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180-539: In the 11th century Seljuq Turks arriving from Central Asia conquered the region, beginning its gradual shift in language and religion. In 1923, following the mass killing of Christian Ottomans across Anatolia , the surviving Cappadocian communities were forced to leave their native homeland and resettle in Greece by the terms of the Greek–Turkish population exchange . Today their descendants can be found throughout Greece and

360-710: A high speed railway . The Thessaloniki Suburban Railway links the regional capital with Florina , in Western Macedonia, and Larissa , in Thessaly . Thessaloniki Airport is the third-busiest in the country, and the Athens–Thessaloniki air route was the EU's tenth busiest in 2016. Macedonia's three other airports are Kavala Airport , Kozani Airport , and Kastoria Airport ; the two busiest airports, Thessaloniki and Kavala, are operated by Fraport . The Port of Thessaloniki

540-736: A humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ), while higher elevations border a humid continental climate ( Dfa ). Thessaloniki has a cold semi-arid climate ( BSk ) while downtown Thessaloniki and Neos Marmaras are the only areas of Macedonia with a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh ). The coldest winters are found in Florina , while the mildest are found in Neos Marmaras and Great Lavra , which fall in hardiness zone 10a. Since 1987 Macedonia has been divided into three regions ( Greek : περιφέρειες ). These are Western Macedonia , Central Macedonia , and Eastern Macedonia, which

720-517: A kingdom (later, region ) named after the ancient Macedonians , who were the descendants of a Bronze-Age Greek tribe . Their name, Μακεδόνες ( Makedónes ), is cognate to the Ancient Greek adjective μᾰκεδνός ( makednós ), meaning 'tall, slim'. It is traditionally derived from the Indo-European root *meh₂ḱ- , meaning 'long' or 'slender'. Linguist Robert S. P. Beekes supports

900-601: A Greek kingdom ruled by the Argeads , whose most celebrated members were Alexander the Great and his father Philip II . Before the expansion of Macedonia under Philip in the 4th century   BC, the kingdom of the Macedonians covered an area corresponding roughly to the administrative regions of Western and Central Macedonia in modern Greece. The name Macedonia was later applied to a number of widely-differing administrative areas in

1080-671: A Greek presence in Cappadocia. As a result, Greek became the lingua franca of the region's natives. It would become the sole spoken language of the region's inhabitants within three centuries and would remain so for the next one thousand years. After the death of Alexander the Great, Eumenes of Cardia , one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great, was appointed satrap of Cappadocia, where he set up Greek settlements and distributed cities to his associates. Eumenes left behind administrators , judges and selected garrison commanders in Cappadocia. In

1260-721: A branch of the Macedonians invaded Southern Greece towards the end of the second millennium B.C. Upon reaching the Peloponnese the invaders were renamed Dorians , triggering the accounts of the Dorian invasion. For centuries the Macedonian tribes were organised in independent kingdoms, in what is now Central Macedonia, and their role in internal Hellenic politics was minimal, even before the rise of Athens. The Macedonians claimed to be Dorian Greeks (Argive Greeks) and there were many Ionians in

1440-609: A centre of Ottoman administration in the Balkans. While most of Macedonia was ruled by the Ottomans, in Mount Athos the monastic community continued to exist in a state of autonomy. The remainder of the Chalkidiki peninsula also enjoyed an autonomous status: the "Koinon of Mademochoria" was governed by a locally appointed council due to privileges obtained on account of its wealth, coming from

1620-493: A decrease of 26.5%. Greece exited its recession, which began in 2009, in 2016 but data from that year onward is not available for the whole of Macedonia; Central Macedonia grew by 0.57% in real terms that year to €23.85 billion ($ 26.94 billion), while Western Macedonia contracted by 10.6% to €3.85 billion ($ 4.35 billion). Almost half of the economy, 49%, is centred in the Thessaloniki regional unit , which remained in

1800-524: A dialect of the Greek language known as Cappadocian Greek . Cappadocian Greek diverged from the other Byzantine Greek dialects early, beginning with the Turkish conquests of central Asia Minor in the 11th and 12th centuries, and so developed several radical features, such as the loss of the gender for nouns. However, having been isolated from the crusader conquests ( Fourth Crusade ) and the later Venetian influence of

1980-498: A few poems in Cappadocian Greek. These verses are one of the earliest literary attestations of the spoken Cappadocian vernacular. The Cappadocian Greek-American immigrant and renowned Hollywood director Elia Kazan wrote a book "America, America" about his uncle, who grew up in Cappadocia in an environment of increasing persecution. Sent on foot by his father as a teenager, with the entire family savings, to Istanbul, Elia's uncle

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2160-704: A gradual process of acculturation, as a result many Greeks of Anatolia had accepted the Turkish vernacular and some of whom later became known as Karamanlides . This name derives from the city called Karaman by the Turks in honor of the Turkish chieftain Karamanoglu , though the Greeks continued to call the region Laranda , its ancient Greek name. These Turcophone Greeks lived primarily in the region of Karamania although there were also significant communities in Constantinople and in

2340-511: A language spoken originally on the shores of the Black Sea in northeastern Anatolia and the Caucasus , as well as a dialect indigenous to Greek Macedonia and other parts of Northern Greece known as Sarakatsánika ( Greek : Σαρακατσάνικα ); spoken by the traditionally transhumant Greek subgroup of Sarakatsani . Macedonia is also home to an array of non-Greek languages. Slavic languages are

2520-662: A less developed region of the Union for its 2014–2020 funding cycle, and so the region has in recent years benefited from a number of megaprojects co-financed by the Greek government and the EU. These included the A2 motorway (Egnatia Odos) freeway (€5.93 billion) and the Thessaloniki Metro (€1.85 billion) while the railway network has also been partly electrified, allowing Thessaloniki to be linked with Athens in 3.5 hours through

2700-797: A meeting of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in January 2007, declaring that "I myself am a Macedonian, and another two and a half million Greeks are Macedonians". In the early-to-mid 20th century Greece was invaded by Bulgaria three times with the aim of capturing portions Macedonia; during the Second Balkan War , during the First World War , and during the Second World War . Additionally, Nazi Germany had promised Thessaloniki to Yugoslavia as

2880-553: A primarily Muslim and Turkish center. Several Armenian royal families, which included Gagik of Ani and Adom and Abu Sahl of Vaspurakan , sought vengeance on the local Greek Orthodox population after persecutions of the Armenians and Syriac Monophysites by the Byzantines. They used the opportunity provided by the Seljuq conquest to target the Greeks, they tortured and then assassinated

3060-483: A recession in 2015, declining by 0.4%. The recession had an impact on the per capita income of the region, especially when compared with the European Union average. Western Macedonia, the region with the highest per capita income, saw it drop from 83% the EU average in 2008 to 59% in 2016. The per capita income of Macedonia in 2015 was €12,900 in nominal and €15,900 in purchasing power terms. The Macedonian economy

3240-400: A reputation throughout Asia Minor for energy and commercial activity ; there are few towns in which a merchant from Kaisariyeh is not to be found; and the rocky nature of the country drives even the poorer classes to seek their living elsewhere. Perhaps the most interesting trait in the character of these Greeks is their intense love of their native country; the great ambition of every man

3420-694: A reward for joining the Axis powers . The perceived existence of a foreign danger had a particularly strong effect on the emergence of a distinct regional identity in Macedonia. The representation of the Macedonian Struggle in Penelope Delta 's popular 1937 teen novel Secrets of the Swamp solidified the image of the chauvinist clash between Greeks and Bulgarians in Macedonia in the minds of many Greeks. Bulgaria

3600-511: A significant number of the Karamanlides even converted to Islam during this period. As with other Greek communities, these converts to Islam were considered "Turks", as being a Muslim was synonymous with being Turkish to the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire. Greek writers would erroneously describe Greek converts to Islam as tourkeuoun (τουρκεύουν) ' becoming Turks ' . European visitors to

3780-410: A strong Greek accent, and there were Cappadocian Greeks who only spoke the Turkish language and had given up the use of Greek centuries earlier, known as the Karamanlides. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Cappadocian Greek language still had a strong presence at Gülşehir (formerly Arabison/Arapsu) north-west of Nevşehir , and in the large region southward as far down as Niğde and Bor . Greek

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3960-573: A strong level of influence in the region, such as the Eldiguzids . In 1194, Toghrul III was killed in battle with the Khwarezm Shah , who annexed Hamadan. Kerman was a province in southern Persia. Between 1053 and 1154, the territory also included Umman . or 1074 (before Sultan Shah) Muhammad abandoned Kerman, which fell into the hands of the Oghuz chief Malik Dinar . Kerman was eventually annexed by

