Alatsata
Encyclopedia
Alatsata is an Ancient Greek
settlement in West Asia Minor Ionia
, in today's İzmir Province
. Alatsata is the name of the old city in Asia Minor, known as Alacati
in modern Turkey. It is a city situated on the western coast of Asia Minor
with almost exclusively Greek Orthodox Christian population. The town was founded in the middle of the 17th century. Towards the end of the 18th century the town had great economic, intellectual and cultural development and became one of the most important agricultural centres of western Asia Minor
coast.
In the List of Subscribers (1834) of the book «Essay of Epistolary Cannes» written by the Director Avramios Omirolou, of the Evangelical School of Smyrna, the name of the city is written in the literary form as Alassata and in the dative case: «In Alassatois». The origin of the name according to the wise headmaster George Zolotas from Chios island is attributed to the salt meadows with the shallow waters in the back of Agrilia bay (subsequently named Yiakin Tuzlou or Yiakini) where the curdled salt remained in the area and covered the ground for about three kilometres. This adaptation is supported by Constantinos A. Vlamos and Fanis N. Kleanthis in their books and also from oral testimonies referred to the collection of the salt in this specific region.
There is a Turkish theory based on a legend concerning the origin of the name. According to this legend, the region took its name either from an alatza At (in Turkish Alaca At) meaning «red horse» or from a horse of Selcuk breed Alatza (in Turkish Alaca), with which a man galloped in the region. The bystanders then called him “Alatzatli” (in Turkish Alacaatli meaning «the man with the red horse».[2]
The earliest text in which the name of the region is referred under the chapter entitled: «The Saplitzas port on the East coast and the shores of Alatza At» (in Turkish- Bu bölüm Anadolu kiyilarinda Saplica limani ve Alaca at kiyilarini anlatir) is the book «Navigation Guide» (in Turkish Kitab-i Bahriye), written by Pirie Reis (1470-1554) a great Turkish Admiral navigator, cartographer and poet. Saplitza is the oldest name of the bay Mersini (in Turkish Mersin Koyu), Pirie Reis gives the following description of the name Alatza At.
«Alaca At is a bay to the south. This bay is visible from the sea as white milk between two hills ....» (in Turkish: Ve Alaca At kibleye karşu bir körfözdür. Ol körfözün denizden alameti budur. Iki tarafada ak süd gibi püsteler vardur...)
The paradox in relation to the name of the bay which is «red horse» to the metaphor of «white as milk» was created possibly by the oral information that Pirie Reis may have had for the name of the region. Hearing the Greek word Alatzata, a Turk understands a «red horse». Why, then, did the bay from the sea appears «like white milk»? Possibly this could have been the curdled salt covering the shores of the bay. Eventually the name of the city is pronounced in Turkish and Greek with the pronunciation of phoneme -ts «Alaçati».
Agrilia (in Greek meaning wild olive tree) was the seaport of Alatsata city. The name of Agrilia was given by the residents of Alatsata. Agrilia took the name from the perennial wild olive tree growing on the bay’s west side, where the homonymous village was founded in 1850.
) located in the western part of Ionic or Erythrean peninsula, opposite the island of Chios
, within a distance of 10 km southwest of Cesme
and 70 km southeast of Smyrna
.
In Alatsata, the residents were mainly Greek Orthodox Christians. They were approximately 200 families of the Greek-speaking Muslims with origin from Peloponnese region, who went there after Greece declared its independence. They settled in the wider area of the plain and also in Cesme. Approximately 25-30 Muslim families remained and settled in the plain settlements and also the families of the Ottoman government officials who stayed in the city.
In the magazine titled «Statistics of Krinis and Aneon» (Krini is the Greek translation of Cesme
. Anea – Aneon – is the old name of Soke city), according to Anthony G. Poulakis, the population of the city was 6.000, in 1821. In the book «Guide and Calendar of Smyrna,[2] it was noted that Alatsata had 10,000 inhabitants in 1889. According to figures published in December of 1904, in the journal “Xenophanes”[3] the population was 15,500 Greeks and 50 Turks. The immigration waves of the Alatsatean - mainly to Greece and United States. of America, increased both from phylloxera (early 20th century) and from the imposition of the Ottoman military service to the Greeks. This significantly reduced the population of the city. According to the statistics of the of the High Commission of Smyrna, in May of 1914 the number of Greek inhabitants of Alatsata that were forced by the Turks to expatriated were 14.000[4].
Upon their return (1919 – 1920), according to Michali Notara who was an official of the High Commission of Smyrna, the population of Alatsata during the period 1921-1922 amounted to 9.950 Greeks, 50 Turks and 20 Gypsies. The latter lived in the neighborhood of “Atsinganaria” (the Gypsies‘s camps). They spoke Greek and were dray makers, blacksmiths and iron-workers.
