First Settlements In the village and Administrative system

COMMON LIFE AND CRYPTO CHRISTIANS

IMMIGRATIONS FROM THE VILLAGE

As I mentioned before, according to the written documents we have been able to obtain, the arrival of the Turks in Uğurtaşı shows the first half of the 1600s. I could not find a written source even if they existed before. It is known that during the reign of Murat 4. (1623-1640), six to ten thousand people were recruited from the surrounding regions and provinces to work in the mines that were effectively operated in the Gümüşhane region and settled in the Authority region. Here, I would like to talk about the administrative system of this period when Turks, Greeks, Armenians and Kurds lived together. As it will be remembered, until the Tanzimat Edict of 1839, the Ottoman Empire ruled places such as Uğurtaşı with the Timar system. Representatives of the Timar system were also chosen from Muslim families living here. Later, within the framework of the improvements brought by the Tanzimat edict, the administration system was adopted here as well. By the way, I would like to talk a little bit about the Tımar system. The Timar system has been adopted in the Ottoman Empire since the 1400s. The state did not pay salaries to Timar's owners. Our citizens living in this region used to pay their taxes to the owner of Tımar. In return, the owners of Timar would both train soldiers for the state and be responsible for the security of the region. He rode horses and had a stickman with them to light his long pipes. For example, Kurtoğlu Ali, who lived in Kürtlü region, was a stickman and used to have a dialogue with his agha. My brother, you are both my agha and my pasha. Mukhtar said to Kurtoğlu Ali, you put honey on my head - you wrapped my head with honey. (Source: Some articles in Greek)

The Timar system was a military system as well as an administrative system. At the beginning of the 1800s, when the Janissaries were fed up with the revolts, the Ottomans decided to change the administration and established the headman organization in 1829 (Annex-13). After this change, he appointed two headmen, again from Turkish and Muslim families, to each village and neighborhood, with the names of Muhtar-ı First (First Muhtar) and Muhtar-ı Sani (Second Headman).

I would also like to remind you that, as can be understood from the Ottoman edict dated February 12, 1810 in Annex-5, the Derbentcilik of the region (See: Uğurtaşı with Documents) was given to Turkish and Muslim families.

According to current records, there have been Turks and Muslims in İstavri since the 1500s. Between 1500 and 1700, I could not reach the names of the people who lived in our village, nor the names of the rulers. Following the above information, I would like to discuss our village's rulers, respectively. According to the Timar system in the Ottoman Empire, the rulers were chosen from among the Muslims. However, prior to the establishment of the Muhtar organization in 1829, I could only identify some names such as Mahmut Ağa, his son İsmail Ağa, his grandson Tahir Ağa and Hasbedar Osman Efendi, among those who governed our village due to the Timar syste

Between 1829 and 1847, as far as we can learn from the Ottoman censuses, he served first as Tahir Agha (1829-1835) as the headman, and after his death in 1835, as Hüseyin Agha (1835-1847) as the headman, and Molla Ahmet Efendi as the headman of Sani. Mullah Ahmet Efendi was also a judge in Maçka (Annex-14).

Administrative changes made with the 1839 Tanzimat edict could only be implemented in our village after 1847. As a result of the innovations brought about by compensation, other communities living in our village also gained the right to vote and be elected. Our village has been governed by the headman's office and the council of elders since 1847. The headmen and the council of elders were chosen from Turkish and Greek candidates. Due to the numerical superiority of other communities, the mukhtars elected since 1847 are mostly non-Muslims. The names of the Turks who served as mukhtars between 1847 and 1923: Ruzvan Ağa, Hasan Efendi (Uzunibrahimoğlu), Mehmet Efendi (Himmetoğlu), Bekir Efendi (Karakullukçu), Hüsnü Efendi (Karakullukçu), Kamil Efendi (Ömerler) (Annex-15). Some of them served as mukhtars twice. You can see the names of those who served as mukhtars in the Republican period in Annex-16. Meanwhile, I would like to share another piece of information with you. In the Ottoman Empire, the salaries of teachers and imams in mosques were not covered by the state, as was the case with the owners of Timars and Derbents. There were two reasons for this. First, if the state paid the imam's salary, the imam would be perceived as being on the side of the state. The second reason is the distance libertarians had from religion in the Ottoman Empire. Of course, those who ruled the Ottoman Empire were Muslims, and the salaries of imams and high-ranking officials in the palace and the mosques close to it were funded by the state. The salaries of teachers and imams in other neighborhoods and villages were paid through foundations established in those neighborhoods and villages. As it can be seen in Annex 11, as an example of this, the salaries of imams and muezzins in our village were paid by the villagers and the money foundation established by Tahir Agha.

