Fertek

In Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, the word “Rum” refers to Rome and the Romans. Thus, the Greeks living in Fertek were referred to as Rum, by the Turks. Rum also implies the continuity of the ancient Roman Empire in the Byzantine millennium, as well as meaning “Romans of Asia Minor”. However, the Greeks living in Fertek referred to themselves as "Karamanlides, meaning Greeks of Karaman. Karamanlides. Thus, in this article, the Greek Orthodox community, or Rum, is referred to as Karamanlides.

Fertek is almost merged with Niğde, the distance between Fertek and Niğde city center is being about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi). The town is situated at the eastern slopes of the mountains with an altitude of about 1,270 metres (4,170 ft).

A street in Fertek

Fertek is a charming town in the middle of the Anatolian steppe, displaying shades of green through its vineyards and gardens. It's like an oasis in the middle of the desert that suddenly appeared as a mirage in front of Yusuf, Kerem and Majnun. It is a beautiful residential area surrounded by fruit orchards and vineyards. Many claim that its climate and water rejuvenate people living there. A town that lived through the Roman and Byzantine eras, gave examples of civilized life in the Seljuk-Ottoman era, and preserved its existence until today with its historical artifacts from those periods. It is a town that exposes history with its houses, streets, bridges, bath, church, which is being used as a mosque, holy water, school, fountains, and underground city that bear the characteristics of Byzantine architecture.

Fertek is one of the Cappadocia settlements located in the Niğde plateau leaning on the Melendiz Mountains, between the Taurus Mountains, and Aladağlar. It resembles other settlements in the Cappadocia region. As was the case in Cappadocia, the settlement in Fertek started with small, independent houses carved into the rocks interconnected by tunnels, in the early ages. Over time, as civilization developed, houses were built above ground, and old underground houses transformed to be used as cellars. Today, traces of these old rock-cut houses as cellars are still visible.[5]

We have the following limited information as estimates collected from old records:

In 1872, based on the Nevahi edict of the Ottoman Empire, Fertek became a township,[8] which included 9 villages all together of which the major ones were: Adırmusun, (Koyunlu), Delmisun (Hançerli), İlisun (Küçükköy) and Fesleğen and records were kept as such.

Special privileges were extended to Karamanlides living in Turkey after the Greek Revolt of 1829, followed by the Tanzimat Edict in 1839, and the Reform Edict in 1856. After these, Grekization of the Christian subjects in Turkey started.

Today, Fertek is known to have high concentration of college educated people, which is rare for that part of the country. Perhaps, as a result of this, Fertek was renamed Aydin Yurt, (Intellectual Town) in 1923. The known origins of education in Fertek, goes back to first half of the 19th century. Although the exact dates are not known, neighborhood schools were established, most likely before 1852.[9] We assume that the Karamanlides community had educational facilities long before Muslims had their own; we base this upon the high-level knowledge and skills Karamanlides demonstrated. These schools were located next to the mosque and inside the church. Perhaps having its own school early in the 20th century contributed for Fertek community thrive for a higher level of education more so than other regions in the area. The need and desire for higher education evolved to be a significant part of the Fertek culture during the Republican period. Today, it is a fairly well known that Fertek has produced many physicians, pharmacists, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, enough teachers to meet the needs of all Niğde schools, dozens of governors, district mayors, officers, non-commissioned officers, engineers, and administrators. Fertek takes a pride in providing such resources to the country.

Preparing halka to be baked in tandir

Halka being baked in tandir

As Fertek leaves behind its heritage of culinary culture through the modernizations of our times, it is reminiscent in the minds of many, how the smells of tandoori bread, and “halka” with its oily (pamuk yagi – cotton oil) and milky bread, used to spread from house to house. In addition to these tandoor breads, kavut made with plain, meaty and pastrami and mixed with grape molasses, baked beans made in pots, stuffed meat made in pots, kelles, dücük soup, gicika, mumbar, bossulus, stuffed sugar pare, roasted sugar pare with walnuts, molasses halva, and molasses continue today, albeit in decline.[9][5] Another important product made in Fertek was wine. Grapes were crushed in large containers manually to make wine, especially for the ceremonies at the church, and to be consumed by the general public. Also, during the fall season, every house made their own processed meat products (sucuk, pastirma), similar to sausage and bacon. The importance of this is obvious in their saying, “may God not leave any house without sucuk and pastirma”.