Until 1864, Erythraia fell under the Sancak (prefecture) of Chios of the Eyalet of the White Sea Aegean Sea
which belonged to the jurisdiction of the kapoudan Pasha (Ottoman fleet Admiral). Erythrea separated from the island of Chios in 1865 and split into two kaza (county provinces) of Cesme and Karabourna, which were included under the Sancak of Smyrna of the Vilayet of Aydin. Alatsata was a separate nahiye (sub province, large village) and under its administration fell Agrilia, Reisdere, Karmealesi and other small villages of the plain. After the conquest of Ionia by the Greek army and the return of Greek residents, the vice-governorship of Krini (Cesme) was formed, under which Alatsata fell for a short time. Then Alatsata detached and until 1922 fell directly under Smyrna administration as a municipality.
and all over Attica
, Euboea
, Crete
, Chios]], Lesvos, Samos
, Thessaloniki
and in Agrinion. Regions with settlements, bearing the name New Alatsata exist in the Municipality of Byron, in Athens
, in Chalkis and in Heraklion
of Crete. Besides Greece, Alatsateans migrated in almost all the continents but mostly in the U.S. of America, where in Somerville, in Boston the Small Alatsata was founded and in Australia.
Under the Treaty of Lausanne
in 1923 and according to the implementation of the compulsory exchange of populations, Muslims who lived in Crete, Thrace, Macedonia and Dodecanese settled in Alatsata city.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
settlement in West Asia Minor Ionia
Ionia
Ionia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
, in today's İzmir Province
Izmir Province
İzmir Province is a province of Turkey in western Anatolia on the Aegean coast, whose capital is the city of İzmir. On the west it is surrounded by the Aegean sea, and it encloses the Gulf of İzmir. Its area is 11,973 km.2, population 3.948.848 . The population was 3,370,866 in 2000...
. Alatsata is the name of the old city in Asia Minor, known as Alacati
Alaçati
Alaçatı is a unique Aegean town on the western coast of İzmir Province in Turkey, which has been famous for its architecture, vineyards and windmills for over 150 years...
in modern Turkey. It is a city situated on the western coast of Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
with almost exclusively Greek Orthodox Christian population. The town was founded in the middle of the 17th century. Towards the end of the 18th century the town had great economic, intellectual and cultural development and became one of the most important agricultural centres of western Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
coast.
Origin of the name
The name of the city formulated in the plural number and is considered to have its origin from the ancient Greek word als and alas (salt) – alata (salts)» in the Greek Demotic language a l a t i (salt) – a l a t i a (salts), which enunciate as Alatzata and Alatsata either due to Turkish alteration of the language (e.g. in Turkish, the word “kalderim” (meaning cobbled road - originated from the Greek kallidromon) or according to a Greek dialect.[1] During the Ottoman Empire, the word is referred to as the adjective «the alatsatikos» which was a tax collected on salt. The older pronunciation and spelling of the name «Alatzata» seems to disappear at the end of the 19th century. The phoneme –tz then turned to the refined and elegant form of the Greek phoneme -ts.In the List of Subscribers (1834) of the book «Essay of Epistolary Cannes» written by the Director Avramios Omirolou, of the Evangelical School of Smyrna, the name of the city is written in the literary form as Alassata and in the dative case: «In Alassatois». The origin of the name according to the wise headmaster George Zolotas from Chios island is attributed to the salt meadows with the shallow waters in the back of Agrilia bay (subsequently named Yiakin Tuzlou or Yiakini) where the curdled salt remained in the area and covered the ground for about three kilometres. This adaptation is supported by Constantinos A. Vlamos and Fanis N. Kleanthis in their books and also from oral testimonies referred to the collection of the salt in this specific region.
There is a Turkish theory based on a legend concerning the origin of the name. According to this legend, the region took its name either from an alatza At (in Turkish Alaca At) meaning «red horse» or from a horse of Selcuk breed Alatza (in Turkish Alaca), with which a man galloped in the region. The bystanders then called him “Alatzatli” (in Turkish Alacaatli meaning «the man with the red horse».[2]
The earliest text in which the name of the region is referred under the chapter entitled: «The Saplitzas port on the East coast and the shores of Alatza At» (in Turkish- Bu bölüm Anadolu kiyilarinda Saplica limani ve Alaca at kiyilarini anlatir) is the book «Navigation Guide» (in Turkish Kitab-i Bahriye), written by Pirie Reis (1470-1554) a great Turkish Admiral navigator, cartographer and poet. Saplitza is the oldest name of the bay Mersini (in Turkish Mersin Koyu), Pirie Reis gives the following description of the name Alatza At.
«Alaca At is a bay to the south. This bay is visible from the sea as white milk between two hills ....» (in Turkish: Ve Alaca At kibleye karşu bir körfözdür. Ol körfözün denizden alameti budur. Iki tarafada ak süd gibi püsteler vardur...)
The paradox in relation to the name of the bay which is «red horse» to the metaphor of «white as milk» was created possibly by the oral information that Pirie Reis may have had for the name of the region. Hearing the Greek word Alatzata, a Turk understands a «red horse». Why, then, did the bay from the sea appears «like white milk»? Possibly this could have been the curdled salt covering the shores of the bay. Eventually the name of the city is pronounced in Turkish and Greek with the pronunciation of phoneme -ts «Alaçati».
