1. The place - Historical facts

The diocese of Adana and Tarsus was located within the vilayet of Adana, an administrative division similar to that of Byzantine times, when the theme of Cilicia was also the metropolis’ territory. The diocese of Adana and Tarsus belonged to the neighbouring Patriarchate of Antioch, and this sometimes caused unease between the dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate itself.¹

The area over which the vilayet of Adana spread numbered 40,000 square kilometers.² More specifically, to the vilayet of Adana belonged the sancak of Adana which comprised four kazas (Adana, Tarsus, Karahisalu and Mersina). The city itself (Adana) is situated on the banks of the river Seyhan, in the middle of a great plain.³ Approximately forty kilometres southeast of Adana lies the historic Tarsus, built on the banks of the river Cydnus, shrunk according to P. Kontogiannis to “a quarter of its ancient extent”.⁴

The city of Mersina (Mersin) was founded in 1832 close to a natural bay on the coast of Cilicia and became the harbour of nearby Tarsus, Adana (67 km away from these), and many other areas of the central Anatolian plateau. It is said that it was named thus due to the numerous myrtles that grow on its outskirts.⁵ To the west lies Seleuceia (Silifke), founded by Seleucus Nicator, general of Alexander the Great. It is the seat of the İç-ili sancak, built on the right bank of the Calycadnus river, and its port is Taş-ucu, 10 km east of it, deep in the bay of Ağa-liman.⁶

2. Population

In 1892 the population of the vilayet of Adana numbered 403,500 persons in total; according to M. Chamidopoulos it comprised (among others) 158,000 Muslims and 68,000 Greek-Orthodox. The figures provided eight years later by Verney & Babmann, in 1900, diverge minutely in terms of the total population and its Muslim constituent. In terms of the Greek Orthodox inhabitants there is an evident divergence; it is however unclear whether during the intervening eight years important changes had occurred -the figures are almost identical in other respects- or whether the Greek data simply provide inflated figures for the numbers of the Greek element. More specifically, the figures of Verney & Babmann give us a total population of 403,430 inhabitants; among these were 158,000 Muslims (this figure has not changed) and 46,200 Greek Orthodox.⁷

The city of Adana, according to P. Kontogiannis, had a total population of 70,000 people: Gregorian Armenians (40,000 at least until the persecutions of 1909 and 1915), 10,000 Greek-Orthodox, most of whom originated from the islands, but also from areas of Ikonio (Konya) and Cappadocia, 20,000 Muslims, as well as, from the late 19th century onwards, a few Europeans, especially Germans.⁸ Tarsus had 30,000 inhabitants, 15,000 of whom were Muslims, 7,000 Armenians and 5,000 Greek-Orthodox.⁹ The city of Mersina numbered of 22,000 people, 15,000 Muslims, 4,000 Greek-Orthodox, 1,000 Armenians and few Arabs and Europeans, mostly French.¹⁰ Seuleuceia, finally, had 3,000 inhabitants, 1,000 of which were Greek-Orthodox.¹¹

3. Economy

The financial importance of Adana was enhanced by the presence of a branch office of the Ottoman Bank in the city, one of the twenty two branch banks situated in the Asian areas of the Ottoman Empire.¹² In the late 19th century, Adana also attracted the attention of German entrepreneurs interested in exploiting the provinces raw materials, like the cotton company (Deutsch – Levantinische Baumwollengesellschaft), while the German-built railway was being constructed in Anatolia destined for Baghdad. The wide Cilician plain -at the heart of which the city of Adana is situated- produced cotton, grain, rice and sugarcane.¹³ Adana was also famous for its honey.¹⁴ The city, finally, emerged as one of the new centres of carpet-making which developed in the early 20th century.¹⁵

Tarsus was an important commercial centre, although agriculture was mentioned as its inhabitants’ main occupation. The growth of Mersina, however, affected commercial activities in Tarsus.¹⁶ The strategic position of the port of Mersina (notwithstanding the problems caused by its inadequate depth) led to the city’s rapid economic growth, making it centre of transit trade to and from Cilicia and the hinterland of Asia Minor. The area of Cappadocia, for example, was supplied with European products via Mersina and exported its products through this city. The customary Cappadocian commercial activity through the port of Smyrna had diminished due to the greater proximity of the Mersina port, boosting the development of the Cilician region. In the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, its importance can be gathered by the presence of envoys (consuls, vice consuls or consular agents) from all the powerful states. P. Contogiannis provides numeric data for the city’s commercial activity; 370 ships sailed into the city’s harbour in 1911, with a combined tonnage of 577,000 tons. The exports of agricultural produce (grain, cotton and sesame) in that year were worth 15m francs and the imports amounted to 12.610m francs.¹⁷

These activities can not be compared to those of other sites on the coast of Cilicia, for which P. Contogiannis mentions that it generally lacked important (in terms of regional planning) ports. Seleuceia, for example, to the west of Mersina, again according to Kontogiannis, was home to fewer commercial activity although its harbour served a wider area.¹⁸