Çerkezköy

About Çerkezköy

Çerkezköy is a municipality and district of Tekirdağ Province, Turkey. Its area is 86 km2, and its population is 206,829 (2022). Çerkezköy is located in inland Thrace just to the west of the outlying Istanbul districts of Çatalca and Silivri. Çerkezköy is an industrial area. It is 56 km (35 mi) from Tekirdağ and 110 km (68 mi) from Istanbul but in many ways has closer links to the bigger city. The mayor is Vahap Akay (CHP).

Until the 1800s this was a village called 'Türbedere'. 'Türbe' is the Turkish for 'tomb' and the village took its name from the tomb of the eldest son of sultan Bayezid I, Süleyman Çelebi, who was murdered here in 1410 when fleeing from his brothers during the Ottoman Interregnum. The tomb was destroyed by Bulgarian troops when they occupied the town for nine months during the war for Bulgarian Independence in 1912.

Çerkezköy was founded as a settlement for refugees from the Caucasus following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 ('Çerkez' being the Turkish pronunciation of 'Circassian'). Soon after, following the independence of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire further waves of refugees from Bulgaria came to replace the Caucasians and Çerkezköy was...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.