SIRINCE VILLAGE
The village of Sirince referred in
ancient sources as the Ephesus on the Mountain suggests long
established settlement. Although there seems to be no concrete
indication of how it came onto the stage of history, the dominant
theory is that a small group of people resettled on the mountain,
following the fall of the city of Ephesus and its harbour being
moved to Kusadası (Scala Nova). The people might have preferred to
move and settle in the mountains due to problems caused by the
silting and the flooding of the river Meander.
It is told in the village today that this new village on the
mountain was called Cirkince, meaning rather ugly, with the
intention of drawing less attention and interest of outsiders, thus
ensuring security. One of the principal anecdote abput naming of the
village tells that a group of Byzantine Greeks who were freed from
the dominion of Aydınogulları and sent away for re-settlement, were
asked by the neighbouring villagers whether the new place they had
settled was nice or not. The answer was rather ugly.
The oldest building in Sirince is from the Hellenistic period,
initially built as a tower initially, and most probably left from
the Lysimakhos era corresponding to the time when the city of
Ephesus was established. It was part of an early warning system
built in the Klasseas Valley which was of strategic military
importance. The building has had some alterations during the
Byzantine period and is locally thought to have been a monastery.
A ceramic seal with the name of Georgeos used to brand bread in a
bakery was found in a peach garden indicating the existence of a
community life in the region in the Byzantine period.
The oldest travel notes about Kirkinca are in the book of memories
called “A Visit to Turkey and Return to Britain”, written by a
scholar priest Edmund D. Chishull , who lived in Izmir during
1698-1702. Leaving Tire, Chishull reached the ancient city of
Ephesus on April 30,1699. As the book reveals, the place to stay for
the night around Ephesus is the village of Kirkidje. Chishull and
his guide arrived in the village at around eight oclock in the
evening tracing along the Klassen Valley in the east of Ayasuluk
hill.
Kirkinca was a village of 1800 households of Byzantine Greeks during
the Ottoman reign in the 19th century.
World War I started in 1914 with all its violence in Anatolia. The
Ottoman government registers the young Byzantine Greeks of the
Kirkica Village to join the Worksmen Battalion. However, those
running away from the battalion either go to he mountains to live as
a gang of brigands or took refuge in Greece to boycott. Those who
could survive the war return to their village when the war ends.
Dido Sotiriyu reflects about those years in her novel called
Farewell Anatolıa writing:
The Germans had left behind their munitions stores in the ancient
Ephesus. The Turkish gendarme appointed by the Mondros Armistice to
hand them over to the allies had run away. Following the night fall,
the villagers of Kirkinca carried all the weapons and explosive
materials to the village pacing the roads of Ephesus. It was then
that they felt independent. Hunchbacks immediately became straight.
On May 15, 1919 the Greek army occupying İzmir was welcomed with
excitement in the village of Kirkica. Identifying themselves as
Greek, the young people of Kirkica, Urla, Bornova and Kusadasi
volunteered to join the independent regiments headed by Greek
officers. The Sevr Agreement signed on 10 August 1920 encouraged
these young people with the hope to share the eastern Anatolia with
the allies.However, the success of the Great Assault ending the
Turkish Independence War, and the rescuing of İzmir from the Greek
occupation on 9 September 1922, caused the Byzantine Greek villagers
of the region to migrate to Greece. Kirkica then turned into a
deserted village like the others, with a few elderly inhabitants
left behind.
In 1924, a Population Exchange Agreement was signed between Turkish
and Greek governments. Thus,the post-war Kirkica was revitalized
with Turkish newcomers from Salonika, Kavala and Provusta. The words
of Kazim Dirik Pasha, the governor of İzmir at the time, about the
name of the village are still quoted in the region. During the first
years of the Turkish Republic, he visited the village and suggested
changing its name from Cirkince -meaning rather ugly- to Sirince
meaning charming, saying such a nice place should not be called ugly,
but could only be called pretty.
Natural environment
Sirince stands at the end of the valley which goes along the
Çirkince mountain-pass from Selçuk to the east. The river flowing in
the valley was called Klasseas in antiquity. The mountains in the
north are called Elemen. Selahattin Mountain is the current name
given to the hills stretching to the east. Beylik Hill, 508 meters
in height, is to the west of Şirince, overlooking the sea and the
Selcuk plain.
The hills around Sirince are covered with pine trees and on the
rocky cliffs with scrub. Marshmallows with violet flowers are the
most striking plants on the climb to Şirince. The town is surrounded
by olive groves, tangerine and fig gardens, and vineyards.