4140-683: A young Christian woman is popular with tourists; the blonde haired mummy is believed to be a nun and dates from the Byzantine era, from the 6th to the 11th century. It was discovered in a sixth-century Greek chapel in the Ihlara Valley of Cappadocia. During the tenth century the Byzantine Empire had pushed east into formerly Arab-ruled lands, including most of Armenia , and had resettled thousands of Armenians into various regions of Cappadocia . This population shift intensified ethnic tensions between

4320-551: Is Greece's second-largest in domestic freight and fourth-largest in international freight by tonnage, while Kavala is Macedonia's other major port. Macedonia, being a border region of an EU member state, benefits from EU programs promoting cross-border economic collaboration both between members of the Union ( Bulgaria ), as well as the Republic of North Macedonia , an EU candidate country, and Albania . The EU invested €210 million ($ 237.24 million) in these three programmes for

4500-575: Is Macedonia's most popular beach destination, combining 550 kilometres (340 mi) of sandy beaches with dense forests. There were 116 Blue Flag beaches in Macedonia in 2018, 85 of which were in Chalkidiki. Additionally, the region was home to three Blue Flag marinas and one sustainable boating tourism operator. Kavala is an important economic centre of Northern Greece, a center of commerce, tourism, fishing and oil-related activities. Pieria combines extensive plains, high mountains and sandy beaches and

4680-482: Is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece , in the southern Balkans . Macedonia is the largest and second-most-populous geographic region in Greece, with a population of 2.36 million (as of 2020). It is highly mountainous, with major urban centres such as Thessaloniki and Kavala being concentrated on its southern coastline. Together with Thrace , along with Thessaly and Epirus occasionally, it

4860-494: Is a large and flourishing village, inhabited almost exclusively by Greek-speaking Greeks. The Greeks are numerous all through the western part of Cappadocia, and generally cling to their language with great tenacity, a fact worthy of notice, inasmuch as the Greeks in other parts of Asia Minor speak only Turkish. Instances of Greek-speaking towns are Niğde , Gelvere , Melegobi (Μελοκοπια) , and Ortaköy in Soğanlı Deresi." During

5040-457: Is a self-governing part of Greece, and the powers of the state are exercised through a governor appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . The European Union takes this special status into consideration, particularly on matters of taxation exemption and rights of installation. Macedonia borders the sovereign states of Albania to the north-west, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to

5220-520: Is also a hub for urban tourism and gastronomy . Macedonia is also home to various lake and wetland tourist destinations. The main religion in the Greek region of Macedonia is Christianity, with majority of population belonging to the Eastern Orthodox Church . In early centuries of Christianity, the see of Thessaloniki became the metropolitan diocese of the ancient Roman province of Macedonia . The archbishop of Thessaloniki also became

5400-567: Is also the name for the region in Megleno-Romanian . Macedonia lies at the crossroads of human development between the Aegean and the Balkans. The earliest signs of human habitation date back to the palaeolithic period, notably with the Petralona cave in which was found the oldest yet known European humanoid, Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis . The Ouranopithecus macedoniensis is perhaps

5580-454: Is another UNESCO World Heritage Site . These are important poles for cultural tourism . Thessaloniki is home to numerous notable Byzantine monuments , including the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki , a UNESCO World Heritage Site , as well as several Roman , Ottoman and Sephardic Jewish structures. Apart from being the cultural centre of Macedonia, Thessaloniki

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5760-782: Is characterized by variety, since Western and Eastern Macedonia is mountainous with the exception of some fertile valleys, while the Thessaloniki-Giannitsa plain, the largest in Greece, is located in Central Macedonia . Mount Olympus , the highest mountain in Greece, is located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the regional units of Pieria and Larissa, about 80 km (50 mi) southwest from Thessaloniki. Some other mountain ranges are Vermio Mountains , Pierian Mountains , Voras Mountains . The islands of Macedonia are Thasos , opposite

5940-432: Is estimated to have further decreased to 2,382,857. In the 2011 Greek census the capital city, Thessaloniki , had an urban population of 824,676, up from 794,330 in 2001, while its metropolitan population increased to over a million. 281,458 people in Macedonia (or 12% of the population) were born in a foreign country, compared to 11.89% for the whole of Greece. 51.32% of the population was female, and 48.68% male. Like

6120-410: Is going on, and the people are vacating, for houses above ground, the subterranean villages, to which they owe the preservation of their faith and language. These villages are known by Greek as well as by Turkish names; in some Greek is spoken by Moslem and Christian, in others a Graeco-Turk jargon, and in others Turkish only; and this mixture is found even in the churches, where the descriptive remarks on

6300-479: Is home to Greece's richest farmland, and the region accounts for 9,859 square kilometres (3,807 sq mi) of the country's agricultural area (30% of total). Macedonia's agricultural production has historically been dominated by tobacco, with the cash crop being grown in large quantities due to its value. Central and Western Macedonia still produce 41% of Greece's total tobacco, but it only represents 1.4% of these regions' agricultural production value. Nowadays

6480-569: Is not an elected position, and is instead appointed at the pleasure of the Prime Minister of Greece . The current Deputy Minister in the Cabinet of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is Stavros Kalafatis  [ el ] of New Democracy . The various regions of Greece are also constituencies to the Hellenic Parliament , and Macedonia is represented through its 66 members of parliament. Thessaloniki

6660-504: Is of displacing people to the interior without taking measures for their survival by exposing them to death, hunger, and illness. The abandoned homes are then looted and burnt or destroyed. Whatever was done to the Armenians is being repeated with the Greeks. In 1924, after living in Cappadocia for thousands of years, the remaining Cappadocian Greeks were expelled to Greece as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey defined by

6840-414: Is part of Northern Greece . Greek Macedonia encompasses entirely the southern part of the wider region of Macedonia , making up 51% of the total area of that region. Additionally, it widely constitutes Greece's borders with three countries: Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia to the north, and Bulgaria to the northeast. Greek Macedonia incorporates most of the territories of ancient Macedon ,

7020-509: Is part of the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace . These three regions are subdivided into 14 regional units ( περιφερειακές ενότητες ) which are in turn further divided into municipalities ( δήμοι – roughly equivalent to British shires or American Townships). They are overseen by the Ministry for the Interior , while the Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for

7200-425: Is primarily service-based , with services contributing €16.46 billion (60.4%) of the region's gross value added in 2015. The industrial and agricultural sectors contributed €9.06 billion (33.3%) and €1.72 billion (6.3%) respectively. The regional labour force was similarly mostly employed in services (60.4%), with industry and agriculture making up 25.6% and 14.0% of the labour force. Macedonia

7380-402: Is split into two constituencies, Thessaloniki A and Thessaloniki B , while Grevena is the smallest constituency with only 1 seat. Thessaloniki A is the second-largest constituency in Greece with 16 MPs. Macedonia is bordered by the neighbouring Greek regions of Thessaly to the south, Thrace (part of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ) to the east, and Epirus to the west. It also includes

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7560-567: Is the most popular tourist destination in Greece that is not an island, and its fourth overall, outperforming all other regions of the Greek mainland with 9.7 million overnight stays in 2017. There were a further 2.1 million stays in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace and 294 thousand in Western Macedonia . Macedonia is a diverse region which allows it to cater to a variety of different types of tourism. The Chalkidiki peninsula

7740-406: Is the music of the geographic region of Macedonia in Greece , which is a part of the music of whole region of Macedonia . Notable element of the local folk music is the use of trumpets and koudounia (called chálkina in the local dialect). In 2011 the permanent population of the region stood at 2,406,393 residents, a decrease from 2,422,533 in 2001. As of 2017, the population of Macedonia

7920-424: Is the second-largest city and a major economic, industrial, cultural, commercial and political centre of Greece. Central Macedonia is Greece's fourth-most-popular tourist region and the most popular destination that is not an island. It is home to four UNESCO World Heritage sites , including Aigai (modern day Vergina , about 12 km (7 mi) from Veria ), one of the ancient Macedonian capital cities, where

8100-413: Is to earn sufficient money to enable him to build a house and settle down in his beloved Cappadocia. The young men go off to Constantinople for a few years, and then return to marry and build a house; a couple of years of married life sees the end of their savings, and they have to revisit the capital, sometimes remaining there ten or fifteen years, to earn sufficient to support themselves and their wives for

