Süleymanlı, historically Zeitun (), Zeytun, Zeytunfimis or Zeytünfimis, is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Onikişubat,

Kahramanmaraş Province Kahramanmaraş Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 14,520 km2, and its population is 1,177,436 (2022). Its provincial capital is the city o ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 475 (2022). The village has an ancient history as a center of settlement. It was established on the Zeytun Stream in a narrow valley between the

Ceyhan River The Ceyhan River (historically Pyramos or Pyramus (), Leucosyrus () or Jihun) is a river in Anatolia in the south of Turkey. Course of the river The Ceyhan River (Pyramus) has its source (known as ''Söğütlü Dere'') at a location called '' ...

and the Göksun Stream in the west of Maraş, between the high mountains and north of the center of Kahramanmaraş. The surface of the region has a very indented and protruding surface as it is cut by many streams with abundant water and strong flow. For this reason, the houses have an irregular appearance of leaning on steep slopes.

Name and etymology

The name Zeitun comes from the Arabic word for olive. Another name for the town and the surrounding district used by Armenians is Ulnia. After the Turkish government had already changed the town's name to Yeni Şehir (), the town was renamed Süleymanlı on 8 June 1915 after the Turkish military commander Süleyman Bey who was killed fighting Armenian resistance against the Armenian Genocide in the town in 1915.

History

Medieval period

The monastery of Bārid, a major

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

monastery, was built close to the village in 969 and existed until around 1213. According to folk tradition, Armenians first came to Zeitun from the medieval Armenian capital of Ani after its fall in 1064. In the twelfth century the region was primarily settled by Armenians and belonged for some time to the

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, also known as Cilician Armenia, Lesser Armenia, Little Armenia or New Armenia, and formerly known as the Armenian Principality of Cilicia, was an Armenian state formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenian ...

, with a Roupenid fortress named Inkuzut first mentioned in 1199.

Early Modern period

The

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

of Zeytun and the surrounding district historically enjoyed a high degree of autonomy owing to their defensible position in the mountains. This autonomy was acknowledged by an edict of the Ottoman Sultan

Murad IV Murad IV (, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; , 27 July 1612 – 8 February 1640) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad I ...

made in 1618, which gave the inhabitants a high degree of autonomy in exchange for a yearly tax. In the 19th century, Zeitun was one of the few places where a ruling Armenian nobility still existed, consisting of four ''ishkhans'' (barons or princes) ruling the town and the surrounding villages. According to one contemporary Armenian source, the town consisted of 1,500 homes inhabited by Armenians in 1900, while 24 Turkish families had lived in the town before leaving in 1896. The inhabitants fought with Ottoman forces multiple times from 1780 to 1895 to preserve their autonomy. The most notable rebellions in the town occurred in

1862 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos Island, in modern-day Nigeria. * January 6 – Second French intervention in Mexico, French intervention in Mexico: Second French Empire, French, Spanish and British ...

1895 Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

and

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

. Although Ottoman forces were unable to capture the town during the 1862 rebellion, the residents of Zeitun were unable to preserve their traditional autonomy after the 1860s. The rebellion of 1895 was incited by revolutionaries of the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party, and was ended by the mediation of the European powers after four months of fighting. The 1915 rebellion, also led by the Hunchaks, occurred during the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

. The town was captured and its inhabitants were deported to Syria. Some Armenians returned to Zeitun during the occupation of Cilicia by the French army from 1918 to 1921. However, when the region was ceded back to Turkey, the Armenians were forced to flee once again.

Notable natives

* Smpad Piurad, Armenian intellectual, writer, and public activist

References