The Muslim community and the Karamanlides lived together in harmony in Fertek. Karamanlides’ lives were plain and simple, but considered somewhat luxurious given the era they lived in. Karamanlides, especially the young women, paid attention to their clothing, and always dressed up nicely. Karamanlides were engaged with trade, farming, and held official positions in the government. They used to live in Fertek but conducted their trade mostly in Istanbul.  Farming, vegetation, and vineyards were valued highly. The high walls that the Karamanlides built around their vineyards that survived to our date, is a symbol of the importance they placed on vineyards. The raki that they produced from grapes was their livelihood. Many of the vineyards also had wells. The water from the wells were used for irrigation through the water collectors to contain and distribute water to the vineyards. Some residues of these wells and water collectors have survived to our time and are still visible. To ensure continual flow of water to vineyards in Fertek, Karamanlides signed a treaty with the village of Hancerli, where every night water from Hancerli would be diverted to the “upper lake” in Fertek to fill it up till the morning. During the daytime, water collected in the upper lake[10] was distributed into the plantations and vegetations in Fertek. This is a major inheritance that the Karamanlides left for the Muslims, where they thrived with this water source for many years thereafter, to water their gardens and vineyards.

Karamanlides were involved with trade as well as holding high positions in the government offices in Nigde. Every morning, Karamanlides would travel to Nigde on their well-groomed donkeys. Fertek was the cultural center of this region.  They would organize cultural events, meet regularly to exchange ideas to improve themselves, and also to help the local Muslims. Back then, the locals were referred to as “muslims”, not as Turks (note by Hayati Soykan). The locals were workers in the vineyards and gardens owned by the Karamanlides. The economic, social, and cultural structures of the locals were not as developed as Karamanlides. This could be another indicator that the locals had settled in Fertek long after the Karamanlides did.

Karamanlides community in Fertek to wrote and spoke Turkish in their daily lives, religious practices and educational activities. Greek alphabet was used in their writings. They have adopted many Turkish names for themselves, like Bayram, Karaca, Süleyman, Süllüoğlu, Kurtoğlu. Karamanlides considered themselves as Turks; in fact during the Battle of Manzikert - Wikipedia (Malazgirt) in 1071, Karamanlides realized that the army they were fighting against spoke Turkish; upon which they switched sides and contributed to victory of Seljuk leader Alp Arslan.

The following were the principles of the Karamanlides community in Fertek before the Republic of Turkey was established:[6]

1. Harelem Efendi – lived in the house currently occupied by Recai Varol's sister, Zehra. He was a finance officer in the government in Nigde.
2. Cita Bodos – lived in the house currently occupied by Sadi Soykan, son of Nurettin Soykan (uncle of Hayati Soykan). He was a farmer. This house has a large courtyard and rooms with high ceilings. The house has a separate door for the people, and another door for the animals (cattle, sheep, donkey, etc.). The stable was at the lower floor of the house, with the door opening towards the back street. It is interesting to note how they paid attention to their living standards.
3. Kurdoglu – lived in the house currently occupied by Mustafa of Enes. He used to produce raki.
4. Chicken Farmer Bodos – lived in the house currently occupied by Ali of Tat Hakki. He used to produce raki.
5. Hariton – He used to operate a mill located at near the road to Bor, near the meadows.
6. Kozmomdis – lived in the house currently occupied by Abdi from Gede. This house is located on the road to the bath (hamam). He was a representative at the local Ottoman government. He was well known and respected by the Ottoman officials. Once, as he was coming home from an official government business, carpets were rolled out all the way from Bor intersection to his house. The current road to Nigde did not exist back then; it was built by the brigade that was trained in Fertek to join the Independence war.
7. Sarrafoglu – lived in the house currently occupied by Esat Hodja. He used to trade gold in Istanbul, thus the nickname, "sarraf”.

