaeus of Cappadocia (81–138 AD) who was a native Greek, born in Cappadocia and is considered to have been one of the foremost
surgeons in antiquity. He was the first to distinguish between
diabetes mellitus and
diabetes insipidus, and the first to provide a detailed description of an
asthma attack. By late antiquity the Cappadocian Greeks had largely converted to
Christianity. and was of significance importance in the history of early Christianity. They were
Basil the Great (c. 330–79), Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. These Cappadocian Greek fathers of the fourth century revered the ancient Greek cultural pursuit of virtue, even studying
Homer and
Hesiod and "stood squarely in the tradition of Greek culture".
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) period in a
Cappadocian
rock-cut church at Göreme depicting
Jesus Christ with the twelve apostles. By the fifth century the last of the Indo-European
native languages of Anatolia ceased to be spoken,
replaced by
Koine Greek. The region became a key Byzantine military district after the advent of Islam and the subsequent
Muslim conquest of Syria led to the establishment of a militarized frontier zone (cf
kleisoura and
thughur) on the border of Cappadocia. This lasted from the mid-7th to the 10th century during the
Arab–Byzantine wars, immortalized in
Digenis Akritas, the
Medieval Greek heroic epic set in this frontier region. During this period Cappadocia became crucial to the empire and produced numerous Byzantine generals, notably the
Phokas clan, warlords (see
Karbeas of
Tephrike), and intrigue, most importantly the
Paulician heresy. Because they were living in such a volatile region, the Cappadocian Greeks created elaborate underground cities in the volcanic formations of eastern Cappadocia and would take refuge in them during times of danger. The Cappadocian Greeks hid in these rock-cut underground towns from many raiders over the next millennium, from 9th century Arab invaders to 11th century Turkish conquerors to 15th century Mongols. The most famous of these ancient underground cities are at the Cappadocian Greek villages of Anaku-Inegi (Ανακού) and Malakopi-Melagob (Μαλακοπή). The Greeks were removed from these villages in 1923, and they are now known as
Derinkuyu and
Kaymakli. These underground cities have chambers extending to depths of over 80 meters. and date from the period between the 6th century to the 13th century, The
Byzantines re-established control of Cappadocia between the 7th and 11th centuries, during this period churches were carved into cliffs and rock faces in the
Göreme and Soğanlı region. It was discovered in a sixth-century Greek chapel in the
Ihlara Valley of Cappadocia. During the tenth century the Byzantine Empire had pushed east into formerly Arab-ruled lands, including most of
Armenia, and had resettled thousands of
Armenians into various regions of
Cappadocia. This population shift intensified
ethnic tensions between the Cappadocian Greeks and the Armenian newcomers in Cappadocia,
Turkish Cappadocia , Sultan of the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. In 1071 AD the Byzantine Empire suffered a considerable defeat at the
Battle of Manzikert in
Armenia. Several
Armenian royal families, which included
Gagik of Ani and Adom and Abu Sahl of
Vaspurakan, sought vengeance on the local
Greek Orthodox population after persecutions of the Armenians and
Syriac Monophysites by the Byzantines. By the 12th century all of Anatolia was overrun by
Turkmen tribes from Central Asia, Before the Turkish migration into Anatolia, Greeks as well as smaller numbers of Armenians, Syrians, and Georgians were all Christians, but by the 15th century more than 90% of Anatolia was Muslim, according to some researchers largely because of Christian conversions to Islam. Many Byzantine Greek leaders were also tempted to convert to Islam in order to join the Ottoman Turkish aristocracy, During the centuries of Turkish rule in Asia Minor many Greeks and other peoples of Anatolia such as
Armenians and
Kurds adopted the
Turkish language, converted to Islam, and came to be identified as Turks. Despite the turmoil in Anatolia, by the 13th century the Greeks of
Cappadocia,
Lycaonia and
Pamphylia remained numerous, even under the pressure of the Turkmen nomads, possibly constituting majorities in some urban centers. During this chaotic period there is evidence that some native Cappadocian Greeks had joined the invading Turkish nomads. Some even managing to rise to levels of prominence in the Seljuq
Sultanate of Rum, such as Basil Giagoupes (Bασίλειος Γιαγούπης), a wealthy Cappadocian Greek feudatory lord of a strongly Greek district who held the court title of general (
amir arzi) in the army of the Seljuq sultan of Konya,
Mesud II. He dedicated a church in the Peristrema (
Belisırma) valley where his portrait, which was painted from life still survives to this day. 13th century Cappadocian Greek artists were renowned for their naturalistic paintings and were employed throughout the
Seljuk Empire. Cappadocian Greeks were also employed as architects, such as Kalo Yianni, who was commissioned to build the
Gök Medrese (Sivas) in 1271. Over the course of the 15th century the Ottoman Turks conquered Cappadocia from the Seljuk Turks, the Cappadocian countryside remained largely Greek populated, with a smaller Armenian population even after the Ottoman conquest. During the reign of Ottoman Sultan
Murad III (1574 to 1595) the region of Cappadocia became largely
Turkified in culture and language through a gradual process of acculturation, as a result many Greeks of Anatolia had accepted the Turkish vernacular and some of whom later became known as
