Tenedos

Tenedos or Bozcaada in Turkish (, , Tenedhos) is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. Tenedos has a population of about 2,500. The main industries are fishing and tourism. The island has been famous for its grapes, wines and red poppies for centuries. The population is mostly Turkish but there are still about 30 ethnic Greeks on the island.

Geography

History

Antiquity

According to Greek mythology, the name "Tenedos" is derived from the eponymous hero Tenes, who ruled the island at the time of the Trojan War and was killed by Achilles. In Virgil's Aeneid, Tenedos is described as the island in whose bay the Achaeans hid their fleet near the end of the Trojan War in order to trick the Trojans into believing the war was over and allowing the Trojans to take the Trojan Horse within their city walls.

In ancient Greek history, there was an Aeolian settlement on Tenedos; it was conquered by the Persian Empire, and became independent again in the time of Alexander the Great. Later, there was a naval battle between C. Valerius Triarius and Mithridates' fleet off the island. In Pausanias' time, Tenedos was subject to Alexandria Troas.

Athenaeus remarks on the beauty of the women of Tenedos, and on its marjoram; Pindar also loved Theoxenus of Tenedos.

Late Middle Ages

In 1362, the Venetians offered to pay the Emperor's debts and lead an alliance against the Turks in exchange for Tenedos, but John V refused to cede the island which had been loyal to him. In 1370, however, he travelled to Italy to appeal to the Pope and Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy; he found himself broke in Venice, and agreed to cede Tenedos this time, in exchange for his debts, more money, and the Byzantine crown jewels, which had already been pledged; but his eldest son, Andronicus, regent in Constantinople during his absence, refused to give up the island. His second son, Manuel, paid off his creditors next year.

In 1376, this time from Constantinople, John V sold Tenedos to the Venetians again; in the meantime Andronicus had rebelled against his father and been defeated, imprisoned, and blinded in one eye. The Genoese freed Andronicus, and he deposed his father this time, becoming Andronicus IV; he then sold Tenedos to the Genoese. The garrison of Tenedos refused to go along with this, and sold Tenedos to the Venetians. This provoked the War of Chioggia between John V and Venetians, on one side, and Andronicus and the Genoese on the other.

The war ended in a draw, in 1381; John was to be Emperor, and Andronicus his heir. Pope Urban VI mediated between the two cities, and decided that Tenedos would belong to neither, but be laid waste; 4000 Greek islanders from Tenedos were resettled in Crete and Euboea. The Spanish traveller Clavijo visited the island in 1401, and wrote that it was deserted, but he found many vineyards, fruit trees, rabbits and the ruins of a great castle. Another Spanish traveller, Pero Tafur, visited the island in 1437 and found it deserted, with many rabbits, the vineyards covering the island still uncultivated, but the port well-maintained. He mentions frequent Turkish attacks on shipping in the harbor, now that the Castle no longer existed.

Ottoman rule

In the middle of 15th century, during the reign of Mehmet II, the Ottoman navy used the island as a supply base. The Venetians, realizing the strategic importance of island, deployed forces on it. In 1464, Ottoman Admiral Mahmud Pasha recaptured the island. During the Ottoman regime, the island was repopulated (by granting a tax exemption) and reengaged with its traditional economic activities. Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi wrote in the 16th century that the finest wines in the world were being produced in Bozcaada. Ottomans rebuilt the castle as well. Bozcaada, the name of the island in Turkish, is attested from the 16th century map of Piri Reis.

The Venetians were able to control the island for a brief period once more. After the Battle of the Dardanelles in 1657, the Ottoman Empire took it back. In the 19th century Russians repeatedly captured Tenedos during the Russo-Turkish Wars and they used it as their military base to achieve the victories at the Dardanelles and Athos; but they could not hold it.

The Ottomans adopted the Byzantine practice of using islands as places for the internal exile of state prisoners, such as Constantine Mourousis.

Between Turkey and Greece

Because of their strategic position near the Dardanelles, the western powers, particularly Britain, insisted at the end of the Balkan Wars in 1913 that the Ottoman Empire retain the islands of Tenedos and Imbros although the Empire would cede the other Aegean islands to Greece.

