Başmakçı is a town of

Afyonkarahisar Province Afyonkarahisar Province ( tr, ), also called more simply Afyon Province, is a province in western Turkey. Adjacent provinces are Kütahya to the northwest, Uşak to the west, Denizli to the southwest, Burdur to the south, Isparta to the southea ...

in the Aegean region of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, closer to Denizli than to the city of

Afyon Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along t ...

itself. It is the seat of Başmakçı District.İlçe Belediyesi
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 12 January 2023. Its population is 4,993 (2021). The mayor is Halil Özcan ( CHP).

History

The history of Başmakçı goes back to the Hittite era, 1750-1200 BC. It then became a colony of the Phrygians of nearby Dinar. It was subsequently possessed by

Lydians The Lydians (known as ''Sparda'' to the Achaemenids, Old Persian cuneiform 𐎿𐎱𐎼𐎭) were Anatolian people living in Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an Indo-European language of the ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ns,

Ancient Macedonians The Macedonians ( el, Μακεδόνες, ''Makedónes'') were an ancient tribe that lived on the alluvial plain around the rivers Haliacmon and lower Axios in the northeastern part of mainland Greece. Essentially an ancient Greek people ...

and

Seleucids The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the M ...

, the kings of

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on th ...

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and then Byzantines. Turkish tribes arrived in

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

in 1071, and one of these was the Başmakçı, who came through

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

, settling near Tarsus on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, where there is a village called Başmakçı still today, and then sometime between 1100 and 1200 moving west to settle in this district of Afyon that has been called Başmakçı ever since. This part of Anatolia was subsequently controlled by the

Germiyan dynasty The Germiyanids ( tr, Germiyanoğulları Beyliği or ''Germiyan Beyliği'') was a prominent Anatolian beylik established by the Oghuz Turkish tribes (probably the Afshar tribe) after the decline of Sultanate of Rûm. However, while the be ...

, who gave the town as dowry when marrying their daughter to the Ottoman Sultan

Bayezid I Bayezid I ( ota, بايزيد اول, tr, I. Bayezid), also known as Bayezid the Thunderbolt ( ota, link=no, یلدیرم بايزيد, tr, Yıldırım Bayezid, link=no; – 8 March 1403) was the Ottoman Sultan from 1389 to 1402. He adopted ...

. Thus Başmakçı, a village of 47 families at the time, became an Ottoman land. Başmakçı was badly damaged in an earthquake in August 1892 when 300 homes were destroyed. However, no one was killed, as it was harvest time and all were in the fields. Başmakçı was not occupied during the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

but many of its sons died in that war and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

previous to it.

Başmakçı today

Başmakçı is well-established as the leading egg producing area in Turkey.

References

External links

Basmakci in Afyonkarahisar
Populated places in Afyonkarahisar Province Başmakçı District Towns in Turkey {{Afyonkarahisar-geo-stub