Ayvalik is a seaside town in the northwest Turkey . It is a district of Balıkesir province .

Geography

Ayvalık is on the Anatolian coast of the Aegean Sea facing the Greek island Lesbos . It is founded on a narrow coastal plain surrounded by low hills on the east which are covered with pines and olive trees. Ayvalık is surrounded by numerous islets on the sea and by a narrow peninsula in the south named Hakkı Bey. Ayvalık is the southermost district of Balıkesir on the Aegean shores. Gömeç , Burhaniye and Edremit are other districts of Balıkesir on the Aegean shores and they are lined up in the north respectively. The region is under the influence of a typical Mediterranean climate with mild and rainy winters and hot, dry summers.

History

Various archeological findings and excavations in the region prove that Ayvalık and its environs had been inhabited as early as the prehistoric ages. The islets in the Ayvalık Bay had also been used for settlement purposes, together with Ayvalık, during the late Roman and early Byzantine periods. The security problem and piracy in the region did not let the islet settlements grow larger and only Nesos (today's Cunda) could maintain its human settlement as it is the largest and the closest islet to the mainland.

After the Byzantine period, the region came under the rule of Karesi principality in the 13th century and was later annexed to Ottoman territory.

Until 1922 , Ayvalık (in Greek -Kidonies), had a large Greek population.

The town was invaded by the Greek Army on 29 May 1919, and taken back three years later by Turkish Armies on 15 September 1922. After the Turkish Independence War , the Greek population in the town was replaced by a Muslim population from Greece under the population exchange agreement between the two countries in 1923. As the replacing population of the indigenous Orthodox Greeks were Muslim Turks from Lesbos , Crete and Greek Macedonia , you could still hear Greek spoken on the streets following the population exchange. Many of the town's mosques were, accordingly, originally Greek Orthodox churches.

Today's Ayvalık

Today, it is a popular holiday resort with numerous islets encircling the bay of Ayvalık. The most important and the biggest of these islets is Cunda (Alibey Adası) which has been connected to the mainland by a bridge in the late 1960s.

Ayvalık has an international music academy (AIMA) which provides masterclasses for violin , viola and cello since September 1998. It gathers students from all over the world and gives them a precious opportunity to work with distinguished masters of their branch.

Ayvalık also has two of the longest sandy beaches of the whole country which extend as far as the Dikili district of Izmir nearly 30 km in the south (Sarımsaklı and Altınova beaches).

In recent years Ayvalık has also become an important point of attraction for scuba divers with its underwater fauna .

Ayvalık and its environs are famous for their highly appreciated quality of olive oil production.

Today, the population of Ayvalık is nearly 30.000 and may even be temporarily more during the summers due to its touristic importance. Ayvalık is also close to Pergamon (today's Bergama) which is another touristic attraction point with its city ruins dating back to antiquity .

Source: European Commission, Wikipedia