Eğin may have been founded by
Paulician Armenian Christians in the 9th century. Certainly, a Paulician state was headquartered at nearby
Tephrike (modern
Divriği) by 844. Alternatively, the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica reports that Eğin was settled by Armenians who emigrated from
Van in the 11th century with King
Senekerim-Hovhannes of Vaspurakan of the
Artsruni dynasty). Eğin became known as a center of Armenian musicians, and later, literary poets. In 1813,
James Playfair's "A System of Geography" described Eğin as "[A] little town in the form of an amphitheatre, at the foot of a mountain, in a fruitful tract that reaches to the Euphrates." The British explorer
Francis Rawdon Chesney followed the course of the Euphrates for a survey expedition between 1835 and 1837, and mentions Eğin as "a town of 2700 houses on the right bank". In comparison, he counts about 3000 houses in
Erzincan and 2923 families in
Malatya. Chesney describes Eğin's situation in a deep valley where the "mountains rise to about 4000 feet on each side of this singular fissure, which is so narrow that it is crossed by a bridge between lofty limestone precipices seeming to overhang the town and as it were to threaten its destruction." In 1895, the British geographer
Charles William Wilson describes Eğin as follows in a travel guide to Asia Minor: Armenian historian
Vahakn Dadrian reports that in 1896, the town was evenly divided between Armenians and
Muslims (
Turks and
Kurds). He says that Eğin was notable for its prosperity and had previously escaped the 1895–1896
Hamidian massacres through a ransom payment by the Armenians of 1500 Turkish gold pounds. However, British archaeologist
David George Hogarth writing for the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica noted a massacre of Armenians in Eğin on November 8, 1895. By 1911, Hogarth estimated the population of Eğin at 20,000 and assessed them as "fairly evenly divided between Armenian Christians and Muslims". He described Eğin as an important town in the
Mamuretülaziz Vilayet "...picturesquely situated in a theatre of lofty, abrupt rocks, on the right bank of the western Euphrates, which is crossed by a wooden bridge. The stone houses stand in terraced gardens and orchards, and the streets are mere rock ladders." On 21 October 1922, following the
Turkish War of Independence, a decree was issued renaming Eğin as Kemaliye (and Selinti as
Gazipaşa) in honor of
Mustafa Kemal Pasha. The former name is still known and used locally and sometimes even beyond. Kemaliye was administered as part of
Elazığ Province until 1926, and within
Malatya Province between 1926 and 1938. In 1938 it was transferred to
Erzincan Province. The
1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey (Greek: Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, Turkish:
Mübâdele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey, had as result the evacuation of Egin from its
Armenian-speaking Greek Orthodox minority population, inhabited there. After a most difficult journey of 8 months and more than a thousand kilometres, they reached the shores of Aegean and were transported (after various stations) in
Diavata, near Thessaloniki and Kastaniotissa (new Egin), at the Greek island of Evia. == Notable natives ==