Aliçopehlivan (formerly Koyunyeri) is a village in the
İpsala District
İpsala District is a district of the Edirne Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town of İpsala.[Edirne Province
Edirne Province ( tr, ) is a Turkish province located in East Thrace. Part of European Turkey, it is one of only three provinces located entirely within continental Europe. Edirne Province is bordered by Tekirdağ Province and Kırklareli Pr ...]
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Its population is 1,782 (2022).
It is situated in the plains of Rumeli (
East Thrace
East Thrace or Eastern Thrace ( tr, Doğu Trakya or simply ''Trakya''; el, Ανατολική Θράκη, ''Anatoliki Thraki''; bg, Източна Тракия, ''Iztochna Trakiya''), also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the pa ...
). The distance to
İpsala is and to
Edirne is . During the
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878)
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...
, the Muslim population (
Turks and
Pomaks) of the villages
Lukovit
Lukovit ( bg, Луковит ) is a town in northern Bulgaria, part of Lovech Province. It is situated on both banks of the Zlatna Panega between the Danubian Plain and the foot of Stara Planina. As of December 2009, the town has a population ...
and
Koynare (both in modern
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
) escaped from the Russian armies and were settled in the newly founded Koyunyeri (literally "place of sheep"), which refers to the ranges for sheep around the village and also bears semblance to the refugees' old village's name, Koynare.
A wrestler named Aliço, who won the
Kırkpınar
Kırkpınar is a Turkish oil wrestling ( tr, yağlı güreş) tournament where Pehlivans (wrestlers) compete for three days. It is held annually, usually in late June, near Edirne, Turkey since 1360. In the finals held on the last day, the first ...
oil wrestling tournament for 27 consecutive years, was a resident of Koyunyeri, and in 1998, the village was renamed after Aliço (Aliçopehlivan literally means "wrestler Aliço").
Today, most of village residents either work in the dairy farms or in rice fields.
References
Villages in İpsala District
Pomak communities in Turkey
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