In 1920, following the WWI, the Treaty of Sèvres with the defeated Ottoman Empire granted the island to Greece, who joined the war in Allies' side in May 1917. The new Turkish Government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, based in Ankara, which was not party to the treaty, overthrew the Ottoman government, which signed but did not ratify the treaty. After the Turkish War of Independence ended in Greek defeat in Anatolia, and the fall of Lloyd George and his Middle Eastern policies, the western powers agreed to the Treaty of Lausanne with the new Turkish Republic, in 1923. This treaty made Tenedos and Imbros part of Turkey, and it guaranteed a special autonomous administrative status there to accommodate the Greeks. The treaty excluded the Greeks on the two islands from the population exchange that took place between Greece and Turkey, as they constituted a majority of the population there.

The treaty also provided for the rights of Greeks remaining in Turkey, and declared such rights fundamental laws unalterable by Turkish law or administrative decree, an international matter, to be amended only with the consent of a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. However shortly after the Civil Law legislation of 17 February 1926 (Medeni Kanun), the rights accorded to minorities in Turkey were revoked, in violation of the Lausanne Treaty.

One well known islander born in the modern times is 19th century Ottoman Naval Minister Bozcaadalı Hasan Hüsnü Pasha, who founded the Naval Museum of Istanbul, built a library and a mosque and a hammam for women in that city.

The Greek population

In all likelihood, the island was inhabited primarily by ethnic Greeks from ancient times through to around the middle of the 20th century except for a hiatus of nearly half a century at the end of 14th - beginning of 15th century after Venetians evacuated it. Because precise census records are a recent phenomenon, the detailed historic ethnic makeup of the islands must remain a matter of conjecture; however, a census taken under Greek rule in 1922 showed a bare majority of Greek inhabitants on Tenedos. The Greek Orthodox Church had a strong presence on the island.

Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) exempted Imbros and Tenedos from the large-scale population exchange that took place between Greece and Turkey, and required Turkey to accommodate the local Greek majority and their rights. Specifically:

The islands of Imbros and Tenedos, remaining under Turkish sovereignty, shall enjoy a special administrative organisation composed of local elements and furnishing every guarantee for the native non-Moslem population in so far as concerns local administration and the protection of persons and property. The maintenance of order will be assured therein by a police force recruited from amongst the local population by the local administration above provided for and placed under its orders.

Subsequently, the islands were to be largely autonomous and self-governing, with their own police force. Turkish policy consistently undermined both the spirit and letter of this commitment: Schools were required to teach exclusively in Turkish, and the local Greek population was marginalized in multiple ways.

Large numbers of mainland Turks were settled on the two islands, and Greek property was expropriated by the Turkish government, which asserted security concerns. The adequacy of the compensation is disputed. Guarantees that were made to all the Greek inhabitants of Turkey in the Treaty of Lausanne were ignored, and the Turkish government implemented a policy of intimidation.

While the Cyprus dispute between Greece and Turkey escalated in the 1960s, the situation of the Greeks of the two islands continually deteriorated. These events have led to the Greeks emigrating from both islands. There remains only a very small Greek community on Tenedos today, comprising several dozen mostly elderly people. Most of the former Greeks of Imbros and Tenedos are in diaspora in Greece, the United States, and Australia.

Economy

Traditional economic activities are fishing and wine production. Most of the cultivated lands are covered with vineyards. Grape harvest festivities are held on 26–27 July.

Tourism was an important activity since 1970's but it developed rapidly from 1990's onwards. Long and fine beaches and the historical town of the island attract Turkish and foreign tourists. Residents hire parts of their houses as pensions. There also are small hotels.

Red poppies of the island are used to produce small quantities of sharbat and jam.

In year 2000, a wind farm of 17 turbines was erected at the western cape. It produces 10.2 MW energy, much more than the need of island. Excess power is transferred to mainland Anatolia.

Notes

See also

References

External links

Category:History of Turkey Category:Islands of Turkey Category:Greece–Turkey relations Category:Ancient Greek sites in Turkey Category:North Aegean islands Category:Locations in the Iliad Category:Tenea *