Migration route
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.
The migrants came from the village of Çayır, in the district of Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık in the province of Silistre in Bulgaria. Çayır (Çayır-Mahalle) was a Turkish village in the south of the Dobruca plateau, close to the Deliorman region. In 1942 its name was changed by the Bulgarian government to “Hitova”.
The families belonged to the Karabağlar (Karaballar) oymak (tribal group).
The 1906–1907 migration was in fact the last link in a much longer journey. The origin of the village's ancestors goes back to the region of Horasan, near today's Iran–Afghanistan border. The migration from that geography to Anatolia took place around the year 1200 — the same era in which Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi migrated from Horasan together with his family.
Migration chain
c. 1200 — Horasan (Iran–Afghanistan border): the ancestors migrated to Anatolia — contemporaries of Mevlana.
Following centuries — Taurus Mountains (the Karaman–Silifke line): they lived a Yörük (nomadic pastoralist) life.
Ottoman period — Rumeli (Bulgaria): they were settled in the Balkans through Ottoman settlement policies.
1906–1907 — Durayda, Karaman: the final migration from Bulgaria to Anatolia.
Living as Yörük in the Taurus Mountains, these communities maintained a semi-nomadic pastoralist culture. Having spent centuries on the high pastures between Karaman and Silifke, these people were finally transferred to the lands of Rumeli (Bulgaria) through Ottoman settlement policies.
Thus the families who returned from Bulgaria to Anatolia in the 1906–1907 migration were in fact completing a centuries-old cycle: from Central Asia to Anatolia, from Anatolia to Rumeli, and from Rumeli back to Anatolia.
Çotuk Ahmet Efendi, of the Karabağlar oymak, had settled at Durayda independently, before the other muhacirs. His fellow countrymen discovered him while they were staying at a han (inn) in Konya. Ahmet Efendi's invitation — “Come here, there is plenty of land at Durayda” — led the 94 households to turn towards this region.
The Ottoman state assigned Armenian and Greek master craftsmen and carpenters to the migrants. The muhacirs made mud bricks and mixed mortar to build their own houses. When the houses were completed, they were distributed by lot. The state also provided draught animals and seed grain.
Date of founding: autumn 1907. The settlement was announced in two newspapers:
Tercüman-ı Hakikat — no. 9594, 15 December 1907
Konya Vilâyet Gazetesi — no. 1894, 10 December 1907
Karaman Şer'iyye Sicili — register no. 321, pp. 229 and 292
In April 1914, 27 Bosnian muhacir households (108 people) were sent from İstanbul and settled at Durayda. However, because of disputes that arose among them (allegations of theft), they left the village a short time later and returned to Konya.