The Fall of Gallipoli ( tr, , lit=Conquest of Gelibolu) was the siege and capture of the

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...

fortress and peninsula, by the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

, in March 1354. After suffering a half-century of defeats at the hands of the Ottomans, the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

had lost nearly all of its possessions 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 re ...

, except

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. Access to the Aegean and Marmara seas meant that the Ottomans could now implement the conquest of the southern Balkans, and could advance further north into the

Serbian Empire The Serbian Empire ( sr, / , ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expanded the state. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

Conquest

During the Byzantine civil war of 1352–57, Turkish mercenaries allied with the emperor

John VI Kantakouzenos John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzene ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Ángelos Palaiológos Kantakouzēnós''; la, Johannes Cantacuzenus; – 15 June 1383) was a Byzantine Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under ...

plundered most of Byzantine Thrace and, around 1352, were grantedNicolle, David and Hook, Adam.
Ottoman Fortifications 1300–1710
'' Osprey Publishing, 2010. Accessed 3 Sept 2011. the small fortress of Tzympe near Gallipoli. On 2 March 1354, the area was struck by an earthquake that destroyed hundreds of villages and towns in the area. Ostrogorsky, George. ''History of the Byzantine State,'' pp. 530–537. Rutgers University Press (New Jersey), 1969. Nearly every building in Gallipoli was destroyed, causing the

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 ...

inhabitants to evacuate the city. Within a month, Süleyman Pasha seized the site, quickly fortifying it and populating it with Turkish families brought over from Anatolia.

Aftermath

John VI offered cash payments to the

Ottoman sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its hei ...

Orhan Orhan Ghazi ( ota, اورخان غازی; tr, Orhan Gazi, also spelled Orkhan, 1281 – March 1362) was the second bey of the Ottoman Beylik from 1323/4 to 1362. He was born in Söğüt, as the son of Osman I. In the early stages of hi ...

to vacate the city, but was refused. The sultan reportedly said he had not taken the city by force and could not give up something which had been "granted to him by

Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...

". Panic spread throughout

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 (" ...

as many believed that the Turks would soon be coming for the city itself. Because of this, Kantakouzenos's position became unstable, and he was overthrown in November 1354. After Suleyman took over Gallipoli it is reported that: "Where there were churches he destroyed them or converted them to mosques,” reported an Ottoman chronicler: “Where there were bells, Suleiman broke them up and cast them into fires. Thus, in place of bells there were now muezzins." After being Cleansed of all Christian “filth,” Gallipoli became, as a later Ottoman bey boasted: Gallipoli was to become the major bridgehead into Europe through which the Ottomans would facilitate further expansion into Europe. The Turks launched "a campaign of terror" throughout the countryside and Within less than ten years, nearly all of Byzantine Thrace fell to the Turks, including

Adrianople Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian border ...

Gregory Palamas Gregory Palamas ( el, Γρηγόριος Παλαμᾶς; c. 1296 – 1359) was a Byzantine Greek theologian and Eastern Orthodox cleric of the late Byzantine period. A monk of Mount Athos (modern Greece) and later archbishop of Thessaloniki, he ...

, an Orthodox metropolitan from Thessaloniki that was a captive in Gallipoli writes that:https://books.google.com/books?id=kUzFBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT237&dq=live+by+the+bow,+the+sword,+and+debauchery,+finding+pleasure+in+taking+slaves,+devoting+themselves+to+murder,+pillage,+spoil,+and+not+only+do+they+commit+these+crimes,+but+even%E2%80%94what+an+aberration%E2%80%94they+believe+that+God+approves+them!&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj46ICSnIf7AhXuAzQIHfpuBeMQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=live%20by%20the%20bow%2C%20the%20sword%2C%20and%20debauchery%2C%20finding%20pleasure%20in%20taking%20slaves%2C%20devoting%20themselves%20to%20murder%2C%20pillage%2C%20spoil%2C%20and%20not%20only%20do%20they%20commit%20these%20crimes%2C%20but%20even%E2%80%94what%20an%20aberration%E2%80%94they%20believe%20that%20God%20approves%20them!&f=false

References

{{Coord, 40.4133, N, 26.6711, E, source:wikidata, display=title Gallipoli 1354 Conflicts in 1354 1350s in the Byzantine Empire 1354 in the Ottoman Empire History of Çanakkale Province Gelibolu 1354 in Europe