31 Facts About Cappadocian Greeks

Cappadocian Greeks known as Greek Cappadocians or simply Cappadocians are an ethnic Greek community native to the geographical region of Cappadocia in central-eastern Anatolia, roughly the Nevsehir Province and surrounding provinces of modern Turkey.

Mycenaean Cappadocian Greeks set up trading posts along the west coast around 1300 BC and soon started colonizing the coasts, spreading Hellenic culture and language.

Unlike other regions of Asia Minor where Cappadocian Greeks would settle in cities, most of the Greek settlements in Cappadocia and other interior Anatolian regions were villages.

Cappadocian Greeks was predominantly Greek by descent, his father Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia was half Greek Macedonian and Persian and his mother was Antiochis, was the daughter of the Seleucid Greek King Antiochus III of the Seleucid dynasty.

Cappadocian Greeks was a Cappadocian Greek nobleman, possibly of Macedonian descent and was the first king of Cappadocia of wholly non-Persian blood.

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Cappadocian Greeks ruled over Cappadocia for many years before being deposed by Tiberius who took possession of Cappadocia for Rome.

Cappadocian Greeks was the first to distinguish between diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus, and the first to provide a detailed description of an asthma attack.

The Cappadocian Greeks hid in these rock-cut underground towns from many raiders over the next millennium, from 9th century Arab invaders to 11th century Turkish conquerors to 15th century Mongols.

The Cappadocian Greeks were removed from these villages in 1923, and they are now known as Derinkuyu and Kaymakli.

Cappadocian Greeks dedicated a church in the Peristrema valley where his portrait, which was painted from life still survives to this day.

Cappadocian Greeks were employed as architects, such as Kalo Yianni, who was commissioned to build the Gok Medrese in 1271.

Cappadocian Greeks living in remote less accessible villages of Cappadocia remained Greek-speaking and Christian, as they were isolated and consequently less affected by the rapid conversion of the bordering districts to Islam and Turkish speech.

The Cappadocian Greeks believed that by converting to Islam and 'losing' his or her original Christian religion, the individual was stepping out of the Greek national community.

The Cappadocian Greeks wrote the earliest published novels in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, using the Greek Alphabet and Turkish language.

The Cappadocian Greeks were targeted prior to and alongside the Armenians and Assyrians.

In 1924, after living in Cappadocia for thousands of years, the remaining Cappadocian Greeks were expelled to Greece as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey defined by the Treaty of Lausanne, the descendants of the Cappadocian Greeks who had converted to Islam were not included in the population exchange and remained in Cappadocia, some still speaking the Cappadocian Greek language.

Many Cappadocian towns were greatly affected by the expulsion of the Greeks including Mustafapasa, Urgup, Guzelyurt and Nevsehir as the Greeks constituted a significant percentage of the towns population.

The Cappadocian Greeks were taken to the coastal town of Mersin in order to be shipped to Greece.

The Cappadocian Greeks who were migrating from Cappadocia were replaced by Muslims migrating from mainland Greece, mainly from Thrace; some of these Muslims were Greeks, although most were of Slavic, Turkish and Gypsy origin.

The regions of Greece with significant settlements of Cappadocian Greeks include the cities of Karditsa, Volos, Kilkis, Larisa, Chalkidiki, Kavala, Alexandroupoli and Thessaloniki.

Today the descendants of the Cappadocian Greeks can be found throughout Greece, as well as in countries around the world particularly in Western Europe, North America and Australia as part of the Greek diaspora.

Cappadocian Greeks traditionally spoke a dialect of the Greek language known as Cappadocian Greek.

Cappadocian Greeks Greek diverged from the other Byzantine Greek dialects early, beginning with the Turkish conquests of central Asia Minor in the 11th and 12th centuries, and so developed several radical features, such as the loss of the gender for nouns.

Many Cappadocian Greeks completely abandoned Greek when they learned Turkish, although in the western regions of Cappadocia many Greeks still retained their native language.

The Cappadocian Greeks are numerous all through the western part of Cappadocia, and generally cling to their language with great tenacity, a fact worthy of notice, inasmuch as the Cappadocian Greeks in other parts of Asia Minor speak only Turkish.

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The Cappadocian Greeks were more linguistically Turkified then the Greeks in Pontus and the western coastal regions of Turkey.

The language was then declared alive in 2005, when descendants of Cappadocian Greeks were discovered still speaking the language fluently in central and northern Greece.

Some Cappadocian Greeks who converted to Islam, allowing them to avoid the population exchanges of 1923, still speak the language in their traditional homeland in Turkey.

Cappadocian Greeks have been isolated from the rest of the Greek-speaking world for centuries and this has made their culture, way of life, and customs somewhat distinctive.

The Cappadocian Greeks have distinctive traditional songs and dances which are still performed in Greece.

Cappadocian Greeks continued a number of Anatolian culinary traditions passed down since Byzantine times.