Mandres ( gr, Μάνδρες, bg, Хамбаркьой) is a village South of the City of

Kilkis Kilkis ( el, Κιλκίς) is a city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2011 there were 22,914 people living in the city proper, 28,745 people living in the municipal unit, and 51,926 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city o ...

in the Kilkis regional unit, Greece. It is part of the municipal unit

Gallikos Gallikos ( el, Γαλλικός) is a village and a former municipality in the Kilkis regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kilkis, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has a ...

and has a population of 475 people (2011). Until 1926, Mandres was known as Ampar Kioi ( el, Αμπάρ Κιόι). ''Pandektis: Name Changes of Settlements in Greece'', compiled by th
Institute for Neohellenic Research
/ref> The name was also written as Ambar Köy.

History

Ambar Koy was mainly a Slavic speaking settlement and its population intermarried with other Slavic speaking villages in the area. In the early 1900s,

Vasil Kanchov Vasil Kanchov ( bg, Васил Кънчов, Vasil Kanchov) (26 July 1862 – 6 February 1902) was a Bulgarian geographer, ethnographer and politician. Biography Vasil Kanchov was born in Vratsa. Upon graduating from High school in Lom ...

stated that the local population was composed of 300

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...

and 66

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

, whereas Hilmi Pasha described the village as inhabited only by 195 Bulgarians. During the period of the Balkan Wars, the

Greek army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the ...

destroyed the settlement and it was repopulated by people from the village of

Mandritsa Mandritsa ( bg, Мандрица, "Small dairy"; ) is a village in southernmost Bulgaria, part of Ivaylovgrad municipality, Haskovo Province. It is known as the only Albanian village in Bulgaria. As of 14 December 2006, Mandritsa has a population ...

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 Macedo ...

. Until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, relatives from both villages would visit each other. In the 1980s only middle aged and elderly generations within the village had knowledge of an Albanian dialect. The Mandres Albanian dialect is similar to that of Mandritsa and sharply differs from other varieties of the

Albanian language Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europ ...

. For example the

gender system Gender systems are the social structures that establish the number of genders and their associated gender roles in every society. A ''gender role'' is "everything that a person says and does to indicate to others or to the self the degree that ...

(masculine and feminine) present in all varieties of Albanian has disappeared from the Mandres Albanian dialect due to influence from the

Turkish language Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...

when the population in the past lived near

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 ...

References

Populated places in Kilkis (regional unit) Albanian communities in Greece {{Kilkis div