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Mustafapaşa, formerly known as Sinasos (
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: Σινασός), is a small town in the Ürgüp district of
Nevşehir province Nevşehir Province ( tr, , from the Persian compound نو شهر ''Now-shahr'' meaning "new city") is a province in central Turkey with its capital in Nevşehir. Its adjacent provinces are Kırşehir to the northwest, Aksaray to the southwest, N ...
,
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 ...
. At it lies to the west of Gomeda valley and is away from Ürgüp and away from
Nevşehir Nevşehir (from the Persian compound ''Now-shahr'' meaning "new city"), formerly Neapolis (Ancient Greek: Νεάπολις) and Muşkara, is a largely modern city and the capital district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia Region of ...
town. In 2011 its population was 3,000. The Mustafa Paşa after whom the modern town is named was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the great war leader and first president of Turkey. Like most of Cappadocia, Mustafapaşa used to depend for a living on agriculture., especially grape-growing. However, it lies within the region of
Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...
, and increasingly depends on tourism for its living with new hotels opening all the time. The town centre is home to a vocational high school party housed in a 19th-century ''medrese''.


History

Alongside its Turkish Muslim population, 19th-century Mustafapaşa also had a large Greek community and was known as Sinasos. Many of the Greeks were actually what became now as
Karamanlides The Karamanlides ( el, Καραμανλήδες; tr, Karamanlılar), also known as Karamanli Greeks or simply Karamanlis, are a traditionally Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox people native to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of Anatolia. The ...
(Christians who spoke Turkish but wrote it using the Greek alphabet). Since it was hard to make a living in
Central Anatolia The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray. Located in Central Turkey, it is borde ...
, many Sinasos Greeks migrated to
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
/
Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...
at this time and made a name for themselves as traders in seafood, especially caviare. Often they sent money back to their families in Sinasos and some of this was used to build the grand mansions that still survive in the town (and are rapidly being converted into hotels). In 1924, however, according to the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne the entire Christian population of Sinasos was forced to leave for Greece in the
Population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...
. They mostly resettled in
Nea Sinasos Nea Sinasos (Greek: Νέα Σινασός) is a village in the northern part of the island of Euboea in Greece. It is situated northeast of Istiaia, on the road to Artemisio. It was founded in the mid-1920s by refugees originating from Sinasos (pr ...
(New Sinasos), a town in the northern part of the island of
Euboea Evia (, ; el, Εύβοια ; grc, Εὔβοια ) or Euboia (, ) is the second-largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from Boeotia in mainland Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait (only at its narrowest poin ...
in
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
. In their place came Macedonian Muslims and Turks from
Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria regional unit, in the geographic region of Macedonia. It is situated on a promontory on the weste ...
, a town in northern Greece. After the population exchange years the town lost much of its former prosperity although it is now well on the way to recovery.


Attractions

Amongst the many fine stone houses in Mustafapaşa one of the best is the Old Greek House which now houses a popular restaurant. Its upstairs floor contains one of the secular murals which are a feature of both Ürgüp and Mustafapaşa, and which live on as a reminder of the lost minority populations. The first series of the hit television series ''Asmalı Konak'' was filmed in and around the Old Greek House in 2002. In the town centre, the large 19th-century Church of Sts Helena and Constantine, with a grapevine carved around its entrance, is another reminder of the lost populations. It is occasionally used for concerts. Cappadocia is known for its frescoed rock-cut churches and the Church of St Basil in Mustafapaşa is an example of one such church that continued in use into the 19th century when it was recut and repainted. Several more traditional rock-cut churches can be found in the valley running out from Mustafapaşa which is easily accessible on foot. Most striking is the Monastery of St Nicholas which was restored in 2012 and, unfortunately, contains modern icons brought from Greece. It also has a grand entrance which was built after the law prohibiting repairs to old churches was repealed in 1856. The Church of St Stephen contains a rock lectern supported by a stone eagle while the Sinasos Church has a stone pulpit, these features almost certainly improvements paid for from the sale of seafood in Constantinople. In the nearby Gomeda Valley there is also the early 10th-century frescoed Church of the Holy Apostles.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mustafapasa, Nevsehir Towns in Turkey Populated places in Nevşehir Province Ürgüp Former Greek towns in Turkey Pomak communities in Turkey