Ayvalık

Ayvalık, Greek Kydonia, is a small town on the Aegean coast of western Anatolia. It lies on a peninsula in the Gulf of Edremit, opposite the island of Mytilene (Midilli). It is the capital of the kaza of the same name in the vilayet of Balıkesir. In 1945 it had 13,650 inhabitants; V. Cuinet gave 20,974 for the end of the nineteenth century, a population largely Greek Orthodox. A small group of islands in the gulf, the Yunt Adaları, was known in antiquity as Hekatonnesoi. ¹

Ayvalık was completely destroyed in the Greek War of Independence (1236/1821), but it soon regained its prosperity. Under the agreement between Turkey and Greece of 30 January 1923 to exchange minorities, the Greek population, which had formed most of the inhabitants, left; it was replaced by returning Turks from Midilli, Crete and Macedonia. Today the population is entirely Turkish and Muslim. ¹