8280-541: Is today considered a Greek hero along with the unnamed Macedonians that fought with him. The fall and massacre of Naoussa marked the end of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia, and the region remained in the Ottoman Empire. In the early 20th century the region was already a national cause, contested among the states of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia. After the Macedonian Struggle and the Balkan Wars (in 1912 and 1913),

8460-716: Is unknown). Many Aromanian villages can be found along the slopes of the Vermion Mountains and Mount Olympus . Smaller numbers can be found in the Prespes region and near the Gramos mountains. Megleno-Romanians can be found in the Moglena region of Macedonia. The Megleno-Romanian language is traditionally spoken in the 11 Megleno-Romanian villages spread across Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia , including Archangelos , Notia , Lagkadia , and Skra . They are generally adherents to

8640-683: The Armenians and Assyrians . Ionian and Cappadocian Greek deaths alone totaled 397,000, while Pontian Greek deaths numbered 353,000 people. Turkish official Rafet Bey was active in the Genocide of the Greeks of the Anatolian interior, in November 1916 he stated "We must finish off the Greeks as we did with the Armenians ;... today I sent squads to the interior to kill every Greek on sight ..." During

8820-539: The Battle of Maritsa (1371), Byzantine rule was reestablished in eastern regions, including Serres . During the 1380s, the region was gradually conquered by the advancing Ottomans , with Serres holding out until 1383, and Thessaloniki until 1387. After a brief Byzantine interval in 1403–1430 (during the last seven years of which the city was handed over to the Venetians), Thessaloniki and its immediate surrounding area returned to

9000-599: The Battle of Pydna (22 June 168 BC), in which the Roman general Aemilius Paulus defeated King Perseus of Macedon , ending the reign of the Antigonid dynasty over Macedonia. For a brief period a Macedonian republic called the "Koinon of the Macedonians" was established. It was divided into four administrative districts by the Romans in the hope that this would make revolts more difficult, but this manoeuvre failed. Then in 148 BC, Macedonia

9180-569: The Despotate of Epirus , all of which helped promote a distinct Greek Macedonian identity. In the contemporary period this is reinforced by Greek Macedonia's proximity to other states in the southern Balkans, the continuing existence of ethnic and religious minorities in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace not found in southern Greece, and the fact that migrants and refugees from elsewhere in the Balkans, southern Russia, and Georgia (including Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks from northeastern Anatolia and

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9360-487: The Eastern Macedonia and Thrace division after 2010. The region is further divided between the third-level administrative divisions of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace , and the Decentralized Administration of Epirus and Western Macedonia . It also includes the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos , which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through

9540-657: The First Balkan War , and expanded its share in the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria. The boundaries of Greek Macedonia were finalised in the Treaty of Bucharest . In World War I , Macedonia became a battlefield. The Greek Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos , favoured entering the war on the side of the Entente , while the Germanophile King Constantine I favoured neutrality. Invited by Venizelos, in autumn 1915,

9720-404: The Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) countless numbers of Greeks were deported by the Turks to the Mesopotamian desert where many perished. On January 31, 1917, Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg of Germany reported that: The indications are that the Turks plan to eliminate the Greek element as enemies of the state, as they did earlier with the Armenians. The strategy implemented by the Turks

9900-421: The Greek Communist Party and forced to flee to the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Macedonia and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe. Some also immigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States. Current Greek law still forbids the reentry and restitution of property by Macedonians that are not "Greek by origin." Macedonia is the largest and second-most-populous Greek region . The landscape

10080-485: The Greek War of Independence . The revolt spread from Central to Western Macedonia . In the autumn of 1821, Nikolaos Kasomoulis was sent to southern Greece as the "representative of South-East Macedonia", and met Demetrius Ypsilantis. At the beginning of 1822, Anastasios Karatasos and Angelis Gatsos arranged a meeting with other armatoloi and decided that the insurrection should be based on three towns: Naoussa, Kastania , and Siatista . In 1854 Theodoros Ziakas ,

10260-414: The Greek diaspora worldwide. The area known as Cappadocia today was known to the Ancient Persians as Katpatuka , a name which the Greeks altered into Καππαδοκία (Cappadocia). The word is essentially of unknown etymology, but some have argued that it means "the land of beautiful horses". Before Greeks and Greek culture arrived in Asia Minor, the area was controlled by another Indo-European people,

10440-420: The Hittites . Mycenaean Greeks set up trading posts along the west coast around 1300 BC and soon started colonizing the coasts, spreading Hellenic culture and language. In the Hellenistic era , following the conquest of Anatolia by Alexander the Great , Greek settlers began arriving in the mountainous regions of Cappadocia at this time. This Greek population movement of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC solidified

10620-578: The Khwarezmid Empire in 1196. To the Artuqids Sultans / Emirs of Damascus : Damascus seized by the Burid Toghtekin The Seljuk line, already having been deprived of any significant power, effectively ended in the early 14th century. ( Tokhara Yabghus , Turk Shahis ) Macedonia (Greece) This is an accepted version of this page Macedonia ( / ˌ m æ s ɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ə / MASS -ih- DOH -nee-ə ; Greek : Μακεδονία , romanized :  Makedonía , pronounced [maceðoˈni.a] )

10800-407: The Kinik branch of the Oghuz Turks , who in the 8th century lived on the periphery of the Muslim world; north of the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea in their Oghuz Yabgu State in the Kazakh Steppe of Turkestan . During the 10th century, Oghuz had come into close contact with Muslim cities. When Seljuk , the leader of the Seljuk clan, had a falling out with Yabghu , the supreme chieftain of

10980-399: The Macedonia naming dispute in the aftermath of the break-up of Yugoslavia , in which Greece objected to its northern neighbour calling itself the " Republic of Macedonia ". This objection is the direct result of this regional identity, and a matter of heritage for northern Greeks. A characteristic expression of this self-identification was manifested by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis at

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11160-423: The Macedonians to resist both Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, by sending military officers who formed bands made up of Macedonians and other Greek volunteers, something that resulted in the Macedonian Struggle from 1904 to 1908, which ended with the Young Turk Revolution . The Macedonians fought alongside the regular Greek army during the struggle for Macedonia. There are monuments in Macedonia commemorating

11340-411: The Makedonomachoi , the local Macedonian and other Greek fighters, who took part in the wars and died to liberate Macedonia from the Ottoman rule, officially memorialized as heroes. Greece gained the southern parts of the region (with Thessaloniki ), which corresponded to that of ancient Macedonia attributed as part of Greek history and had a strong Greek presence, from the Ottoman Empire after

11520-413: The Nuremberg Laws , which saw some 43,000–49,000 of Thessaloniki's 56,000 Jews exterminated in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps . In its own zone of annexation, Bulgaria actively persecuted the local Greek population with the help of Bulgarian collaborationists. Further demographic change happened in the aftermath of the Greek Civil War , when many Slavs of Macedonia who fought on

11700-511: The Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, using the Greek Alphabet and Turkish language. Cappadocian Greeks from different regions would specialize in a particular profession, such as the caviar trade. Demetrius Charles Boulger later describes their work character, "Each village is connected with some particular guild in Constantinople; one supplies bakals or small storekeepers, another sellers of wine and spirits, another dryers of fish, another makers of caviare, another porters, and so forth."’ In

11880-447: The Paulician heresy. Because they were living in such a volatile region, the Cappadocian Greeks created elaborate underground cities in the volcanic formations of eastern Cappadocia and would take refuge in them during times of danger. The Cappadocian Greeks hid in these rock-cut underground towns from many raiders over the next millennium, from 9th century Arab invaders to 11th century Turkish conquerors to 15th century Mongols. As late as

12060-445: The Peloponnesian War , Macedonia became the theatre of many military actions by the Peloponnesian League and the Athenians, and saw incursions of Thracians and Illyrians, as attested by Thucydides. Many Macedonian cities were allied to the Spartans (both the Spartans and the Macedonians were Dorian, while the Athenians were Ionian), but Athens maintained the colony of Amphipolis under her control for many years. The kingdom of Macedon ,

12240-436: The Roman and Byzantine empires. With the gradual conquest of south-eastern Europe by the Ottomans in the late 14th century, the name of Macedonia disappeared as an administrative designation for several centuries and was rarely displayed on maps. With the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire , the name Macedonia was revived in the nineteenth century as a geographical term, and for educated Greeks it corresponded to

12420-438: The Saljuqids , was an Oghuz Turkic , Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture in West Asia and Central Asia . The Seljuks established the Seljuk Empire (1037–1194), the Sultanate of Kermân (1041–1186) and the Sultanate of Rum (1074–1308), which stretched from Iran to Anatolia and were the prime targets of the First Crusade . The Seljuks originated from

