Foça is a town and district in

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 ...

İzmir Province İzmir Province ( tr, İzmir ili) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey in western Anatolia, situated along the Aegean coast. Its capital is the city of İzmir, which is in itself composed of the province's central 11 distri ...

, on the Aegean coast. The town of Foça is situated at about northwest of

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

's city center. The district also has a township with its own municipality named

Yenifoça Yenifoça (meaning "New Foça" in Turkish, the words sometimes spelled separately as "''Yeni Foça''") is a suburb of the Foça district, in Turkey's İzmir Province. The town of Yenifoça is situated at about north by northwest of İzmir city c ...

(literally ''"New Foça"''), also along the shore and at a distance of from Foça proper. For this reason, Foça itself is locally often called as Eskifoça (''"Old Foça"'') in daily parlance. The town is built on the site of the ancient city of

Phocaea Phocaea or Phokaia (Ancient Greek: Φώκαια, ''Phókaia''; modern-day Foça in Turkey) was an ancient Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northern ...

( el, Φώκαια). Foça pictures 2

History

The town of

(Φώκαια) was founded by ancient Greeks. Phocaea, named after the seals living in nearby islands, was founded by the

Aeolian Greeks Aeolian commonly refers to things related to either of two Greek mythological figures: * Aeolus (son of Hippotes), ruler of the winds * Aeolus (son of Hellen), son of Hellen and eponym of the Aeolians * Aeolians, an ancient Greek tribe thought to ...

in the 11th century BC.

Ionian Greek Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek. History The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland ac ...

settlement in Phocaea, which was one of the most important settlements of Ionia at that time, started in the 9th century BC. Phocaeans, known as master sailors in history, also established many colonies in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea with their engineering development and success. Some of the important colonies that they had established in history are:

Massalia Massalia (Greek: Μασσαλία; Latin: Massilia; modern Marseille) was an ancient Greek colony founded ca. 600 BC on the Mediterranean coast of present-day France, east of the river Rhône, by Ionian Greek settlers from Phocaea, in Western An ...

, modern Marseille; Amisos in the Black Sea (now Samsun);

Lampsakos Lampsacus (; grc, Λάμψακος, translit=Lampsakos) was an ancient Greek city strategically located on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad. An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitt ...

in the Dardanelles (now Lapseki);

Methymna Mithymna () ( el, Μήθυμνα, also sometimes spelled ''Methymna'') is a town and former municipality on the island of Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2019 local government reform it is part of the municipality of West Lesbos, of whic ...

(now Molyvos) on Lesbos; and Elea, now Velia (Italy); Alalia (Corsica). In addition, Phocaeans were known as ones of the first in Ionia to mint "

electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...

" coins using natural gold-silver mixture. Of course, this civilized progress affected many civilizations of that time and attracted them to Anatolia. Phocaea was taken over by the Genoese in 1275 as a fief from the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

, and was an active Port during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, principally due to the region's rich

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , where is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium or a ...

reserves. The alum mines of Phocaea were conceded earlier by the Byzantines in 1267 to the Genoese brothers

Benedetto Benedetto is a common Italian name, the equivalent of the English name Benedict. Notable people named Benedetto include: People with the given name * Benedetto Accolti (disambiguation), several people * Benedetto Aloi (1935–2011), American ...

and Manuele Zaccaria, who founded the Lordship of Phocaea. The Genoese controlled the city even during the Ottoman era due to the lease they had gained from the Byzantines in 1275. Another important Byzantine concession to the Genoese through dowry was the nearby island of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) 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. It is separated from Anatolia, Asia Minor ...

, given to the Gattilusio family as a result of the marriage between

Francesco I Gattilusio Francesco I Gattilusio (died 6 August 1384) was the first member of the Gattilusio family to rule the Aegean island of Lesbos as a vassal of the Byzantine emperor. Freebooter The Gattilusio family came from the Republic of Genoa. The parents of F ...

and Maria Palaiologina, sister of Byzantine emperor

John V Palaiologos John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, ''Iōánnēs Palaiológos''; 18 June 1332 – 16 February 1391) was Byzantine emperor from 1341 to 1391, with interruptions. Biography John V was the son of E ...

) in 1355. The possessions of the Gattilusio family eventually grew to include, among others, the islands of

Imbros Imbros or İmroz Adası, officially Gökçeada (lit. ''Heavenly Island'') since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1 ...