Agrilia (in Greek meaning wild olive tree) was the seaport of Alatsata city. The name of Agrilia was given by the residents of Alatsata. Agrilia took the name from the perennial wild olive tree growing on the bay’s west side, where the homonymous village was founded in 1850.
Antropogeography
Alatsata (in Turkish language AlaçatiAlaçati
Alaçatı is a unique Aegean town on the western coast of İzmir Province in Turkey, which has been famous for its architecture, vineyards and windmills for over 150 years...
) located in the western part of Ionic or Erythrean peninsula, opposite the island of Chios
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
, within a distance of 10 km southwest of Cesme
Çesme
Çeşme is a coastal town and the center-town of the district of the same name in Turkey's western-most end, on a promontory on the tip of the peninsula which also carries the same name and which extends inland to form a whole with the wider Karaburun Peninsula...
and 70 km southeast of Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
.
In Alatsata, the residents were mainly Greek Orthodox Christians. They were approximately 200 families of the Greek-speaking Muslims with origin from Peloponnese region, who went there after Greece declared its independence. They settled in the wider area of the plain and also in Cesme. Approximately 25-30 Muslim families remained and settled in the plain settlements and also the families of the Ottoman government officials who stayed in the city.
In the magazine titled «Statistics of Krinis and Aneon» (Krini is the Greek translation of Cesme
Çesme
Çeşme is a coastal town and the center-town of the district of the same name in Turkey's western-most end, on a promontory on the tip of the peninsula which also carries the same name and which extends inland to form a whole with the wider Karaburun Peninsula...
. Anea – Aneon – is the old name of Soke city), according to Anthony G. Poulakis, the population of the city was 6.000, in 1821. In the book «Guide and Calendar of Smyrna,[2] it was noted that Alatsata had 10,000 inhabitants in 1889. According to figures published in December of 1904, in the journal “Xenophanes”[3] the population was 15,500 Greeks and 50 Turks. The immigration waves of the Alatsatean - mainly to Greece and United States. of America, increased both from phylloxera (early 20th century) and from the imposition of the Ottoman military service to the Greeks. This significantly reduced the population of the city. According to the statistics of the of the High Commission of Smyrna, in May of 1914 the number of Greek inhabitants of Alatsata that were forced by the Turks to expatriated were 14.000[4].
Upon their return (1919 – 1920), according to Michali Notara who was an official of the High Commission of Smyrna, the population of Alatsata during the period 1921-1922 amounted to 9.950 Greeks, 50 Turks and 20 Gypsies. The latter lived in the neighborhood of “Atsinganaria” (the Gypsies‘s camps). They spoke Greek and were dray makers, blacksmiths and iron-workers.
Until 1864, Erythraia fell under the Sancak (prefecture) of Chios of the Eyalet of the White Sea Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
which belonged to the jurisdiction of the kapoudan Pasha (Ottoman fleet Admiral). Erythrea separated from the island of Chios in 1865 and split into two kaza (county provinces) of Cesme and Karabourna, which were included under the Sancak of Smyrna of the Vilayet of Aydin. Alatsata was a separate nahiye (sub province, large village) and under its administration fell Agrilia, Reisdere, Karmealesi and other small villages of the plain. After the conquest of Ionia by the Greek army and the return of Greek residents, the vice-governorship of Krini (Cesme) was formed, under which Alatsata fell for a short time. Then Alatsata detached and until 1922 fell directly under Smyrna administration as a municipality.
After 1922
A great number of Alatsatean refugees were settled in Greece, in Nea ErythraiaNea Erythraia
Nea Erythraia , is a suburb in the northeastern part of Athens, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kifisia, of which it is a municipal unit....
and all over Attica
Attica
Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...
, Euboea
Euboea
Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...
, Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, Chios]], Lesvos, Samos
Samoš
Samoš is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Kovačica municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 1,247 people .-See also:...
, Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
and in Agrinion. Regions with settlements, bearing the name New Alatsata exist in the Municipality of Byron, in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, in Chalkis and in Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
of Crete. Besides Greece, Alatsateans migrated in almost all the continents but mostly in the U.S. of America, where in Somerville, in Boston the Small Alatsata was founded and in Australia.
Under the Treaty of Lausanne
Treaty of Lausanne
The Treaty of Lausanne was a peace treaty signed in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 July 1923, that settled the Anatolian and East Thracian parts of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty of Lausanne was ratified by the Greek government on 11 February 1924, by the Turkish government on 31...
in 1923 and according to the implementation of the compulsory exchange of populations, Muslims who lived in Crete, Thrace, Macedonia and Dodecanese settled in Alatsata city.
Notable People from Alatsata
- George DilboyGeorge DilboyGeorge Dilboy , , Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company H, 103d Infantry, 26th Division is thought to be the first Greek-American to receive the Medal of Honor during World War I, for leading an attack on a machinegun position and continuing to fire at the enemy despite being seriously...
- Metropolitan Iakovos (Garmatis) of ChicagoMetropolitan Iakovos (Garmatis) of ChicagoMetropolitan Iakovos of Chicago was elected to the episcopacy of the Greek Orthodox Church by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1969. He was enthroned by Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America on May 1, 1979, as...