12600-422: The Treaty of Lausanne , the descendants of the Cappadocian Greeks who had converted to Islam were not included in the population exchange and remained in Cappadocia, some still speaking the Cappadocian Greek language . Many Cappadocian towns were greatly affected by the expulsion of the Greeks including Mustafapaşa (Sinasos) , Ürgüp , Güzelyurt and Nevşehir as the Greeks constituted a significant percentage of

12780-468: The centre-right New Democracy party, while Karypidis is an independent . Elections take place in a two-round system , where the two candidates with the most votes face each other in a second round if no one has managed to get a majority of more than 50% of the votes in the first round. Regional councils, mayors, and other officials are also elected in this way. The next local elections will take place in 2019. The Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace

12960-463: The civil administrator of Mount Athos ) in its political aspect, and of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in its religious aspect. The region remains an important economic centre for Greece. Macedonia accounts for the majority of Greece's agricultural production and is also a major contributor to the country's industrial and tourism sectors. The metropolis of the region, Thessaloniki

13140-553: The south Caucasus ) have usually gravitated to Greek Macedonia rather than southern Greece. Greek is the majority language throughout Greece today, with an estimated 5% of the population speaking a language other than Greek, and is the only language of administration and education in the region. Greek is spoken universally in Greek Macedonia, even in the border regions where there is a strong presence of languages other than Greek. The Greek government exhibits some tolerance toward

13320-426: The tomb of Philip II of Macedon is located. Pella (about 1 km (0.62 mi) from modern town of Pella and about 7 km (4.3 mi) from Giannitsa ), which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great, is also located in the Greek region of Macedonia. The name Macedonia derives from the Greek : Μακεδονία ( Makedonía ),

13500-433: The vilayet of Selânik ( Thessaloniki ), 261,283 Greeks in the vilayet of Monastir ( Bitola ) and 13,452 Greeks in the villayet of Kosovo . Of those 648,962 Greeks by church, 307,000 identified as Greek speakers, while about 250,000 as Slavic speakers and 99,000 as "Vlach" (Aromanian or Megleno-Romanian). However, these figures extend to territories both inside and outside of Greek Macedonia. Hugh Poulton, in his Who Are

13680-640: The 19th century described the Cappadocian Greeks and their habits. In 1838 British scholar Robert Ainsworth wrote that "The Cappadocian Greeks are, generally speaking, pleasing and unreserved in their manners, and their conversation indicated a very high degree of intelligence and civilization, where there are so few books, and so little education, and consequently, little learning." Sir Charles William Wilson , British consul-general in Anatolia from 1879 to 1882, described their character: The Cappadocian Greeks have

13860-516: The 19th-century British scholar John Pinkerton was informed by the Turkish-speaking Greeks that past Turkish rulers of Anatolia had caused them to lose the knowledge of the Greek language, Pinkerton reported that: ..."the cruel persecutions of their Mahomedan masters have been the cause of their present degraded state of ignorance, even in regard to their native tongue; for that there was a time when their Turkish masters strictly prohibited

14040-510: The 1st century AD, the region of Cappadocia served as a stronghold for Christian Monasticism and was of significance importance in the history of early Christianity. In the early centuries of the Common Era Cappadocia produced three prominent Greek patristic figures, known as the three hierarchs . They were Basil the Great (c. 330–79), Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330–c. 389) (later known as Saint Gregory

14220-433: The 1st century BC, regions of Cappadocia had been ravaged by Armenian King Tigranes the Great , who had relocated a great number of Cilician and Cappadocian Greeks to Mesopotamia (geographically in modern Iraq , eastern Syria and south-eastern Turkey .) Archelaus , who was a Roman client prince, was the last to rule as a king of Cappadocia . He was a Cappadocian Greek nobleman , possibly of Macedonian descent and

14400-583: The 2014–2020 funding cycle. A€10 billion ($ 11.3 billion) Egnatia Railway crossing Macedonia and linking Alexandroupoli in Western Thrace with Igoumenitsa in Epirus was proposed to the European Commission in 2017 but remains in planning with a projected start date in 2019. If completed, the 565 km (351 mi) railway line will be Europe's largest rail megaproject . Central Macedonia

14580-496: The 20th century the local Cappadocian Greeks were still using the underground cities as refuges (Greek: καταφύγια) from periodic waves of Ottoman persecution. The most famous of these ancient underground cities are at the Cappadocian Greek villages of Anaku-Inegi (Ανακού) and Malakopi-Melagob (Μαλακοπή). The Greeks were removed from these villages in 1923, and they are now known as Derinkuyu and Kaymakli . These underground cities have chambers extending to depths of over 80 meters. In

14760-553: The 20th century the locals were still using the underground cities to escape periodic waves of Ottoman persecution. Dawkins, a Cambridge linguist who conducted research on the Cappodocian Greek natives in the area from 1909–1911, recorded that in 1909, when the news came of the recent massacres at Adana, a great part of the population at Axo took refuge in these underground chambers, and for some nights did not venture to sleep above ground. Scholars passing through Cappadocia during

14940-637: The 7th and 11th centuries, during this period churches were carved into cliffs and rock faces in the Göreme and Soğanlı region. In the Middle Ages the Cappadocian Greeks would bury their religious figures in and around monasteries. In recent years mummified bodies have been found in abandoned Greek monasteries of Cappadocia, and many, including bodies of mummified babies, are on display in the Nigde Archaeological Museum. A well-preserved mummified corpse of

15120-642: The Allies landed forces in Thessaloniki to aid Serbia in its war against Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, but their intervention came too late to prevent the Serbian collapse. The Macedonian front was established, with Thessaloniki at its heart, while in summer 1916 the Bulgarians took over Greek eastern Macedonia without opposition. This provoked a military uprising among pro-Venizelist officers in Thessaloniki, resulting in

15300-499: The Anatolian interior. In the centuries following Alexander the Great's death, Ariarathes , the son of a Persian satrap who formerly controlled Cappadocia, gained control of Cappadocia and left it to a line of his successors, who mostly bore the name of the founder of the dynasty . These kings began to intermarry with neighboring Greek Hellenistic kingdoms, such as the Seleucids . During their reign Greek towns were beginning to appear in

15480-597: The Cappadocian Greek churches were converted to mosques after the Greeks left in the population exchange of the 1920s. These include the Church of St Gregory known today as "Buyuk Kilise Camii (Big Church Mosque)". Following the population exchange there was still a substantial community of Cappadocian Greeks living in Turkey, in Constantinople , they had settled there during the Ottoman era and formed enclaves of their native communities,

15660-584: The Cappadocian Greeks and the Armenian newcomers in Cappadocia, and left Armenia largely devoid of native defenders. In 1071 AD the Byzantine Empire suffered a considerable defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in Armenia . This defeat would open the interior of Anatolia to invasion by Central Asian Seljuq Turks who would overrun most of Byzantine Asia Minor. This began the transformation of Asia Minor from an entirely Christian and overwhelmingly Greek-populated region to

15840-548: The Great 's father. His discoveries were drawn upon as evidence of ethnic and cultural links between the ancient Macedonians and southern Greek city-states by Greeks in Macedonia. The distinct regional identity of Greek Macedonians is also the product of the fact that it was closer to the centres of power in both the Byzantine and Ottoman period, was considered culturally, politically, and strategically more important than other parts of Greece during these two periods, and also

16020-491: The Greek Despotate of Epirus , Theodore Komnenos Doukas in 1224, when Greek Macedonia and the city of Thessaloniki were at the heart of the short-lived Empire of Thessalonica . Returning to the restored Byzantine Empire shortly thereafter, Greek Macedonia remained in Byzantine hands until the 1340s, when all of Macedonia (except Thessaloniki, and possibly Veria ) was conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan . After

16200-598: The Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Kayseri and pillaged wealthy Greek owned estates. The local Greek landowners eventually killed the Armenian royal Gagik. By the 12th century all of Anatolia was overrun by Turkmen tribes from Central Asia, these invading nomads had cleared many regions of Anatolia of indigenous Greeks. The Anatolian Greek population rapidly diminished under Turkish rule owing to mass conversions to Islam , slaughter or exile to Greek territories in Europe. Before

16380-548: The Greek alphabet, which became known as ‘Karamanlidika’. This was not a phenomenon that was limited to the Cappadocian Greeks, as many of the Armenians living in Cappadocia were also linguistically Turkified , although they remained Armenian Apostolic (Orthodox) Christians, they spoke and wrote in the Turkish language although still using the Armenian alphabet . Some Jewish inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire were also Turkified and although they retained their religion, they also wrote in