Researcher Murat Dursun Tosun's research on the history of Gümüşhane in Ottoman archive documents reveals some interesting details. According to a document dated April 3, 1908, those (Santa, Kurum, İstavri, Muzena, Imera, Yaglidere, Yazıt, Varniyas, etc.) living in the settlements in the Kurum valley due to the difficulty of access to Torul (Annex-17) were excluded from Torul administratively. The plaintiffs also requested that they be attached to Gümüşhane with the same document. The Sultanate also evaluated this situation and approved their annexation to Gümüşhane. By this decision, a first degree directorate was established in the district of Istavri, and a second degree directorate for Kurum. The signatories under the document belong to İstavri Kariyesi Priest, İstavri Kariyesi Imam and İstavri Kariyesi Mukhtar. (Annex-18)

As it is known, our village was quite crowded at the beginning of the 1900's. Turks and Greeks lived together. The number of Greek quarters was more than that of the Turks. It is mentioned in some records that there are around 11neighborhoods. These are Karauçi, Anbarlı, Emir (Four districts as Kürtlü, Emir, Gregosli, Kuri), Kömürcü, Yerantlı, Manamatlı, Aşağıköy and maybe other settlements.

Although Karauçi is the neighborhood where Turks live, there were Turks in other neighborhoods such as Yerantlı, Manomatlı and Aşağıköy, although they were minorities. The demographic structure below has been obtained by translating from some Greek sources. This situation was also determined by the 1835 census.

Although the Greeks lived in every neighborhood, they did not exist in Karauçi, where the Turks lived.

Some areas inhabited by Armenians are Langons and Manuga.

Some regions where Kurds live are Kürtlü and Gregosli.

The region where Georgians live is Kartulli.

It is written that Circassians lived in Aşağıköy.

I wonder if there were families with such different ancestry here that should be questioned? However, we know that during the operation of the mineral deposits, people from many different places came here to find work and food. Those who came here to work left as they came after the operation of the mineral deposits was stopped.

The Greek writer Economides also mentions Uğurtaşı (Istavri) village in his Pontus book written in 1920. The author will still be under the influence of the Serv Treaty in the 1920s, and he gives some facts biased. In addition, he writes that Uğurtaşı is a village of 2000 population and four churches and a school.

When the Ottoman population registers are examined: Although I do not have the registration details of 1856, according to the summary study I could find, there were 1480 people living in four neighborhoods (Center, Aşağıköy, Monomatlı, Kömürcu) and 296 households in İstavri at that time. Of these, 300-400 people were Muslim in 50-60 households, 280-380 people were secret Christians in 60-70 households, and 800 were Christians in 170-180 households. According to the population records dated 1905, there were 1,083 people living in 206 households in Istavri. These are 170 Muslims in 28 households, 199 secret Christians (called Klosti or Kfiros) in 43 households, and 714 Christians in 135 households.

Again, as many authors, including Economides, have noted, the Ottomans have forced a portion of the village's Greek population to migrate to Akdamadeni Yozgat since the 1830s, either out of necessity or to work in the mines. A part of the Turkish population has also immigrated to Akdamadeni to work in the mines since the 1830s. He also states that although there are Christians in the region, there are people who hide their identities because they fear Turks and Muslims and pretend to be Muslims. There was no migration from our region to Akdamadeni. Greeks and Turks, who went to work in the mines in Koyulhisar-Sivas and Maden-Elazig, also caused a decrease in the population of our village and region. According to what we read in the 1835 census lists, there were those who went to Keban-Elaz and Alada for mining, Kuruçay-Elaz for taşclk and irgatlk, and Bozok-Yozgat to work. We also know about the Istavri people who went to Corum to work, according to an Ottoman document dated March 12, 1906. Annex-20

