A Migration Story from the Balkans to Anatolia
Karaman • Türkiye
Mesudiye by the Numbers
About
Lying 15.7 km northwest of Karaman, 1,022 metres above sea level, on the fertile flatlands of the Karaman Plain, Mesudiye village is a settlement founded in Anatolia by Turkish muhacir families fleeing pressure in the Balkans in the last period of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1906–1907, 94 muhacir households reached this land from the village of Çayır in the Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık (present-day Dobrich) area of Bulgaria — by way of Köstence, Haydarpaşa and Konya; their settlement was completed in the autumn of 1907. These families of the Karabağlar oymak (tribal clan) built a new life on the land known by the centuries-old name "Durayda".
The village's present name, "Mesudiye", comes from the Arabic word "mes'ûd" (happy, fortunate) — given with the wish that those who would live here might be happy and at peace.
The ancestors of the Karabağlar oymak were, judging by the dialects of the region, Avşar Turkmens, and they must have been sent from Anatolia to Rumelia in the 16th century under the Ottoman policy of sürgün-iskân (deportation-settlement). They were settled in the Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık area of present-day Bulgaria and stayed there for about 300–400 years.
In the autonomous Principality of Bulgaria created after the 93 Harbi (the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877–78), pressure on the Turks went on for decades, until 94 households from the village of Çayır set out on the return migration. The route Çayır → Köstence → Haydarpaşa → Konya → Karaman came to about 1,200 kilometres. They settled on land whose historical name is Durayda; the village was founded in the autumn of 1907.
In only its eighth year, the village gave five martyrs at Çanakkale (Gallipoli) in 1915. Its nine documented veterans fought in four separate wars: the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War, the First World War, the War of Independence and the Korean War. Those eight years between settlement and sacrifice stand at the centre of the village's shared memory.
About 18 kilometres north-northeast of the village (as the crow flies), Karadağ rises from the flat Karaman Plain — an extinct stratovolcano at the southern end of the Central Anatolian volcanic region, with its highest point at Mahalaç Peak, 2,288 metres. On its slopes lies Binbir Kilise ("The Thousand and One Churches"): a Byzantine-era complex of buildings spread across the settlements of Madenşehri, Değle and Üçkuyu, holding the ruins of more than fifty churches and monasteries.
Gertrude Bell toured the site in 1905; Sir William M. Ramsay and Bell documented it systematically together in 1907 and published their findings in 1909 as The Thousand and One Churches. Ramsay dated the churches to the 5th–11th centuries. The area is identified with Barata, an episcopal centre of medieval Lycaonia; Ramsay notes that they found no inscription to prove it.
A village in the central district of Karaman Province. It lies 15.7 km northwest of Karaman city centre, on the Karaman Plain, at an elevation of 1,022 metres.
In the autumn of 1907. The 94 muhacir households who came in 1906–1907 from the village of Çayır in the Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık (present-day Dobrich) area of Bulgaria were Turkish families of the Karabağlar oymak.
Durayda. It also appears in the records as "Muhâcir Duraydası" and "Ova Duraydası"; its origin goes back long before the 1907 settlement, to the pre-Turkish period.
415 people according to TÜİK 2025 data. The peak in the official censuses is 535 in 1990 (the 1925 election count gives 547); the population has fallen with rural migration and has been recovering slightly since 2020.
It comes from the Arabic word "mes'ûd" (happy, fortunate); it was given at the end of 1907 as a wish for happiness for those who would live here, and it also appears in the official village list of 1928.
94 muhacir households from Bulgaria. They belonged to the Karabağlar oymak, whose origin, judging by the region's dialects, goes back to the Avşar Turkmens, and they must have descended from families deported from Anatolia to Rumelia in the 16th century. The land was allocated with the help of Çotuk Ahmet Efendi.
From the village of Çayır in the Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık (present-day Dobrich) area of Bulgaria. The route was Çayır → Köstence → Haydarpaşa → Konya → Karaman, about 1,200 km.
An oymak (tribal clan) whose origin, judging by the region's dialects, goes back to the Avşar Turkmens. They must have been deported to Rumelia in the 16th century, and they completed a 400-year migration cycle by returning to Karaman in 1907.
About 20 minutes by road from Karaman city centre. Karaman can be reached via Konya by bus, high-speed train or plane.
1,022 metres. The village lies on the flat land of the Karaman Plain; Karadağ is about 18 km to its north-northeast.
A Byzantine complex of buildings that Ramsay dated to the 5th–11th centuries, on the northern slopes of Karadağ, about 20 km north-northeast of the village. Bell toured the site in 1905; she and Ramsay documented it together in 1907 and published it in 1909.
The region was the heartland of the Karamanid Beylik (1256–1487); its capital Lârende is today's Karaman, only 15.7 km from the village.
5 martyrs in the 1915 Battles of Çanakkale. Given eight years after the village was founded, these martyrs live on in the "Eight Years" story.
9 known veterans, 4 wars: the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War, the First World War, the War of Independence and the Korean War. Galip Ay was taken prisoner by the British on the Iraq front; he could return home only a full 7 years after he left for the army.
Standard Turkish, with traces of Rumelian Turkish. The most distinctive are the patronymic suffix "-es" (Özşahines), the loss of h and the merging of vowels ("muhâcir" → "macır").
A domed bread oven of straw-mixed mud that the Balkan migrants brought with them from Rumelia. The muhacir loaf (muhacir somunu) baked in it does not go stale for days.
Muhacir somunu, dızmana, bulgur pilavı, kırma, sarı burma and dizme — a synthesis of the Rumelian migrant tradition with Anatolian ingredients.
Recep Evgin, since the 2024 elections. Since 1939, 19 people have served as the village's muhtar over 22 terms; the longest-serving, at 20 years, is Cengiz Özşahines.
The Karaman Ansiklopedisi, Ottoman tahrir registers, TÜİK data, newspapers dated 1907, and the oral histories of family representatives and village elders.
For all of them: the 28-question FAQ page.
Sections
Deep historical layers from Ottoman tahrir registers to the Republic.
Explore94 households' journey of about 1,200 km from Bulgaria to the Karaman Plain.
ExploreThe muhacir oven, Rumelian wedding customs and the Balkan heritage living on in Anatolia.
Explore54 surnames, one origin: the lineage of the Karabağlar oymak in Mesudiye.
ExploreLocation
This site was written in Turkish, the language of the village, and every page has an English and a German edition with the same history, photographs and sources. The Turkish original is one click away.
Turkish edition