Ayvalık (), formerly also known as Kydonies (), is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Balıkesir Province Balıkesir Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean Sea, Aegean. Its area is 14,583 km ...

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 area is 305 km², and its population is 75,126 (2024). It is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of

. The town centre is connected to

Cunda Island __NOTOC__ Cunda Island, also called Alibey Island, (), Greek Moschonisi ( or Μοσχόνησος), is the largest of the Ayvalık Islands archipelago in Turkey, which was historically called the ''Εκατόνησα'' (''Hekatonisa'') or '' ...

by a causeway and is surrounded by the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

of Ayvalık Islands, which face the nearby

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

island of

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

. Under the Ottomans Ayvalık had a flourishing olive-oil-production industry and the chimneys of the old factories can still be seen about town. In modern times production has revived in a smaller-scale boutique format. Daily

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

operate between Ayvalık and

Mytilene Mytilene (; ) is the capital city, capital of the Greece, Greek island of Lesbos, and its port. It is also the capital and administrative center of the North Aegean Region, and hosts the headquarters of the University of the Aegean. It was fo ...

on nearby Lesbos Island,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, during the summer with a reduced service in winter. The nearest airport to Ayvalık is Balıkesir Koca Seyit Airport (EDO) near Edremit.

Names

() was an ancient Aeolian Greek port-town. Its name was changed to Ayvalık ('Quince orchard') in the Ottoman era. Before 1923 the town was predominantly Greek, and although the Turks used its Turkish name, the Greeks used both the old name ''Kydonies'' and the new one Hellenised to (). The Greeks knew Cunda Island as ''Moschonisia'' (literally "The Perfumed Islands"'')'' while the Turks called it Alibey Island (''Alibey Adası'').

Geography

Ayvalık is the southernmost district of Balıkesir province and lies between Edremit Gulf and Dikili Gulf of the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

. Its centre is situated on a narrow coastal plain surrounded by low hills to the east which are covered with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

and

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

trees. Ayvalık is surrounded by the

of the Ayvalık Islands (the largest of which is

) in the west, and by a narrow peninsula in the south named the Hakkıbey Peninsula. South of Ayvalık are Altınova and Küçükköy/Sarımsaklı which have long pristine beaches. To the north are Gömeç, Burhaniye and Edremit. Dikili district of

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Province is to the south of Ayvalık. To the east of Ayvalık lies Bergama, with the remains of ancient

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north s ...

. The Greek island of

is west of Ayvalık and connected to it by ferry.

Climate

The town has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Csa'') with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

History

Prehistory and classical antiquity

Archeological studies in the region have shown that Ayvalık and its environs were inhabited in the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

era. Joseph Thacher Clarke believed that he had identified Ayvalık as the site of Kisthene, which was mentioned by

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

as a ruinous place beside a harbour beyond Cape Pyrrha. However, Engin Beksaç of Trakya University preferred to site Kisthene at Kız Çiftlik, near the centre of Gömeç. In his survey of the prehistoric and protohistoric settlements on the southern side of the Gulf of Adramytteion (Edremit) carried out in the 1990s and early 2000s, Beksaç studied the Ayvalık region. The survey identified several different settlements near the centre of Ayvalık which appear to relate to the Early Classical period. However, some settlements near the centre of Altınova were related to the prehistoric period, especially the Bronze and Iron Ages. Kortukaya was identified in the survey as one of the most important settlements in the area and one that aids in the understanding of the interaction between the peoples of the interior and of the coast. The same is true of Yeni Yeldeğirmeni, another settlement near the centre of Altınova. Beksaç identified traces of a hill fort on Çıplak Island (Chalkys). Some Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age pottery fragments related to the

Aeolians The Aeolians (; , ''Aioleis'') were one of the four major tribes into which Greeks divided themselves in the ancient period (along with the Achaeans, Dorians and Ionians).. They originated in the eastern parts of the Greek mainland, notably in ...

were also found here. Two tiny settlements, near the centre of Ayvalık, formed part of the ''peraia'' of

Pordoselene, on the eastern side of

, near the sea, was another important settlement in Antiquity. All the archaeological data was related to the Classical and Medieval Ages. During the Byzantine period, the constant threat posed by Arab and Turkish

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

prevented the islet settlements from growing larger. Only Cunda Island could maintain a higher level of habitation as it is the largest and the closest islet to the mainland.

Early Turkish periods

After the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

period, the region came under the rule of the

Anatolian beylik Anatolian or anatolica may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia * Ancient Anatolians, Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages * Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational in ...

of Karasi in the 13th century. Later it was annexed to the territory of the Ottoman beylik (principality), which would become the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

1770 Battle of Çeşme and aftermath

In 1770 the Ottoman navy suffered a major defeat against the Russians at Çeşme. The Ottoman admiral Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha and the men who survived the disaster were lodged on their way back to the capital

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

by an Ayvalık priest. Hasan Pasha did not forget the kindness shown to his sailors in their hour of need, and when he became

Grand Vizier Grand vizier (; ; ) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. It was first held by officials in the later Abbasid Caliphate. It was then held in the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Soko ...

