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Cunda Island, also called Alibey Island, (), Greek Moschonisi ( or Μοσχόνησος), is the largest of the Ayvalık Islands

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, which was historically called the ''Εκατόνησα'' (''Hekatonisa'') or ''Μοσχονήσια'' (''Moschonisia'') archipelago in Greek. It lies in the Edremit Gulf on Turkey's northwestern coast, off the coast of

Ayvalık Ayvalık (), formerly also known as Kydonies (), is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Balıkesir Province, Turkey. Its area is 305 km2, and its population is 75,126 (2024). It is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean Se ...

Balıkesir Province Balıkesir Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea, Aegean. Its area is 14,583 km ...

, with an area of . It is located east of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

History

Antiquity

According to written sources, there have been human settlements on the island since antiquity; the sources mention the settlements of Nasos (), Pordoselini or Pordoselene () and Chalkis ().

20th Century

According to the Ottoman General Census of 1881/82-1893, the

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

of Cunda (Yunda) had a total population of 4,671 consisting of 4,417

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

, 89 Muslims and 165 foreign citizens. Until the

Treaty of Lausanne The Treaty of Lausanne (, ) is a peace treaty negotiated during the Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923 and signed in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 July 1923. The treaty officially resolved the conflict that had initially ...

(1923) the entire population of the island was Greek. In 1913, Mehmed Reshid visited the island and he suggested the settlement of wealthy Muslim muhacirs on the island in order to control the Greek population. In 1914, persecution against the population started, resulting in the departure of many inhabitants from the island. The bishop Photios, various priests and prominent men were seized, beaten and imprisoned in a mill, to be released only after some days had passed. Men and women were beaten and tortured. Later, the inhabitants were deported to

(Kydonies/Aivali in Greek) on the mainland without being allowed to take anything with them. In Ayvalık they shared the same fate of oppression with its Christian inhabitants until they were all deported, and scattered among the Turkish villages of the

vilayet A vilayet (, "province"), also known by #Names, various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...

s of Izmir and

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

. There they were subjected daily to all kinds of persecution and died in great numbers. The churches on the island were looted and turned into warehouses and stables, the lamps and holy images in them were broken, paintings of art destroyed and houses rendered uninhabitable. In 1915, inhabitants of the island were compelled to pay 2,500 Turkish pounds for the uniforms of the Turkish army and 2,000 Turkish pounds for the construction of barracks; to pay a wheat-tax for the upkeep of the navy, and to buy, at no cheap price, post-cards. Also, some inhabitants were killed and tortured. For a short period (1921–1922), the island was the see of a

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

metropolitan bishop, while the neoclassical mansion of the last metropolitan, Ambrosios, who was executed by the Turkish army, still survives on the seafront of the island's town center. On September 19, 1922 several hundred of the Greek islanders were killed on Cunda; only some children were spared and sent to orphanages. The next year, following the Treaty of Lausanne and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the few remaining islanders were forced to leave for Greece and were replaced by Cretan Turks and Turks from

Present day

Cunda Island has the character of a typical Aegean resort town. There are frequent bus and ferry services to Cunda Island from the town center of Ayvalık. Cunda Island is connected to Lale Island, and thence to the mainland, by the Ayvalık Strait Bridge, and a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

built in the late 1960s. This is the first and currently the oldest surviving bridge in Turkey that connects lands separated by a strait. The main landmark of Cunda Island remains the Taxiarchis Church (). The large, former Greek Orthodox cathedral was abandoned and dilapidated, but has now been restored and houses one of the Rahmi M. Koç Museums. Poroselene () bay in the north of the island is among Cunda's main sights. In antiquity, it was the home of a

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

which saved a drowning boy, according to a story mentioned by Pausanias. In 2007, after two years of work, all 551 buildings in Cunda Island were inspected and registered by the Turkish Science Academy and

Yıldız Technical University Yıldız Technical University ( Turkish: ''Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi'', often simply referred to as YTU or Yıldız) is a prominent public technical university dedicated to engineering and natural sciences, as well as social sciences recentl ...

Faculty of Architecture, as part of the "Culture of Turkey inventory project". USA-based

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and Turkey's Koç University have established a joint project in Cunda Island and run a "Harvard-Koç University Intensive Ottoman & Turkish Summer School" every summer. In 2020, the Greek monastery of Saint Demetrius, also known as Ai Dimitri Monastery, which was built in 1766 with donations from the citizens of Cunda, was completely destroyed by treasure hunters.Treasure hunters destroy historic chapel in Aegean town
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Gallery

File:Cunda houses 2020 (1).jpg, Houses in Cunda Island File:Paterica Cove.jpg, Paterica Cove File:Cunda_adacamping_2.JPG, Camping area in Cunda File:Taksiyarhis Church, Cunda 2020 (3).jpg, Taksiyarhis Church File:Taksiyarhis Church, Cunda 2020 (1).jpg, Taksiyarhis Church File:A street from Cunda Island.JPG, A street from Cunda Island File:A street in Cunda Island.jpg, Paved walkways of Cunda Island File:Alibey Adasi, Ayvalık, Turkey (Unsplash).jpg, Cunda Island Windmill File:Cunda Adası 01.jpg, Cats of Cunda Island

References

External links

Cunda Adası

Cunda Adası

Cunda Adası

The Untold Story of Turkey’s Cunda Island - New Line Magazine
{{Islands of Turkey Islands of Turkey Ayvalık North Aegean islands Populated places in Balıkesir Province Fishing communities in Turkey Islands of Balıkesir Province Places of the Greek genocide Former Greek towns in Turkey