Historian Assoc. Dr. Ahmet Türkan's "Crypto Christians in the Ottoman Empire" Annex-21 and researcher Murat Dursun Tosun's "Gumushane in Ottoman archive documents" talks about these issues in detail. Because even though this issue did not interest the Ottomans at the beginning, it kept busy for 35 years from 1880 onwards. The Greeks, who converted from Christianity to Islam in the 1790s and were called İstavrililer, came from the Torul district of the Gümüşhane sanjak of Trabzon and settled in Akdağmadeni, which is connected to the Yozgat sanjak of Ankara province. Most of those who came were half-Christian, half-Muslim, called Gromitsi, but there were a small number of true Muslims among them. They came here to work in the 1840s, when the Simli lead mine in Akdağmadeni was operated by the government. In general, they were settled in the neighborhoods and villages of the Maden district (Istavri, Körmüti neighborhoods and Başçatak and Aktaş villages of Yozgat). There were so many İstavri miners who went to Yozgat to work in the mines that they named a village there as İstavri. The people of İstavri who immigrated to Yozgat and the people of İstavri who were affiliated to Torul did not break their relations until the first years of the republican period. This relationship was continued by both Greeks and Turks. According to the sources I could reach, in the 1880s, Kasımoğlu Eyüp's daughter Gülizar got married to Küpecioğlu Yusuf, who immigrated to Yozgat. Again in the 1910s, Fadime, the daughter of İbrahim Karakullukçu, went to the Çağil village of Yozgat as a bride. When the people of İstavri migrated here, they were recorded in the population registers with their Muslim names. Although they were known by these names for a long time, they were secretly performing Greek Orthodox rites, appearing to be Muslims. The main reason for this was that when they came here in the 1840s, the Tanzimat Fermanı and the Islahat Fermanı had not yet been published, and for this reason, they had to hide their identities (religion) in order to work in decent job.

By the way, I'd like to talk a little bit about the Secret Christians' way of life. The secret Christians bore two names, one Muslim and the other Christian. They had their children baptized and were not married to true Christians or Muslims. Their children were married to a single, secretly Christian woman or man, openly, according to Islamic tradition, but with a Christian ritual at night. Although they were buried in the Muslim cemetery when they died, they were exhumed at night by their close relatives and placed in the nearest Christian cemetery. It was difficult for them to baptize their children, since in many villages there were no priests; they had to go at night to the nearest Christian village where this work could be done and return before sunrise. Their marriage was also a problem because they had to call a priest to their home. However, there were also small religious places of worship, such as chapels under some houses. There were also secret priests among the secret Christians. Thanks to these secret priests, they performed all their religious duties in their secret places of worship. These underground chapels emerged under the abandoned and destroyed houses after the exchange.

After the success of the Russians in the 93 War (1877) and the proclamation of the 1st Constitutional Monarchy, they did not feel the need to hide this situation anymore, and although they said they were Christians, this issue kept the Ottomans busy for many years. Because the Ottoman state would not accept secret Christians who had been known as Muslims for years to declare "we are Christians" and convert to Christianity (tanassur). There have also been some unfortunate events in this regard. Some of them were declared apostates because of their conversion and were even executed. After these sad events, Ottoman apostasy was decriminalized, preventing execution or other punishments. They said that we are Muslims in order to benefit from the rights given to Muslims before. Especially with the Reform Edict (1856), it was ensured that they had the same rights as Muslims, such as being a soldier and a commander, being considered a martyr when they died in the army, having the right to pay military service, being a civil servant and an administrator, and being subject to an equal taxation system by giving up the jizya. Even though these decisions were taken in Istanbul, it would take time for the implementation failures in Anatolia or the Muslim people and kadis in Anatolia to accept them. It was not as easy as the decisions taken by Istanbul to allow the Klostis (secret Christians) to worship. The struggle between the Ottoman governors, Sanjak beys and kadis, and the Metropolitans of Trabzon, Haldia (Gümüşhane), the Archbishop of Sümela, Krom, and stavri priests has been a long and painful process. For this reason, the events between Muslims and non-Muslims and secret Christians in our region (Istavri, Krom, Sümela, Trabzon, Gümüşhane, and even Yozgat) continued until the exchange. In short, our relations, which had existed in peace and harmony from the 1600s until Tanzimat Ferman in 1839, could not be restored after this date. Nevertheless, if we look at the stories, we should say that the common entertainments, the exchange of girls, and the unity of fate continue.