Karamanlides. This name derives from the city called
Karaman by the Turks in honor of the Turkish chieftain
Karamanoglu, though the Greeks continued to call the region
Laranda, its ancient Greek name. These Turcophone Greeks lived primarily in the region of Karamania although there were also significant communities in
Constantinople and in the region of the
Black Sea. Although the Karamanlides abandoned
Greek when they learned
Turkish, they remained
Greek Orthodox Christians and continued to write using the
Greek alphabet. This was not a phenomenon that was limited to the Cappadocian Greeks, as many of the Armenians living in Cappadocia were also linguistically
Turkified, although they remained Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Christians, they spoke and wrote in the Turkish language although still using the
Armenian alphabet. Despite the fact that they had lost all knowledge of their own languages after they had been Turkified, While most Cappadocian Greeks had remained Orthodox Christians a significant number of the Karamanlides even converted to
Islam during this period. As with other Greek communities, these converts to Islam were considered "Turks", European visitors to the sultans' realms would also subjectively label any Muslim a "Turk" regardless of his or her mother tongue. The Greeks believed that by converting to Islam and losing his or her original Christian religion, the individual was also stepping out of the Greek national community. This way of thinking was even popular years after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Subsequent to the 1571
Ottoman conquest of Cyprus, the Ottoman Sultan
Selim I decided to transfer Greeks from Cappadocia, particularly from the
Kayseri region, to
Cyprus. During the Ottoman era, Cappadocian Greeks would migrate to Constantinople and other large cities to do business. By the 19th century, many were wealthy, educated and
westernized. Wealthy Cappadocian Greek businessmen built large stone mansions in regions of Cappadocia such as Karvali (modern
Güzelyurt) many of which can still be seen today. The Cappadocian Greeks wrote the earliest published novels in the
Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, using the Greek Alphabet and Turkish language.
Demetrius Charles Boulger later describes their work character, "Each village is connected with some particular guild in Constantinople; one supplies bakals or small storekeepers, another sellers of wine and spirits, another dryers of fish, another makers of caviare, another porters, and so forth."’
Modern , Cappadocia, in 1902. In the early 20th century, Greek settlements were still both numerous and widespread throughout most of today’s Turkey. According to 1897 estimations, the
sanjak of Konya had a total
Greek population of 68.101 (6.6%) and according to
Ottoman population statistics of 1914, the sanjak of Niğde had a total Greek population of 58.312 (20%) and the sanjak of Kayseri had a total of 26.590 (10,1%). The Cappadocian Greeks of the 19th and 20th centuries were renowned for the richness of their folktales and preservation of their ancient Greek tongue. The
underground cities continued to be used as refuges (
Cappadocian Greek: καταφύγια) from the Turkish Muslim rulers. Sir
Charles William Wilson, British consul-general in Anatolia from 1879 to 1882, described their character:
Persecution and population exchange By the early 1900s the region of Cappadocia was still inhabited by Christian Cappadocian Greeks as well as Muslim Turks Thousands of Greeks were massacred, During the
Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) countless numbers of Greeks were deported by the Turks to the Mesopotamian desert where many perished. the descendants of the Cappadocian Greeks who had converted to Islam were not included in the population exchange and remained in Cappadocia, some still speaking the
Cappadocian Greek language. Many Cappadocian towns were greatly affected by the expulsion of the Greeks including
Mustafapaşa (Sinasos),
Ürgüp,
Güzelyurt and
Nevşehir as the Greeks constituted a significant percentage of the towns population. The Cappadocian Greeks were taken to the coastal town of
Mersin in order to be shipped to Greece. Many would lose all of their belongings due to corrupt officials and looters. (1907). The team was named after
Mt. Argaios, a famous
volcano in Cappadocia. Following the population exchange there was still a substantial community of Cappadocian Greeks living in Turkey, in
Constantinople, the majority of whom also migrated to Greece following the Anti-Greek
Istanbul Pogrom riots of 1955. On their arrival in mainland Greece, many Cappadocian Greeks settled in villages similar to their original Cappadocian villages; the new settlements were named after towns and villages left behind in Cappadocia, with the addition of the word “Nea” (New). For example, Cappadocian Greeks from
Sinasos (present Mustafapaşa near
Ürgüp) who settled in the northern part of the island of
Euboea in Greece named their new settlement
Nea Sinasos "New Sinasos". Other examples include
Nea Karvali in northern Greece, and
Neo Prokopi in central Greece. The regions of Greece with significant settlements of Cappadocian Greeks include the cities of
Karditsa,
Volos,
Kilkis,
Larisa,
Chalkidiki,
Kavala,
Alexandroupoli and
Thessaloniki. Today the descendants of the Cappadocian Greeks can be found throughout Greece, as well as in countries around the world particularly in Western Europe, North America and Australia as part of the
Greek diaspora. The modern region of
Cappadocia is famous for the churches carved into cliffs and rock faces in the
Göreme and Soğanlı valleys. ==Language==