Aliçopehlivan (formerly Koyunyeri) is a village in the
Ä°psala District
Ä°psala District is a Districts of Turkey, district of the Edirne Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town of Ä°psala. of
Edirne Province
Edirne Province () is a Turkish province located in East Thrace. Part of European Turkey, it is one of only three provinces located entirely within continental Europe. Its area is 6,145 km2, and its population is 414,714 (2022). Edirne Province ...
,
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 1,782 (2022).
It is situated in the plains of Rumeli (
East Thrace
East Thrace or Eastern Thrace, also known as Turkish Thrace or European Turkey, is the part of Turkey that is geographically in Southeast Europe. Turkish Thrace accounts for 3.03% of Turkey's land area and 15% of its population. The largest c ...
). The distance to
Ä°psala
Ä°psala (; ) is a town in Edirne Province in northwestern Turkey. It is the seat of Ä°psala District.[Edirne
Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...]
is . During the
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878)
The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...
, the Muslim population (
Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...
and
Pomaks
Pomaks (; Macedonian: Помаци ; ) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey, and northeastern Greece. The strong ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is recognized officially as Bulgarian Muslims by th ...
) of the villages
Lukovit
Lukovit ( ) is a town in northern Bulgaria, part of Lovech Province. It is situated on both banks of the Zlatna Panega between the Danubian Plain and the foot of Stara Planina. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 9,630.[Koynare
Koynare (, also transliterated as ''Kojnare'', ) is a town in northern Bulgaria, part of Cherven Bryag Municipality, Pleven Province. It lies on the left bank of the Iskar River, at one of the river's meanders. As of December 2009, the town had a p ...]
(both in modern
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
) escaped from the Russian armies and were settled in the newly founded Koyunyeri (literally "place of sheep"), which refers to the ranges for sheep around the village and also bears semblance to the refugees' old village's name, Koynare.
A wrestler named Aliço, who won the
Kırkpınar
Kırkpınar (Turkish language, Turkish for "forty springs") is a Turkey, Turkish oil wrestling (yağlı güreş) tournament where pehlivans (wrestlers) compete for three days. It is held annually, usually in late June, near Edirne, Turkey sinc ...
oil wrestling tournament for 27 consecutive years, was a resident of Koyunyeri, and in 1998, the village was renamed after Aliço (Aliçopehlivan literally means "wrestler Aliço").
Today, most of village residents either work in the dairy farms or in rice fields.
References
Villages in Ä°psala District
Pomak communities in Turkey
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