Samothrace Samothrace (also known as Samothraki, el, Σαμοθράκη, ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,859 (2011 ...

Lemnos Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμνος) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean region. The p ...

and

Thasos Thasos or Thassos ( el, Θάσος, ''Thásos'') is a Greek island in the North Aegean Sea. It is the northernmost major Greek island, and 12th largest by area. The island has an area of and a population of about 13,000. It forms a separate re ...

, and the city of Aenos (modern

Enez Enez is a town and a district of Edirne Province, in Thrace, Turkey. The ancient name of the town was Ainos ( el, Αίνος), Latinised as Aenus. The mayor is Özkan Günenç ( CHP). The population is 10,886 as of 2018. Enez consists of an old t ...

.) From this position, they were heavily involved in the mining and marketing of alum, useful in

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

production and a profitable trade controlled by the Genoese. The city was mostly populated by Greeks until the

Massacre of Phocaea The massacre of Phocaea ( el, Η Σφαγή της Φώκαιας, ''I Sfagí tis Fókaias''; Turkish: ''Foça Katliamı'') occurred in June 1914, as part of the ethnic cleansing policies of the Ottoman Empire that included exile, massacre and 1 ...

carried out by the Turks during the

Greek genocide The Greek genocide (, ''Genoktonia ton Ellinon''), which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christians, Christian Ottoman Greeks, Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia which was carried out mainly during World War I ...

. As a result, a large portion of the historic city was destroyed, and all the old churches were destroyed and mosques were built on top of them and the town subsequently became known as Foça. People who belonged to the local networks were radically different in their perception of the Greeks compared to the muhacirs who were alien to the local networks. The local communities favored the Greeks. Also, when the Greeks left, due to the massacre, their houses were occupied by

muhacirs Muhacir or Muhajir (from ar, مهاجر, translit=muhājir, lit=migrant) are the estimated 10 million Ottoman Muslim citizens, and their descendants born after the onset of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, mostly Turks but also Albanians, ...

(forced Muslim migrants). Some of these Greeks returned later (1919) to their houses, when the Greek army arrived at the city. The muhacirs that lived there ran away when the Greeks returned. When the Greek army defeated (1922), according to a testimony of a muhacir, the Greeks who tried to escape with boats or other things "were stopped and the punishments they deserved were delivered to them in and around the harbor of Eski Foça". ''Eski'' Foça stretches along two bays; a larger one named Büyükdeniz (''"Greater Sea"'') and a smaller cove within that large one, named Küçükdeniz (''"Smaller Sea"''), where the medieval Foça Castle is also located. Many parts of the district are under strict environmental protection, due to the value of the flora and the fauna, and the beauty of the small bays and coves, especially between Foça and Yenifoça. Therefore, a judicious way to get to know the district would be by boat tours regularly organized in partance from the town center. Because of the protective measures, new constructions are not permitted in many parts of the district and Foça is set to preserve its unique characteristic as composed principally of old houses. The construction project for a 300-boat capacity

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

in Foça is recently tendered and started, upon the completion of which the town is expected to open to more active international tourism. Foça is the site of one of three

marine protected area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conserv ...

s established in Turkey for the preservation of the

Mediterranean monk seal The Mediterranean monk seal (''Monachus monachus'') is a monk seal belonging to the family Phocidae. , it is estimated that fewer than 700 individuals survive in three or four isolated subpopulations in the Mediterranean, (especially) in the Ae ...

, a heavily endangered species of sea mammals.Monk Seal Fact File
/ref> The

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces ( tr, ), or Turkish Navy ( tr, ) is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was establi ...

maintains at Foça the home base of its two

special operations Special operations (S.O.) are military activities conducted, according to NATO, by "specially designated, organized, selected, trained, and equipped forces using unconventional techniques and modes of employment". Special operations may include ...

units,

Su Altı Savunma The Underwater Defence ( tr, Su Altı Savunma), or SAS, is the one and only EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) unit of the Turkish Navy, based in the Foça Naval Base near İzmir, on the Aegean coast of Turkey The missions of the Su Altı Savunm ...

(SAS) and Su Altı Taarruz (SAT).

References

External links

Foça guide with photos

Foça picture gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foca İzmir Districts of İzmir Province Populated coastal places in Turkey Seaside resorts in Turkey Former Greek towns in Turkey Populated places in İzmir Province Tourist attractions in İzmir Province Important Bird Areas of Turkey Places of the Greek genocide Cittaslow

History

See also

References

External links