Cultural roads lead to Aegean coastal town

By Metin Demirsar

Ayvalik, Balikesir (Dunya) – It is late evening, and melodious strains of Rambetiko music mixed with sad Oriental and Arabesque tunes flow out from the dozens of tavernas into the streets of  Sarimsakli, a crowded, noisy, beachfront neighborhood in this northern Turkish Aegean town.

Families with cones of ice cream in their hands stroll lazily along the main street, which is closed to traffic. Some window shop or snap up jewelry, gew gews, toys, camping and beach supplies from the stores that line one side of the thoroughfare.
Others sip evening tea or coffee or dine at the many cafes and fast-food restaurants that face the 7-km long beach, as a strong northern wind blows, fluttering shutters of houses and apartment buildings and tent enclosures. Night lights from the big Greek island of Lesbos, about 10 km west of Sarimsakli beach, flicker in the distant darkness.
Greek and Turkish cultures continue to converge on Ayvalik, with music, food and lifestyles, and daily ferry boats operating between the town and Mytilini, Lesbos, carry tourists from both countries.
With a winter population of 31,182 people, Ayvalik is a coastal town  forming the southwestern tip of the wide, wine dark Gulf of Edremit.  It is also a county capital in Balikesir province. Ayvalik is itself in a wide bay, surrounded by 22 islands, many of which are uninhabited.

The northern shores of Ayvalik face the Kaz Daglari (the Geese Mountains of Turkey), the Mt. Ida of Homeric times.

Place of quince

Although Ayvalik, means “the place of quince,” and is the Turkish for the Greek name “Kydonia” of the ancient settlement, the town is surrounded by olive groves. Indeed, Ayvalik is the capital of Turkey’s olive oil trade. Scores of shops in Ayvalik sell olive oil, and olive-based goods, including cosmetics and personal care products.
Dating back as far as the 4th century BC, Ayvalik was a flourishing Greek trading town during Ottoman times with many foreign consulates.
Although the town’s Greek inhabitants were exchanged with Turks mainly from the islands of Crete and Lesbos in 1923, under a population swap between Athens and Ankara at the end of the Turkish War of Independence, the Turks conserved the town’s traditional architecture.
The old stone homes and monasteries, given to the new comers, were repaired and turned into tavernas, coffee houses and boutique hotels. The towns many churches and monasteries were revamped, many becoming  mosques and museums.
The 19th century Taksiyarhis Church, built on a hill in central Ayvalik, overlooking the bay, is well preserved and its reliefs portray the life of Jesus.

Cunda

By far the greatest attraction in Ayvalik is Cunda (also known as Alibey Adasi), the biggest island, with its magnificent stone houses, churches, monasteries, meyhanes, or Turkish pubs, and shoreline fish restaurants, and stone wind mills.

A small road connects Cunda with Lale Island, which in turn is linked to the mainland (Ayvalik) by a causeway. Local buses and shared taxis (dolmus) operate between Ayvalik Town center and Cunda.
The magnificent Aya Nikola (St. Nicholas) Church, overlooking Cunda, is being restored, and will soon become a museum for sailors. St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and children was born on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey in 4th century.
Turkey’s wealthiest families have bought stone mansions, entire islands and several monasteries in and around Ayvalik.
In 2007, the industrialist Rahmi Koc restored the Chapel of Agios Yiannis and a windmill, and the buildings now houses the Library of Necdet Kent (1911-2002),  a Turkish diplomat from Ayvalik who risked his life to save hundreds of Jews during World War II, when he was consul general in Marseille, France. Mr. Kent was the father of Muhtar Kent, the chairman and chief executive officer of Coca Cola Company.
The late Mr. Kent’s 1,900 books are available for reading at the library, open to the public six-days a week.

Moonlight Monastery

In April 2012, Suzan Sabanci Dincer, chairwoman of Akbank, a large commercial bank, and her husband, Haluk Dincer, restored Moonlight Monastery in Patricia, located at the very end of the elongated Cunda. It will be used by the bank and the Sabanci family for international meetings and for entertaining top guests.
The monastery is believed to have been built in the 17th century by monks from Mt. Athos, in northeastern Greece. When it was abandoned in 1922, it became the property of the Katrinli family, who settled there as part of the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey. The family used it as a farmhouse until abandoning it.
The Dincers acquired the ramshackle buildings during the last decade after ownership of the place changed several times.

Saint George Monastery

Numerous other monasteries and churches exist in and around Ayvalik, including the Agios Yorgis (St. George Monastery) in an uninhabited Guvercin Adasi (Pigeon Island) across from Patricia beach area.
It was where elder pirates were sent to atone for their sins.