Amasya – Armeniac – The Homeland of Our Ancestors

In ancient times, Amasya was part of the Armeniac region on the peninsula of Asia Minor. From 281-183 BC, it was the capital of the Greek Pontic Kingdom. It then became part of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, where it was an administrative part of the Armeniac region.

In 1380, it was captured by Ottoman troops. In 1853, it had 105,000 residents, among which were: Armenians – 53,400 people (51%), Greeks – 16,000 people (15%), Muslims – 34,000 people (32%)

The Muslims consisted of Armenians and Greeks converted to Islam, as well as Turks, Arabs, Circassians, and others. The majority of the residents were Armenians.

During the Ottoman period, Amasya administratively belonged to the Sivas Vilayet – one of the Armenian vilayets of the Ottoman Empire.

From 1894-96, the authorities of the empire organized pogroms of Armenians, in which regular troops and associated bandit groups from the Muslim population participated. They wanted to use these pogroms for personal enrichment, as well as to kidnap girls and children who were converted to Islam and added to their harems and families.

From 1876-1912, a large number of Muslims were relocated here from the North Caucasus and the Balkans.

In 1914, Armenian and Greek men were mobilized into the army, where they were exterminated by their own military leadership on orders from above.

The remaining women, children, and elderly in the region were deported in the spring of 1915 towards Baghdad. The deportation was carried out in 3 caravans.

They were first attacked by Muslims in the area of Tokat (a region neighboring Amasya), in a place called Sargyshla.

In Sargyshla, Chetniks took children away from their parents and sold them to Muslims.

The remaining Amasya inhabitants continued their deportation path towards Baghdad and were attacked by Muslims a second time near Malatya.

The survivors of the attack in Malatya continued their journey and after 3 months reached the Suruç area, where an epidemic began among them.

After Suruç, out of more than 50,000 Amasya Armenians, only 1800 survived. These survivors were driven into the Deir ez-Zor desert by gendarmes.

300 of them were massacred in Deir ez-Zor itself.

The remaining 1500 were held in a camp until spring 1918, until French troops took the city of Aleppo and freed them.

After the First World War, 650 Armenians returned to Amasya. A national council was established in Amasya, which was engaged in returning the surviving Amasya inhabitants to their native lands.

The National Council operated until 1923, until the Turkish Republic was established. After that, the Kemalist Turks who came to power forced the remaining inhabitants of Amasya to leave their native city.

Notable natives of Amasya:

Strabo (1st century) – Greek geographer of the Antiquity. Theodore Tyron (3rd century) – a saint of the Christian church. Amirdovlat Amasiatsi (1420-1496) – Armenian scholar. Selim I (1465 — 1520) – Ottoman Sultan.

Vigen Avetisyan

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