About Sirince

In the ancient sources, Sirince was called as “Ephesus on the Mountain” and this fact represents that Sirince has a long abd deep history.  

According to an opinion, the history of Sirince (KIRKICA) Village went back to the 5th century A.D. and established by the villagers, who left the former living areas, which became uninhabitable because of the alluviums and water floods caused by Small Menderes River. 

According to an other source, the establishment of Sirince went back to the age of Ottoman Principalities. The villagers working for the overlord, after they had been freed, demanded from their overlord to have the area of today’s SIRINCE Village and its surroundings, in order to settle down. Thereupon, the overlord asked them, whether the area, where they intended to settle down, is beautiful or not. And the anwer of the villagers was “Quite Ugly”. Upon this answer, the overlord told them that the name of their settlement area will be “Quite Ugly” and he granted this area to the villagers and freed them and the villagers established the Sirince Village. In the XIX. century Sirince (KIRKICA) became a village of 1800 houses consisting of Greek population, under the reign of Ottoman Empire. The official language is Turkish. With the advantage of being settled on the mountain area, the village still continues its existence as a closed village in the regulation of their own creation, through paying their taxes to the government. They had a very silent and peaceful life up to the year of 1910, however, with the provocations of the migrants expelled from Greece, they started to react. During the Balkan Wars, they resisted to the Ottomans sometimes.            

Finally in the year of 1914, the World War I started with its all violence in the Anatolia. Ottoman government registered the Sirince youths to the special work troops, which were called as “Workers Battalion”. However, the villagers, who escaped from the battalion, either went to the mountains to resist the government as brigands or escaped to Greece.
On May 15, 1945, the Greek army made a transfer to Izmir, in order to occupy the city. When they entered in the Sirince (KIRKICA) village, they had been welcomed with great excitement. At that time, Kirkica was under the reign of Ottoman Empire. However, identifying themselves as Greeks, the village population went to Izmir, in order to join the Greek Army voluntarily. From the soldier candidates collected voluntarily from Urla, Kokluca, Bornova and Kuşadası districts, Greek officers formed independent troops. Their aim was to share the Anatolia with their allies and the Sevr Treaty had been the best assurance for them.          

However, most of the Greek population living in this village left the village and migrated to Greece, before the victory of the Great Assault on Aug 22, 1922, which ended Turkish Independence War, and the rescue of Izmir from Greek occupation on Sept 9, 1922.

Therefore, Kirkica became an uninhabited village, except just a few old people. With the migrants exchange in 1924, most of the migrants migrated from Greece (Thessaloniki, Provusta, Kavala etc.) had been settled in this area and accordingly, the village became refreshed again and reached to its today’s status.