Phase 1: From Anatolia to Rumelia (16th c.)
The Ottoman state pursued a deliberate sürgün-iskân (deportation-settlement) policy in the
16th and 17th centuries, relocating Turkic groups — particularly Avşar Turkmens from Central and
Southern Anatolia (Karaman, Maraş, Adana, Niğde, Kırşehir, Sivas) — to newly conquered Balkan lands.
The policy served two ends: pacifying restive Anatolian regions (especially during the Celali rebellions
of the late 16th and 17th centuries), and stabilising Ottoman rule in the Balkans with loyal Muslim
populations.
Settlement in Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık
The Karabağlar group was settled in the Hacıoğlu-Pazarcık region (today's Dobrich, Bulgaria). Ottoman
tahrir records of 1518 show only 14 households in the founding Hacıoğlu settlement; by 1569, the
district had become a kasaba (town) with two Friday mosques, nine mescits, and a school. The 76 villages
of the nahiye (district) were populated entirely by Turks — 2,876 households (~14,000 people).
The village of Çayır, from which Mesudiye's founders would later migrate, was established during this
expansion period.
Three centuries on the Balkans
The Karabağlar community persisted in Bulgarian Rumelia for roughly 300 years, preserving their Avşar
dialect, customs, dress, and patronymic naming conventions (the -es suffix still found in
Mesudiye family names like Özşahines). By the 19th century, they were thoroughly local —
farming, raising livestock, and integrating into the broader Rumelia Turkish community.
Phase 2: The 1906-1907 return
Following the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War and the establishment of Bulgaria as an independent kingdom
in 1908, pressure on Turkish Muslim minorities intensified. In 1906, ninety-four households of Çayır
village organised the return migration to Anatolia. Their journey — Çayır → Köstence → Haydarpaşa →
Konya → Karaman — completed an approximately 400-year cycle. See
/en/tarih/goc/
for full route detail.
Cultural continuity
The Karabağlar of Mesudiye still bear the marks of the journey. Their Rumeli Turkish dialect (the -es
suffix, vowel shortening), their Balkan-style muhacir clay oven and the bread baked in it, their
two-day wedding customs preserving Rumeli ceremonial practices — all are testaments to the cultural
continuity that 300 years on the Balkans did not erase, but rather enriched.