16560-582: The Greek coast, it retained the Ancient Greek terms for many words that were replaced with Romance language ones in Demotic Greek. After centuries of Ottoman rule the Turkish language began to emerge as the dominant language of Cappadocia. Many Greeks began to speak Turkish as a second language and became bilingual, this was the case with the “ Kouvoukliotes ” who were always Greek speakers and spoke Turkish with

16740-512: The Greek communities of central Anatolia were becoming actively involved in affairs of the Eastern Roman Empire and some Greek Cappadocians such as Maurice Tiberius (r. 582–602) and Heraclius would even serve as Emperors . The region became a key Byzantine military district after the advent of Islam and the subsequent Muslim conquest of Syria led to the establishment of a militarized frontier zone (cf kleisoura and thughur ) on

16920-581: The Greek-dominated community of Orthodox Christians. The Slavs of Macedonia generally referred to themselves and were known as "Bulgarians". By the middle of the 19th century, peasant communities of Macedonia experienced the formation of deep divisions with rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire . From then, the Slavic speaking communities of northern Greece split into two hostile and opposed groups with two different national identities – Greek and Bulgarian. By

17100-465: The Greeks in Asia Minor even from speaking the Greek language among themselves, and that they cut out the tongues of some, and punished others with death, who dared to disobey this their barbarous command. It is an indisputable fact, that the language of their oppressors has long since almost universally prevailed, and that in a great part of Anatolia even the public worship of the Greeks is now performed in

17280-502: The Greeks in Pontus and the western coastal regions of Turkey. Once in Greece though, they started using the modern Greek language , causing their ancestral Greek dialect, the Cappadocian Greek language, to go to the brink of extinction. The Cappadocian Greek language was believed by some scholars to have been extinct for many years. The language was then declared alive in 2005, when descendants of Cappadocian Greeks were discovered still speaking

17460-572: The Macedonians , notes that "assessing population figures is problematic" for the territory of Greek Macedonia before its incorporation into the Greek state in 1913. The area's remaining population was principally composed of Ottoman Turks (including non-Turkish Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin) and also a sizeable community of mainly Sephardic Jews (centred in Thessaloniki), and smaller numbers of Romani , Albanians , Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians . When Macedonia

17640-465: The Middle Ages Cappadocia had hundreds of settlements and Byzantine rock-cut churches were carved out of the volcanic formations of eastern Cappadocia and decorated with painted icons, Greek writing and decorations. Over 700 of these Churches have been discovered and date from the period between the 6th century to the 13th century, many of these monasteries and churches continued to be used until

17820-594: The Middle Ages to the early 20th century, the ethnic composition of the region of Macedonia is characterised by uncertainty both about numbers and identification. The earliest estimation we have is from the Greek consulate of Thessaloniki in 1884, which according to it the nowadays Greek region of Macedonia had 1,073,000 Greeks (Grecophones, Slavophones, Albanophones), 565,000 Muslims , 215,000 Bulgarians and 16,000 Aromanians . The 1904 Ottoman census of Hilmi Pasha people were assigned to ethnicity according which church/language they belonged, it recorded 373,227 Greeks in

18000-716: The Oghuz, he split his clan from the bulk of the Oghuz Turks and set up camp on the west bank of the lower Syr Darya . Around 985, Seljuk converted to Islam. In the 11th century, the Seljuks migrated from their ancestral homelands into mainland Persia , in the province of Khurasan , where they encountered the Ghaznavids . The Seljuks defeated the Ghaznavids at the Battle of Nasa Plains in 1035. Seljuk's grandsons, Tughril and Chaghri, received

18180-693: The Orthodox Church while the former majority in Notia was Muslim. Arvanite communities exist in Serres regional unit , while many can also be found in Thessaloniki. There are three Arvanite villages in the Florina regional unit ( Drosopigi , Lechovo and Flampouro ) with others located in Kilkis and Thessaloniki regional units. Other minority groups include Armenians and Romani . Romani communities are concentrated mainly around

18360-402: The Ottoman era, Cappadocian Greeks would migrate to Constantinople and other large cities to do business. By the 19th century, many were wealthy, educated and westernized . Wealthy Cappadocian Greek businessmen built large stone mansions in regions of Cappadocia such as Karvali (modern Güzelyurt ) many of which can still be seen today. The Cappadocian Greeks wrote the earliest published novels in

18540-422: The Ottoman era, such as the town known as ‘Hagios Prokopios’ in the Middle Ages, and renamed ‘ Urgup ’ by the Turks was still called ‘Prokopion’ by the local Greeks of the early 20th century. Although the Karamanlides abandoned Greek when they learned Turkish , they remained Greek Orthodox Christians and continued to write using the Greek alphabet . They printed manuscript works in the Turkish language using

18720-428: The Ottomans. The capture of Thessaloniki in 1430 threw the Byzantine world into consternation, being regarded correctly as a prelude to the fall of Constantinople itself. The memory of the event has survived through folk traditions containing fact and myths. Apostolos Vacalopoulos records the following Turkish tradition connected with the capture of Thessaloniki: "While Murad was asleep in his palace at Yenitsa,

18900-576: The Second World War and following the defeat of Bulgaria, another further split between the Slavic groups occurred. Conservatives departed with the occupying Bulgarian Army to Bulgaria. Leftists who identified as Macedonians (Slavic), joined the communist-dominated rebel Democratic Army of Greece . At the conclusion of the Greek Civil War (1946–49), most Macedonians of Slavic background were evacuated by

19080-510: The Seljuks adopted the Persian culture and used the Persian language as the official language of the government, and played an important role in the development of the Turko-Persian tradition which features "Persian culture patronized by Turkic rulers". Today, they are remembered as great patrons of Persian culture , art , literature , and language . The "Great Seljuks" were heads of

19260-563: The Slavic element in the area led two brothers from Thessaloniki , Saints Cyril and Methodius , to be chosen to convert the Slavs to Christianity. Following the campaigns of Basil II , all of Macedonia returned to the Byzantine state. Following the Fourth Crusade 1203–1204, a short-lived Crusader realm, the Kingdom of Thessalonica , was established in the region. It was subdued by the co-founder of

19440-514: The Theologian) and Gregory of Nyssa (died c. 394). These Cappadocian Greek fathers of the fourth century revered the ancient Greek cultural pursuit of virtue, even studying Homer and Hesiod and “ stood squarely in the tradition of Greek culture ”. By the fifth century the last of the Indo-European native languages of Anatolia ceased to be spoken, replaced by Koine Greek . At the same time

19620-581: The Turkish language but using Hebrew script . The Cappadocian Greeks , Armenians and Jewish minorities of the Ottoman Empire had created Graeco-Turkish, Armeno-Turkish, and Judeo-Turkish literatures by developing their own written traditions. Despite the fact that they had lost all knowledge of their own languages after they had been Turkified, the majority of Karamanlides and many Turkophone Armenians eventually revived their original native tongues. While most Cappadocian Greeks had remained Orthodox Christians

19800-458: The Turkish migration into Anatolia, Greeks as well as smaller numbers of Armenians, Syrians, and Georgians were all Christians, but by the 15th century more than 90% of Anatolia was Muslim, according to some researchers largely because of Christian conversions to Islam. Many Byzantine Greek leaders were also tempted to convert to Islam in order to join the Ottoman Turkish aristocracy, although in

19980-662: The Turkish tongue. The following works, in the Turkish language, but all in the Greek character, afford further proof of what I have now stated...” ( John Pinkerton , 1817) In the 1920s when the Cappadocian Greeks arrived in Greece, the Cappadocian Greek spoken by them was hardly intelligible with the Demotic Greek used in mainland Greece, as it had been cut off from the rest of the Greek-speaking world for centuries. The Cappadocian Greeks were more linguistically Turkified than

20160-592: The abandoned stone mansions built centuries ago by wealthy Cappadocian Greek businessmen. Today, more than 700 Greek Orthodox churches and over thirty rock-carved chapels, many with preserved painted icons, Greek writing and frescos, some from the pre-iconoclastic period that date back as far as the 6th century, can still be seen. As of 1985 these Greek cave churches were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Greek diaspora Constantinople and Asia Minor : Africa : Other regions : Other groups : Other languages The Cappadocian Greeks traditionally spoke

20340-536: The ancient historical land. The economic ascent of Thessaloniki and of the other urban centres of Macedonia coincided with the cultural and political renaissance of the Greeks . The leader and coordinator of the Greek Revolution in Macedonia was Emmanouel Pappas from Dovista (in Serres ), and the revolt spread from Central to Western Macedonia. Letters from the period show Pappas either being addressed or signing himself as "Leader and Defender of Macedonia" and

