Selanik’teki Kütahyalı Mübadil Derlemelerinde Son Osmanlı Tarihi ve Karamanlı Kültürü

Karaman People (or Karamanlides) lived in Anatolia in the period of Ottoman Empire and spoke their mother language, Karamanli Turkish from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Despite the fact that the official goverment language was written in Arabic Script, this Anatolian Orthodox Christian communitypublished their Turkish works in Greek Script. Many Karamanlides had to leave their homes during the population exchange in 1923 between Greece and Turkey, because of being an Orthodox although they didn't speak Greek. Some refugees from Kutahya settled in and around Thessaloniki at that time. The first generation continued to speak Turkish and wrote this book to preserve their historical and cultural information about individuals, families or important events such as the period of Sultan Abdulhamid II, Ottoman Constitution, Mahmud Shevket Pasha who played an important role in ending the 31 March Incident. This article is about a book written by Karaman People from Kutahya, who settled in and around Thessaloniki: Savva S. Efremidu, Istoria-laografia tov Kotieu (Kütaheias), Poleos tis Kentrikis M. Asias (Historyand folklore of a city in the center of Asia Minor, Kutahya), Selanik, 1960. All data of Karaman Turkish in the book written in Greek language, was studied. Also the explanations in Greek were translated to Turkish before chapters in Karaman Turkish.