Turkish/Greek names

[Evzonas]

I think we should not expand this threat to what we have done to eachother...
Let's stick to the subject which is Greek-Turkish names...espcecially for cities etc.

I am looking for an interesting book somewhere in my library which I recall had some explanations about various Greek-Turkish names, their relations and which came from the other.

[Andy H]

I have slashed my way through this thread, with the delicate touch of a jack hammer.

Victor asked you all to stay on thread and not re-ignite any Greek/Turkish feuding. Some of you couldn't help yourself, and so I have removed countless posts and edited others without explanation. If you think you need a explanation then you didn't read Victors post.

Andy H

[Tosun Saral]

My family imigrated from village of Sofular of Kozana. we lost Kozana in Nov 24th 1912 during the Balkan war. Greeks call the city Kozani. I dont know what they say to Sofular today.
Here is the list of Turkish cities in Greece.
Dimetoka,
Gumulcine
Buyuk Balas
Egridere
Iskece
Drama
Kavala
Selanik
Sari Saban
Serez
Gevgili
Serfice
Kayalar
and more

Content removed as it wasn't relevant
Andy H

[prousa90]

I know that these post are like 10 years old, but I couldn't keep off putting in my two cents .
So there are many reasons why Turks changed many placenames. But we can't use the word change, when e.g. Turks use another name for a place then Greeks. Anyway, one of the reasons:
The Mongols endangered Oghuz (a Turkic branch, Turkish, Turkmen and Azerbaijani people are Oghuzs) homelands in Central Asia. So they had to move westwards after many wars with the Mongols. It was just like in the Migration Period in ancient times, when the Huns fell over Europe and all the Germanic tribes moved south and westwards. We all know that. So we come back to the Turks who moved westwards and came in Anatolia in 1071 when Sultan Alp Arslan won the battle of Manzikert against the Byzantinians. The Turks who earlier lived in Central Asia then moved to today's Iran (who also had a lot of fun with the Turks) and then to Anatolia. It is a determining fact that this was a fast process. And as you can guess, the Turks then had contact to people they've never seen before, people who spoke a totally different language with totally different phonemes and accents. The name of the cities were unpronounceable for the Turks, placenames like Trapezuntas, Caeserea, Adrianopolis, Yerznka. So the Turks mostly adopted the Arabic versions of the names of places the Arabs had contact with (Turks had contact with the Arabic language for a longer time so it was easier to adopt the Arabic names), e.g. Kustantiniyyah (Kostantiniye) for Constantinople, Antakiyyah (Antakya) for Antioch etc., or completely Arabic names of the cities, e.g. 'Ayn Tayyib (Antep) etc.
A long time passed and the Turks moved north and westwards again. Now they tried to adopt placenames as Greeks, Armenians and Georgians etc. used them, but in a way the Turks could pronounce it, of course. Prousa turned into Bursa, Palaiokastron into Balıkesir, Attaleia (late Greek pronunciation Antalia) into Antalya etc. And of course Turks are not totally uncreative, they found new names for places or they founded new cities with Turkish names like Aydın, Denizli, Erzurum, Gümüşhane and Eskişehir or just translated the placenames like Saranta Ekklesies into Kırkkilise (today Kırklareli).
Maybe it is important to say that it was a very old tradition of Turks to name their new places after places they come from, or after the clan they come from (there are like 16 Oghuz clans), e.g. Karaman.
The lesson is clear: The changes of the toponyms of Anatolia are not necessarily intentional. Except those who have honorifics like Kahramanmaraş, Gaziantep or Şanlıurfa. It is just a natural change, because of the exchange of two or more cultures and you don't say 'hey that's nice, I'll take it', but you adopt it and integrate it so it fits in your frames. I think it wouldn't be different when Greeks would have moved eastwards and had to adopt Turkish place names like Çarşıpazar or Kiğılı, since they couldn't pronounce them. It would something like Tsarsipazaris and Kighilis. And I would not say that after the wars between Greece and Turkey, Turks changed the Greek names of their cities because now they hate Greeks. That does not make any sense. And in the example of Istanbul we see that, Kostantiniye was maybe the official name, but there were many inofficial names that were used more often like Islambol and Istanbul. And as Mustafa Kemal founded the Republic of Turkey the whole mentality changed, everything imperial was abolished and the nation was foregrounded. Even the language. And as Mustafa Kemal aimed for a laicist state, the decision was made on Istanbul, since Islambol was out of the question.
And for my Greek friends (especially Evzonas), I know our common history showed us many wars and battles and ambushes, but this was a shorter period than that with peace and living together. I don't know why we hate each other, while you can be friends with the Germans and we can be friends with France, Russia and Great Britain. And we are even so close and so similar. I cannot endure that many Greeks verbally attack us and other way. If Thessaloniki is Selanik for us, Istanbul should be Constantinople to you

I hope I could answer some questions, greets and thanks.