1906–1907 · ≈1,200 km
In 1906-1907, ninety-four households of the Karabağlar tribal confederation made the journey from Çayır village in Bulgaria's Silistra province to the Durayda land in Anatolia — a return migration of approximately 1,200 km that founded Mesudiye village in autumn 1907.
Following the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War, the political reorganisation of the Balkans put increasing pressure on Turkish Muslim communities in newly independent Bulgaria. Throughout the 1890s and early 1900s, waves of muhajirs migrated from the Balkans to Anatolia. The Konya vilayet had identified ~227,000 dönüm of empty land available for settlement; ~136,000 dönüm (59.7%) were in Karaman, suitable for ~6,800 migrants.
The 94 households travelled in stages: Çayır → Köstence (Constanța, Romania) overland, then maritime crossing to Haydarpaşa (Istanbul), then by the recently-opened Konya-Baghdad railway to Konya, and finally overland to Karaman. Their arrival was facilitated by Çotuk Ahmet Efendi, a local figure who organised the allocation of the Durayda land. The Konya-Baghdad railway, whose construction began in 1903, was critical infrastructure for the migration's logistics.
By the end of 1907 (1323 in the Islamic calendar), the 94 households had completed their settlement on the Durayda land. The new village was named Mesudiye — from the Arabic mes'ûd meaning "happy, blessed" — with the wish that those who would live there might be content and at peace. The name was officially registered in 1934 under the Republic's village naming reforms.
The migration was, in effect, a return journey. In the 16th century, under the Ottoman sürgün-iskân (deportation-settlement) policy, Avşar Turkmens from Anatolia (Karaman, Maraş, Adana, Niğde, Kırşehir, Sivas) had been resettled in Dobruca and Deliorman — today's Bulgaria. The Karabağlar are descendants of those Avşar groups, and their 1907 return completed an approximately 400-year cycle. See also: overview.