The houses that the Karamanlides built were well thought out and designed to maximize living conditions. This manifests itself by touring a few houses still standing. Main doors were large and mounted on single solid piece stones on both sides. Stones always had some motifs carved on them. The main door would open into a large courtyard. The floors of the court yards were covered with cut-stones fitted together to allow for easy cleaning. The rooms on the entrance floor had high ceilings with carved wooden doors. These rooms were designed and positioned to be cool in the hot days of the summer by providing natural breeze.

Fertek has been famous for its vineyards from the Ottoman period to the present day. Each year, towards the end of August, grapes were harvested and laid to dry in the vineyards. The Karamanlides would give a prizes to those who would present the first ripe grapes of the season. Because the grapes would eventually be used to produce “raki”, the prizes only went to red grapes. Harvest preparations included getting the barrels ready for shipment; for this, the Karamanlides would place the barrels into the "lower lake”. After a period being in water, the wooden barrels would expand to become airtight to contain raki for shipment. Today, the lower lake is next to the Lake Casino and Tea Garden, which is still functioning.

In September, after the harvest, the grapes would be crushed in large vineyard containers, and the musts were thrown into cauldrons with molasses and kept overnight. The next day, the musts were moved from the cauldrons into large bowls and then slowly boiled to make molasses. Meanwhile, while molasses was being boiled, sweets were made from these fruits by adding apples, quince, pumpkin, and walnuts. After molasses was made, “köfter” was also made by mixing it with must and starch.

Raki truck

The most important product symbolized and branded by Fertek is of course the “Fertek Rakısı”. Fertek was well known to be one of the locations to produce the highest quality of raki during the Ottoman period, from the end of the 19th century to the beginnings of the 20th century. Raki distilleries were found in many houses; once produced, barrels would be e filled with raki. Then the barrels would either be shipped to be sold or kept for general consumption. As per hearsay, raki from Fertek was not only famous in Turkey, but it was also well known in Europe. Some of the raki would be shipped to other European cities. [In a novel by Halit Ziya Usakligil, there is an episode where people were gathered around a table and enjoying their meal, when they ran out of drink, they would not order another raki, rather they would say to the server “get me another Fertek.”[6]]. Karamanlides had a decent income from this trade. At those times raki was manufactured in special facilities in the Karamanlides houses in Fertek. The best and the most volumes of raki were produced at the house of Karamanlides Kurdoglu family; this house was most recently owned by grocery store owner Mustafa of Enes.

This mastic raki, made with the aroma of chewing gum produced from plain or kenger plant in Fertek, was advertised in the newspapers in Istanbul.  As the raki shipments arrived in Istanbul, they were taken to Eminönü Balıkpazarı (fish market). There, it was sold wholesale or retail by the Karamanlides brokers. Clientele from well to do neighborhoods would prefer to buy Fertek raki at these locations.

Also, there were taverns in Istanbul operated by the Karamanlides to serve “Fertek Rakısı”. Those who operated these taverns were either from Feretek or had strong connections with Fertek. Of course, the most famous of these was the "Fertek Tavern[12]", which was located in Istanbul Eminönü Balıkpazarı; it was a wine and raki warehouse. Almost all of the regulars of Fertek Tavern were poets, writers and composers. There was no place to sit, no set tables. Everyone would come with their own appetizers such as an apple, pear, some roasted chickpeas, olives and bread and drank at the counter standing up. Fertek Tavern, which opened in 1890, was sadly closed in 1908.

Fertek's economy has been mostly agricultural throughout history. Grapes and apples are the most important products. Before the exchange of Karamanlides and Turkish citizens, the rakı manufacturing (spirits) distilled in Fertek were very popular in İstanbul. In modern times, being close to Niğde, city services also play a part of the town economy. At the moment there is no notable touristic revenue, but the touristic potential due to the underground city (which needs restoration) and various buildings including churches allows for the possibility of tourism.[17]

• Geographical name changes in Turkey
• Mehmet I of Karaman