, he granted virtual autonomy to the Greeks of Ayvalık in 1773, paving the way for it to become an important centre of cultures for that community during the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Until 1922 Ayvalık remained an almost entirely Greek settlement.

1821 Greek struggle for independence

The then British Ambassador Lord Strangford reported that Osman Pasha accepted the submission of the Aivaliotes, until he could get fresh instructions from Constantinople. However a squadron of Greek insurgents appeared, persuading the inhabitants to hope that it had come to their rescue, and that another revolt might meet with greater success. They accordingly rose en masse, and about fifteen hundred Turks were killed. But the appearance of the squadron turned out to have been merely accidental and it soon sailed away. The Turks then recovered their courage, and an indiscriminate massacre of the Greeks followed. In 1891, there were 21,666 Greeks and 180 Turks living in the town of Ayvalık., url= https://www.virtual-genocide-memorial.de/region/the-black-sea-marmara-and-aegean-littorals-eastern-thrace-and-central-anatolia/bursa-prousa-vilayet-province/sancak-karesi-karasi-balikesir/kaza-ayvalik-aivali-%CE%BA%CF%85%CE%B4%CF%89%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B5%CF%82-kydonies/

World War I and its aftermath

As of 1920, Ayvalık's population was estimated at 60,000. Its small port was used to export

soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

, olive oil, animal hides and

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

. The British described Aivali (Ayvalık) and nearby Edremid ( Edremit) as having the finest

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

in Asia Minor and reported large exports of it to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. This industry suffered during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

due to the deportation of the local Christian population (some of whom fled to the nearby Greek islands), who were the main producers of olive oil. Alarmed at the decline of the industry, the Turkish government brought back 4,500 Greek families in order to resume olive oil production. But although these repatriated Greeks were paid wages, they were not allowed to live in their own homes and were kept under official surveillance Ayvalik III

On 29 May 1919 the town was occupied by the Greek Army, only to be reoccupied by the Turkish forces under the command of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

on 15 September 1922. Some of the population managed to escape to

. However, many of the local men were seized by the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces () is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for Army, land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Significant campaigns since the ...

and died on

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...

es into the interior of

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. Among the victims were the Christian clergy and the local metropolitan bishop, Gregory Orologas, as well as the novelist Elias Venezis, who was one of the few to survive and wrote about his experience in his book Number 31328. Following the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

, the Greek population and their properties in the town were exchanged for a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

population from

, and other formerly held Ottoman Turkish lands, under the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. Most of the new population consisted of

Greek Muslims Greek Muslims, also known as Grecophone Muslims, are Muslims of Greeks, Greek ethnic origin whose adoption of Islam (and often the Turkish language and identity in more recent times) dates either from the contact of early Arabic dynasties of th ...

from

(Lesbos),

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

and

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

, while the surviving Greeks of Ayvalik settled in

and Aigaleo, Greece. Until recently Greek could still be heard being spoken in the streets. Many of the town's older mosques are Greek Orthodox churches that have been given a new use. Paterica_Cove

Modern Ayvalık

Today, the population of Ayvalık is close to 80,000, which significantly increases during the summer due to tourism. Ayvalık and its environs are famous for high quality

production, which provides an important source of income for the local population. Ayvalık and the numerous islets encircling the bay area are popular holiday resorts. The largest and most important of these islets is

(Alibey Island) which is connected to Lale Island, and thence to the mainland, by a

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

and

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

built in the late 1960s. This was the first bridge in Turkey to connect lands separated by a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

. Both Ayvalık and Cunda Island are famous for their

seafood Seafood is any form of Marine life, sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including Fish as food, fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of Mollusca, molluscs (e.g., bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters, and mussel ...

restaurants which line the seashore. View on Ayvalik

Ayvalık also has two of the longest sandy

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

es – ''Sarımsaklı'' and ''Altınova'' beaches – in Turkey which extend as far as the Dikili district of

nearly to the south. In recent years, Ayvalık has also become increasingly attractive to scuba divers. Ayvalık International Music Academy (AIMA) was established in September 1998.Ayvalık International Music Academy (AIMA)
/ref> Students receive master-instructed classes for

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

and

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

. USA-based

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and Turkey's Koç University run a Harvard-Koç University Intensive Ottoman & Turkish Summer School on Cunda Island every summer. Ayvalık is also a member of the

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

-based European Association of Historic Towns and Regions (EAHTR).