20520-610: The autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos , which has existed as a religious sanctuary since the Middle Ages . The community of the mount Athos is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and is inaccessible to women, punishable by a penalty of incarceration of up to twelve months. This has been criticised by the European Parliament . The territory of Mount Athos

20700-457: The beginning of the 20th century, the proportion of Christians in Anatolian population was more than 20%. During the centuries of Turkish rule in Asia Minor many Greeks and other peoples of Anatolia such as Armenians and Kurds adopted the Turkish language , converted to Islam, and came to be identified as Turks. Despite the turmoil in Anatolia, by the 13th century the Greeks of Cappadocia , Lycaonia and Pamphylia remained numerous, even under

20880-621: The border of Cappadocia. This lasted from the mid-7th to the 10th century during the Arab–Byzantine wars , immortalized in Digenis Akritas , the Medieval Greek heroic epic set in this frontier region. During this period Cappadocia became crucial to the empire and produced numerous Byzantine generals, notably the Phokas clan, warlords (see Karbeas of Tephrike ), and intrigue, most importantly

21060-559: The burial sites of several kings of Macedon were found, including the tomb of Philip II of Macedon . It is also the site of an extensive royal palace. The archaeological museum of Vergina was built to house all the artifacts found at the site and is one of the most important museums in Greece. Pella , which replaced Aigai as the capital of Macedon in the fourth century BC, is also located in Central Macedonia , as well as Dion in Pieria and Amphipolis . Philippi , located in eastern Macedonia ,

21240-462: The coastal areas and nearer Thrace remaining in Byzantine hands, while most of the hinterland was disputed between the Byzantium and Bulgaria . The Macedonian regions under Byzantine control passed under the tourma of Macedonia to the province of Thrace . A new system of administration came into place in 789–802 AD, following the Byzantine empire 's recovery from these invasions. The new system

21420-469: The coastal regions. The rest of the region was inhabited by various Thracian and Illyrian tribes as well as mostly coastal colonies of other Greek states such as Amphipolis , Olynthos, Potidea, Stageira and many others, and to the north another tribe dwelt, called the Paeonians . During the late 6th and early 5th century BC, the region came under Persian rule until the destruction of Xerxes at Plataea . During

21600-434: The coasts of Eastern Macedonia and the port of Kavala , and Ammouliani , opposite the coasts of Central Macedonia, in Chalkidiki . Haliacmon , which flows through Kastoria , Grevena , Kozani , Imathia and Pieria regional units, is the longest river in Greece. Some other rivers are Axios ( Vardar ), Strymonas , Loudias . Macedonia for the most part enjoys a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csa ). Some parts have

21780-504: The coordination and application of the government's policies in all three Macedonian regions. Prior to 1987 Macedonia was a single administrative and geographical unit. The heads of the various administrative units are elected. The last Greek local elections were in 2014 , and saw Apostolos Tzitzikostas elected regional governor of Central Macedonia , Giorgos Pavlidis in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace , and Theodoros Karypidis in Western Macedonia. Tzitzikostas and Pavlidis are members of

21960-554: The court title of general ( amir arzi ) in the army of the Seljuq sultan of Konya, Mesud II . He dedicated a church in the Peristrema ( Belisırma ) valley where his portrait, which was painted from life still survives to this day. 13th century Cappadocian Greek artists were renowned for their naturalistic paintings and were employed throughout the Seljuk Empire . Cappadocian Greeks were also employed as architects, such as Kalo Yianni, who

22140-664: The descendants of the Cappadocian Greeks can be found throughout Greece, as well as in countries around the world particularly in Western Europe, North America and Australia as part of the Greek diaspora . The modern region of Cappadocia is famous for the churches carved into cliffs and rock faces in the Göreme and Soğanlı valleys. The region is popular with tourists, many of whom visit the abandoned underground cities, houses and Greek churches carved and decorated by Cappadocian Greeks centuries ago. The formerly Greek town of Güzelyurt (Karvali) has become popular with tourists who visit

22320-441: The early 20th century, Greek settlements were still both numerous and widespread throughout most of today’s Turkey. The provinces of Cappadocia and Lycaonia had a large number of Greek settlements and sizeable populations in urban centres such as Kayseri , Nigde , and Konya . According to 1897 estimations, the sanjak of Konya had a total Greek population of 68.101 (6.6%) and according to Ottoman population statistics of 1914 ,

22500-602: The east, Macedonia ended according to Strabo at the river Strymon , although he mentions that other writers placed Macedonia's border with Thrace at the river Nestos , which is also the present geographical boundary between the two administrative districts of Greece . The Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 16:9–10 ) records a vision in which the apostle Paul is said to have seen a ' man of Macedonia ' pleading with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us". The passage reports that Paul and his companions responded immediately to

22680-555: The establishment of a " Provisional Government of National Defence " in the city, headed by Venizelos, which entered the war alongside the Allies. After intense diplomatic negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Entente and royalist forces the King abdicated, and his second son Alexander took his place. Venizelos returned to Athens in June 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially joined

22860-411: The fact that the region had a far more ethnically and religiously diverse population in both the medieval and Ottoman periods. In the late Byzantine period Greek Macedonia had also been the centre of significant Byzantine successor states, such as the Kingdom of Thessalonica , the short-lived state established by the rival Byzantine emperor, Theodore Komnenos Doukas , and – in parts of western Macedonia –

23040-521: The family; in theory their authority extended over all the other Seljuk lines, although in practice this often was not the case. Turkic custom called for the senior member of the family to be the Great Seljuk, although usually the position was associated with the ruler of western Persia. The rulers of western Persia, who maintained a very loose grip on the Abbasids of Baghdad . Several Turkic emirs gained

23220-619: The following centuries the Seleucid Greek Kings founded many Greek settlements in the interior of Asia Minor, and this region would become popular for the recruitment of soldiers. Unlike other regions of Asia Minor where Greeks would settle in cities, most of the Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other interior Anatolian regions were villages. The Hellenistic Kings would make new Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other surrounding regions in order to secure their hold on this volatile region; under their rule Greek settlements would increase in

23400-489: The gold and silver mines in the area. There were several uprisings in Macedonia during Ottoman rule , including an uprising after the Battle of Lepanto that ended in massacres of the Greek population, the uprising in Naousa of the armatolos Zisis Karademos in 1705, a rebellion in the area of Grevena by a Klepht called Ziakas (1730–1810). The Greek Declaration of Independence in Macedonia by Emmanuel Pappas in 1821, during

23580-596: The history of Macedonia began with the Makednoi tribe, among the first to use the name, migrating to the region from Histiaeotis in the south. There they lived near Thracian tribes such as the Bryges who would later leave Macedonia for Asia Minor and become known as Phrygians . Macedonia was named after the Makednoi. Accounts of other toponyms such as Emathia are attested to have been in use before that. Herodotus claims that

23760-570: The holy pictures are often in Turkish written in Greek characters. By the early 1900s the region of Cappadocia was still inhabited by Christian Cappadocian Greeks as well as Muslim Turks and also communities of Armenians and Kurds. By the beginning of the First World War , the Greeks of Anatolia were besieged by the Young Turks . Thousands of Greeks were massacred, approximately 750,000 Anatolian Greeks were massacred in an act of Genocide and 750,000 exiled. The Greeks were targeted prior to and alongside

23940-534: The idea that both terms are of Pre-Greek substrate origin and cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European morphology. However, Beekes' views are not mainstream and De Decker argues that his arguments are insufficient. The region has historically also been known as Македония (Makedonija) in Bulgarian and the local South Slavic dialects , Makedonya in Turkish , and Machedonia in Aromanian . Machedonia

24120-524: The insignias of governor, grants of land, and were given the title of dehqan . At the Battle of Dandanaqan , they defeated a Ghaznavid army, and after a successful siege of Isfahan by Tughril in 1050/51, established the Great Seljuk Empire . The Seljuks mixed with the local population and adopted the Persian culture and Persian language in the following decades. After arriving in Persia ,

24300-443: The invitation. Subsequently the provinces of Epirus and Thessaly as well as other regions to the north were incorporated into a new Provincia Macedonia, but in 297 AD under a Diocletianic reform many of these regions were removed and two new provinces were created: Macedonia Prima and Macedonia Salutaris (from 479 to 482 AD Macedonia Secunda). Macedonia Prima coincided approximately with Strabo's definition of Macedonia and with

24480-515: The language fluently in central and northern Greece. Today it is still spoken by mainly elderly Cappadocian Greeks in various regions of Greece including in Karditsa, Volos, Kilkis, Larisa, Thessaloniki, Chalkidiki, Kavala, and Alexandroupoli. Some Cappadocian Greeks who converted to Islam, allowing them to avoid the population exchanges of 1923, still speak the language in their traditional homeland in Turkey. The Cappadocian Greeks have been isolated from

24660-531: The linguistic and ethnic minority groups in Macedonia is not known with any degree of scientific accuracy, as Greece has not conducted a census on the question of mother tongue since 1951. Aromanians form a minority population throughout much of Macedonia. They largely identify as Greeks and most belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, many refusing to be called a minority group. In the 1951 census they numbered 39,855 in all Greece (the number in Macedonia proper

24840-524: The majority of whom also migrated to Greece following the Anti-Greek Istanbul Pogrom riots of 1955. On their arrival in mainland Greece, many Cappadocian Greeks settled in villages similar to their original Cappadocian villages; the new settlements were named after towns and villages left behind in Cappadocia, with the addition of the word “Nea” (New). For example, Cappadocian Greeks from Sinasos (present Mustafapaşa near Ürgüp ) who settled in

25020-580: The modern Greek region of Macedonia became part of the modern Greek state in 1912–13, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) . It continued as an administrative division of Greece until the reform of 1987, when it was split into the second-level administrative divisions of Western Macedonia and Central Macedonia ; while the eastern part, into the Drama-Kavala-Xanthi Super-prefecture until 2010, and part of

25200-548: The modern administrative district of Greece and had Thessaloniki as its capital, while Macedonia Salutaris had the Paeonian city of Stobi (near Gradsko ) as its capital. This subdivision is mentioned in Hierocles ' Synecdemon (527–528) and remained through the reign of emperor Justinian . The Slavic , Avar , Bulgarian and Magyar invasions in the 6–7th centuries devastated both provinces with only parts of Macedonia Prima in

25380-410: The modern times. Contemporary Greek Macedonian cooking shares much with general Greek and wider Balkan and Mediterranean cuisine, including dishes from the Ottoman past. Specific influences include dishes of the Pontic , Aromanian , Armenian and Sephardi Jewish population. The mix of the different people inhabiting the region gave the name to the Macedonian salad . Music of Macedonia

25560-416: The most prevalent minority languages in the region, while Aromanian , Arvanitic , Megleno-Romanian , Turkish , and Romani are also spoken. Judaeo-Spanish , also known as Ladino , was historically the language of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, although the Holocaust nearly eradicated the city's previously-vibrant Jewish community of 70,000 to a mere 3,000 individuals today. The exact size of

25740-494: The north-east. The table below is a concise list of the various subdivisions of Macedonia: The Gross Domestic Product of Macedonia peaked at €41.99 billion ($ 47.44 billion) in nominal value and €46.87 billion ($ 52.95 billion) in purchasing power parity just before the Great Recession in 2008; it has since then contracted to its lowest point in 2015, during the Greek government-debt crisis , to €30.85 billion ($ 34.85 billion) and €38.17 billion ($ 43.12 billion);

25920-406: The northern part of the island of Euboea in Greece named their new settlement Nea Sinasos "New Sinasos". Other examples include Nea Karvali in northern Greece, and Neo Prokopi in central Greece. The regions of Greece with significant settlements of Cappadocian Greeks include the cities of Karditsa , Volos , Kilkis , Larisa , Chalkidiki , Kavala , Alexandroupoli and Thessaloniki . Today

26100-405: The oldest, dating to 9.6–8.7 million years ago. During the early Neolithic period, the settlement of Nea Nikomedeia was developed. In the Late Neolithic period ( c.  4500  – c.   3500 BC ), trade took place with quite distant regions, indicating rapid socio-economic changes. One of the most important innovations was the start of copper working. According to Herodotus ,

26280-409: The period of Ottoman rule. Subsequent to the 1571 Ottoman conquest of Cyprus , the Ottoman Sultan Selim I decided to transfer Greeks from Cappadocia, particularly from the Kayseri region, to Cyprus . During this period the architect Sinan , who was born of Greek parentage and a native of Cappadocia wrote a letter to the Sultan asking for his family to be spared from this population transfer. During

26460-482: The population exchange between Greece and Turkey 1920s. The Greek inhabitants of these districts of Cappadocia were called Troglodytes . In the 10th century Leo the Deacon recorded a journey to Cappadocia by Nikephoros Phokas , in his writings he mentions that its inhabitants were called Troglodytes, in view of the fact that they “went underground in holes, clefts and labyrinths, as it were in dens and burrows”. The Byzantines re-established control of Cappadocia between

26640-432: The preparing of wind-cured meats known as pastirma , a delicacy called in Byzantine times "paston", along with the use of the ubiquitous Central Anatolian spinach-like herb madimak to make dishes such as a variant of spanikopita . The Cappadocian Greek-American immigrant and renowned Hollywood director Elia Kazan made an Academy Award-winning movie America, America about his uncle, who grew up in Cappadocia and then

26820-425: The pressure of the Turkmen nomads, possibly constituting majorities in some urban centers. During this chaotic period there is evidence that some native Cappadocian Greeks had joined the invading Turkish nomads. Some even managing to rise to levels of prominence in the Seljuq Sultanate of Rum , such as Basil Giagoupes (Bασίλειος Γιαγούπης), a wealthy Cappadocian Greek feudatory lord of a strongly Greek district who held

27000-439: The protection of a cosmopolitan middle class. The economy of Cappadocia was largely based upon agriculture and mining and the rural centers which lay upon the valleys and plains. The Cappadocian Greeks have distinctive traditional songs and dances which are still performed in Greece. The Persian poet Rumi (1207–1273), whose name means "Roman", referring to his residence amongst the "Roman" Greek speakers of Cappadocia, wrote

27180-405: The region are known. Macedonians came to be of particular importance prior to the Balkan Wars , during the Macedonian Struggle , when they were a minority population inside the multiethnic Ottoman Macedonia . The Macedonians now have a strong regional identity, manifested both in Greece and by emigrant groups in the Greek diaspora . This sense of identity has been highlighted in the context of

27360-404: The region of the Black Sea . Cappadocian Greeks living in remote less accessible villages of Cappadocia remained Greek-speaking and Christian, as they were isolated and consequently less affected by the rapid conversion of the bordering districts to Islam and Turkish speech. The Greek Cappadocians retained the original Greek names of many regions of Cappadocia which were renamed Turkish names during

27540-406: The region's beauty gives it a great potential for further tourist development. The island of Thasos , lying close to the coast of eastern Macedonia, is another tourist destination. Chalkidiki is home to Mount Athos , which is an important centre of religious tourism . The mountainous interior allows for hiking activities and adventure sports , while ski resorts like Vasilitsa also operate in

27720-413: The regional agricultural economy is centered around cereal, fruit, and industrial crops . Overall Central and Western Macedonia account for 25% of the value of Greek agricultural produce (including 41% of fruit and 43% cereal). A brand identity for products made in Macedonia, called "Macedonia the GReat", was launched in 2019 by the Greek government. The European Union considers most of Macedonia to be

27900-438: The remainder of their lives…The people have no marked political aspirations such as those which prevail amongst the Greeks of the west coast; they dream, it is true, of a new Byzantine Empire, but any sympathies they can spare from an all-absorbing love of money and gain are devoted to the Russian. The south Cappadocian district, in which St. Gregory of Nazianzus once ministered, shows many signs of growing prosperity ; building

28080-414: The rest of Greece Macedonia is faced with an aging population; the largest age group in the region is that of the over 70, at 15.59% of the population, while the 0–9 and 10–19 groups combined made up 20.25% of the population. The largest urban centres in Macedonia in 2011 were: The inhabitants of Greek Macedonia are nowadays overwhelmingly ethnic Greeks , and most are also Greek Orthodox Christians. From

28260-483: The rest of the Greek-speaking world for centuries and this has made their culture , way of life, and customs somewhat distinctive. Their culture has been strongly influenced by the topography of its different regions. In the middle of the 18th century, after the Hatt-i humayun , the Greek feeling was stimulated, more schools were founded in the area and Greek was taught above. In commercial cities like Kayseri and Malakopea upper-level education and arts flourished under

28440-409: The sanjak of Niğde had a total Greek population of 58.312 (20%) and the sanjak of Kayseri had a total of 26.590 (10,1%). The Cappadocian Greeks of the 19th and 20th centuries were renowned for the richness of their folktales and preservation of their ancient Greek tongue. The underground cities continued to be used as refuges ( Cappadocian Greek : καταφύγια) from the Turkish Muslim rulers. As late as