Composition

There are 34

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Ayvalık District: * 150 Evler * Akçapınar * Ali Çetin Kaya * Altınova * Bağyüzü * Beşiktepe * Bulutçeşme * Çakmak * Çamoba * Fethiye * Fevzipaşa-Vehbibey * Gazi Kemal Paşa * Hacıveliler * Hamdibey * Hayrettinpaşa * İsmetpaşa * Karaayıt * Kazım Karabekir * Kırcalar * Küçükköy * Mithatpaşa * Murateli * Mutlu * Namıkkemal * Odaburnu * Sahilkent * Sakarya * Sefaçamlık * Tıfıllar * Türközü * Üçkabaağaç * Yeniköy * Yenimahalle * Zekibey

Attractions

In Ayvalık and Cunda

Both Ayvalık and Cunda have a rich heritage of old stone houses built by the lost Greek population and still often called collectively ''Rum Evleri'' (Greek Houses). There are also a number of large and imposing Greek Orthodox churches, some of which have been converted into mosques. In the centre of town the Ayios Yannis Kilise became the Saatlı Cami (Clock Mosque) while Ayios Yorgis became the Çınarlı Cami (Plane Tree Mosque). The Taksiyarhis Kilise (Church of the Archangels) is now a museum. The Faneromanı (Ayazma) Kilise is derelict. On Cunda there is another fine Taksiyarhis Kilise (Church of the Archangels) which was very obviously once at the very heart of the local community. Cunda Island has a number of ''meyhanes'' with a very Greek feel to them as well as the Taş Kahve (Stone Teahouse) overlooking the harbour. In the back streets of Ayvalık the Şeytanın Kahvesi (Devil's Teahouse) is similarly Greek in atmosphere. It featured in a Turkish TV series called ''İki Yaka Bir İsmail'' (Two Continents, One İsmail). Both Ayvalık itself and Cunda Island have attractive fishing harbours full of colourful boats. A few restaurants sell the ''papalina'' (whitebait) which is a local speciality.

Around Ayvalık

The ruins of three important ancient cities lie within a short drive of Ayvalık:

Assos Assos (; , ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city near today's Behramkale () or Behram for short, which most people still call by its ancient name of Assos. It is located on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast in the Ayvacık, Çanakkale, Ayvac ...

and

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

are to the north, while

(modern Bergama) is to the east. Mount Ida ( Turkish: ''Kaz Dağı''), which played an important role in

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient h ...

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

and folk tales, is also near Ayvalık (to the north) and can be seen from many points in and around the town centre. The Gulf of Edremit and the coastal resort towns of Dikili (near ancient Atarneus) and

Foça Foça is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of İzmir Province, Turkey. Its area is 251 km2, and its population is 34,946 (2022). The town of Foça is situated at about northwest of İzmir's city center on the Aegean Sea, Aege ...

(ancient

Phocaea Phocaea or Phokaia (Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: Φώκαια, ''Phókaia''; modern-day Foça in Turkey) was an ancient Ionian Ancient Greece, Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Colonies in antiquity, Greek colonists from Phoc ...

) are also within driving distance for daily excursions.

Olive cultivation

Ayvalık is said to have had millennia of experience in olive cultivation and now has over 2.5 million trees covering or 41.3% of the region. Hundreds of these trees are over 500 years old. Commercial production began in the 1950s and became prominent in the 1960s. The area is now the second largest producer of olives in Turkey. The ''Ayvalık'' olive (24% and a good pollinator) is among the ten main cultivars in Turkey. 80% of the fruit is processed for oil, 20% for table olives,. The others are ''Çekiste'' (26% yield with 1,300,000 trees), ''Çelebi'' (400, 000 trees and a 20% yield ), ''Domat'', ''Erkence'' (25% yield and good pollinator with 3,000,000 trees), ''Gemlik'' (29% yield and a good pollinator), ''Izmir Sofralik'' (20% yield), ''Memecik'', ''Memeli'' (20% yield and a good pollinator), and ''Uslu'' (900 000 trees).International Olive Council
: ''Policies- Turkey'' (2012, pp. 5-8)- Retrieved 2018-07-09

Notable people

* Photis Kontoglou, Greek writer, painter and iconographer * Elias Venezis, Greek author * Gregory (Orologas) of Kydonies, Metropolitan of Kydonies, '' ethnomartyr'', who arranged for majority of Greek population to leave for Greece via the

International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...

, but was himself executed by Turkish authorities *

Stratos Pagioumtzis Stratos Pagioumtzis ( 1904 – 16 November 1971) was a Greek ''rebetiko'' singer, also known with the nickname ''Stratos the sluggard (Στράτος ο τεμπέλης)'' or simply ''Stratos''. Biography Pagioumtzis was born in 1904 in the Asi ...

, Greek

rebetiko Rebetiko (, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used to designate previously disparate kinds of urban Greek music which in the 1930s went through a process of musical syncretism and develope ...

singer *Konstantinos Tombras, operator of first

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...

in the town and first press in

* Georgios Tombras, Greek soldier of Macedonian Struggle and

First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...

* Marco Misciagna,

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

violist, was the first and only person to have received honorary citizenship of town of Ayvalık. * Efstratios Pissas, Greek revolutionary of the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...

and later

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Notes

External links

AYKUSAD, Ayvalık Association of Culture and Arts
(Turkish)
Pictures of AyvalıkPictures of Ayvalık and Alibey Island
(Turkish)
Cunda IslandPanoramic pictures of Cunda Island
(Turkish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayvalik Populated coastal places in Turkey Seaside resorts in Turkey Aegean Sea port cities and towns in Turkey Populated places in Balıkesir Province Districts of Balıkesir Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey Former Greek towns in Turkey World Heritage Tentative List for Turkey Important Bird Areas of Turkey