28620-403: The senior ecclesiastical primate of the entire Eastern Illyricum , and in 535 his jurisdiction was reduced to the administrative territory of the Diocese of Macedonia . In the 8th century, from Rome it came under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople , and remained the main ecclesiastical centre in the historical region of Macedonia throughout the Middle Ages, and up to

28800-420: The side of the Democratic Army of Greece and fought to separate Greek Macedonia from the rest of Greece under the auspices of Yugoslavia , left Greece. These expatriates were the primary source of ethnic Macedonian irredentism and the appropriation of ancient Macedonian heritage. Macedonians ( Greek : Μακεδόνες , Makedónes [makeˈðones] ) is the term by which ethnic Greeks originating from

28980-524: The son of the klepht Ziakas, together with Dimitrios Karatasos , who had been among the captains at the siege of Naousa in 1821, led another uprising in Western Macedonia that has been profusely commemorated in Greek folk song. To strengthen Greek efforts for Macedonia, the Hellenic Macedonian Committee was formed in 1903, under the leadership of Dimitrios Kalapothakis ; its members included Ion Dragoumis and Pavlos Melas . Its fighters were known as Makedonomachoi ("Macedonian fighters"). Greece helped

29160-406: The southern regions of Cappadocia. Ariarathes V of Cappadocia who reigned from 163 to 130 BC is considered to have been the greatest of the Kings of Cappadocia. He was predominantly Greek by descent; his father Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia was half Greek Macedonian and Persian , and his mother was Antiochis , the daughter of the Seleucid Greek King Antiochus III of the Seleucid dynasty . By

29340-466: The story has it that, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a lovely rose to smell, full of perfume. The sultan was so amazed by its beauty that he begged God to give it to him. God replied, "This rose, Murad, is Thessalonica. Know that it is to you granted by heaven to enjoy it. Do not waste time; go and take it". Complying with this exhortation from God, Murad marched against Thessalonica and, as it has been written, captured it." Thessaloniki became

29520-433: The sultans' realms would also subjectively label any Muslim a "Turk" regardless of his or her mother tongue. The Greeks believed that by converting to Islam and losing his or her original Christian religion, the individual was also stepping out of the Greek national community. This way of thinking was even popular years after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Many shifts of population took place in central Anatolia during

29700-432: The total population in 1920 to 12% in 1928, with the Great Greek Encyclopedia noting in 1934 that those minorities that remained "do not yet possess a Greek national consciousness ". The population of Macedonia was greatly affected by the Second World War , as it was militarily occupied by Nazi Germany while its ally, Bulgaria , annexed eastern Macedonia. Germany administered its occupation zone by implementation of

29880-457: The towns population. The Cappadocian Greeks were taken to the coastal town of Mersin in order to be shipped to Greece. Many would lose all of their belongings due to corrupt officials and looters. The Cappadocian Greeks who were migrating from Cappadocia were replaced by Muslims migrating from mainland Greece, mainly from Thrace; some of these Muslims were Greeks (see Greek Muslims ), although most were of Slavic, Turkish and Gypsy origin. Many of

30060-422: The use of minority languages, though Greece is one of the countries which has not signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages ; a number of court cases have been brought to the attention of the European Parliament regarding the suppression of minority linguistic rights. Apart from Standard Modern Greek, a number of other Greek dialects are spoken in Macedonia. This includes Pontic Greek ,

30240-403: The war on the side of the Allies. In World War II Macedonia was occupied by the Axis (1941–44), with Germany taking western and central Macedonia with Thessaloniki and Bulgaria occupying and annexing eastern Macedonia. At the beginning of the 19th century, Slavic peasants identified themselves based on belonging to their family, village, or local region, or as " Rum Millet ", i.e. members of

30420-448: The winter months. Macedonia is home to four of Greece's 18 UNESCO World Heritage sites . Vergina is best known as the site of ancient Aigai (Αἰγαί, Aigaí , Latinized : Aegae ), the first capital of Macedon . Aigai has been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status. In 336 BC Philip II was assassinated in Aigai's theatre and his son, Alexander the Great , was proclaimed king. The most important recent finds were made in 1977 when

30600-410: Was a native Greek, born in Cappadocia and is considered to have been one of the foremost surgeons in antiquity. He was the first to distinguish between diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus , and the first to provide a detailed description of an asthma attack . By late antiquity the Cappadocian Greeks had largely converted to Christianity . They were so thoroughly devout to Christianity that by

30780-523: Was also still spoken at Silli north-west of Konya , in Pharasa (today Çamlıca village in Yahyalı district) and other villages in isolated communities in the interior of central Turkey prior to the Genocide of 1915 and subsequent population transfers. Many Cappadocian Greeks completely abandoned Greek when they learned Turkish, although in the western regions of Cappadocia many Greeks still retained their native language. John Robert Sitlington Sterrett travelled through Cappadocia in 1884 and noted: " Melegobi

30960-496: Was based on administrative divisions called Themata . The region of Macedonia Prima (the territory of modern Greek administrative district of Macedonia) was divided between the Thema of Thessaloniki and the Thema of Strymon , so that only the region of the area from Nestos eastwards continued to carry the name Macedonia, referred to as the Thema of Macedonia or the Thema of "Macedonia in Thrace". The Thema of Macedonia in Thrace had its capital in Adrianople . Familiarity with

31140-436: Was commissioned to build the Gök Medrese (Sivas) in 1271. Over the course of the 15th century the Ottoman Turks conquered Cappadocia from the Seljuk Turks, the Cappadocian countryside remained largely Greek populated, with a smaller Armenian population even after the Ottoman conquest. During the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murad III (1574 to 1595) the region of Cappadocia became largely Turkified in culture and language through

31320-490: Was first incorporated in Greece in 1913, however, Greeks were a marginal plurality in the region. The treaties of Neuilly (1919) and Lausanne (1923) mandated a forceful exchange of populations with Bulgaria and Turkey respectively, and some 776,000 Greek refugees (mostly from Turkey) were resettled in Macedonia, displacing 300,000–400,000 non-Greeks who were forced to move as part of the population exchange. The population of ethnic minorities in Macedonia dropped from 48% of

31500-400: Was fully annexed by the Romans. The northern boundary at that time ended at Lake Ohrid and Bylazora , a Paeonian city near the modern city of Veles . Strabo , writing in the first century AD places the border of Macedonia on that part at Lychnidos , Byzantine Achris and presently Ochrid . Therefore, ancient Macedonia did not significantly extend beyond its current borders (in Greece). To

31680-485: Was reorganised by Philip II and achieved the union of Greek states by forming the League of Corinth . After his assassination, his son Alexander succeeded to the throne of Macedon and carrying the title of Hegemon of League of Corinth started his long campaign towards the east. After the death of Alexander the Great and the Wars of the Diadochi , Macedonia was a powerful state of Hellenistic Greece . Macedonia remained an important and powerful kingdom until

31860-518: Was sent on foot as a teenager, with the entire family savings, to escape persecution and establish a new life in Istanbul, and eventually, to bring the rest of the family there. Seljuq Turks Great Seljuk : 1194 – Toghrul III was killed in battle with Tekish The Seljuk dynasty , or Seljukids ( / ˈ s ɛ l dʒ ʊ k / SEL -juuk ; Persian : سلجوقیان Saljuqian , alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), Seljuqs , also known as Seljuk Turks , Seljuk Turkomans or

32040-413: Was specifically mentioned as the enemy in Greek Macedonia's unofficial anthem, Famous Macedonia , the reference only being replaced by vague 'Barbarians' with the normalization of Greco-Bulgarian relations in the 1970s. During the same period, Manolis Andronikos made major archaeological discoveries at Aigai , the first capital of ancient Macedonia , which included the tomb of Phillip II , Alexander

32220-440: Was supposed to establish a new life and, eventually, to bring the rest of the family to the city. In the end Elia's uncle traveled much further, to America, later fulfilling his filial duty and bringing his family over as well. Kazan made his book into an Academy Award-winning movie America, America in 1963. The Cappadocian Greeks continued a number of Anatolian culinary traditions passed down since Byzantine times. These include

32400-440: Was the first king of Cappadocia of wholly non-Persian blood. He ruled over Cappadocia for many years before being deposed by Tiberius , who took possession of Cappadocia for Rome . The region of Cappadocia produced some notable Greek individuals in antiquity, such as Apollonius of Tyana (1st century ad) who was a Greek Neo-Pythagorean philosopher who became well known in the Roman Empire and Aretaeus of Cappadocia (81–138 AD) who

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