1. Anthropogeography

Village of central Asia Minor, built on the north side of Mount Argaio, within two hours from Kaisareia (Kayseri) and half an hour from Zincidere. Apart from the existing traditional road system, a roadway connecting Androniki with Kaisareia was made in the early 20^th century. The area had rich pastures, vineyards, gardens and orchards. The healthy climate of the area attracted lots of wealthy people from Kaisareia and the surrounding villages, who used to spend their summer in Androniki. The transfer of the English Consulate from Kaisareia to Androniki in 1860 is indicative of that tendency.

The information available about the historical background of Androniki is a little confused. The exact date of foundation is unknown, although the settlement is believed to have existed already from the Byzantine period.¹ The early and continued existence of the village throughout Ottoman rule is also proven by its increased incidence in Ottoman tax records already from 1500.²

There are lots of different explanations about the derivation of the settlement’s name. According to local, folk tradition, the Turkish name Endürlük is a corruption of the verb ‘indirmek’, which means ‘to bring down’. In that case, Androniki was built from immigrants, who must have moved there during Ottoman rule, which explains the Turkish origin of the name. It becomes clear that this explanation is in sharp contrast to the available information about the settlement’s historical background. A much more convincing viewpoint is expressed by Renieri, who says that the Turkish name is the corruption of the original name Androniki, after St. Andronikos of Ephesus. The interim names Edirnik, Andr[e]nük and Andrun[i]k, found in Ottoman sources of the 16^th century, until the name Endürlük was finally adopted, support her viewpoint.³

It was a village of mixed population, inhabited by Christian Orthodox, who was the largest population group, and some Muslims, most of which lived in a separate quarter. The Christian inhabitants of Androniki were Turkish-speaking and in the period of the largest population, around the first half of the 19^th century, the settlement comprised 6 parishes. The ecumenical patriarch Kyrillos of Constantinople, who visited the area in 1815, said that in Androniki were living 2,000 Christian Orthodox at the time. According to the Ottoman census of 1834/35, which is the most reliable source of information regarding this period, the Christian population amounted to approximately 2,500 people. The population continued to grow until the mid-1860s, when the Christian Orthodox population was estimated to about 3,000 people. Then the population started to decline due to increased emigration, which took the male population away from the village. Although there is no reliable quantitative information regarding the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century, the dramatic decline of the population is obvious. In 1912 the number of Christian families fell to 176 from 320 it was in the late 19^th century. The population continued to decline in the following decade as well. In 1924 the Christian population comprised only 145 people, distributed between 53 families.⁴ It is worth mentioning here that the Christian population was estimated at approximately 600 families in the mid-19^th century.⁵ No matter how large the number may seem, it is obvious that the population tended to decline.

2. Economy

Agricultural production had little chance of development in the villages of Mount Argaio. This fact became even more obvious in periods of population growth, when the restricted agricultural production was not enough to feed the people and emigration appeared to be the only solution. That was the case in Androniki as well, where emigration, as it happened in other Cappadocian settlements, started to increase towards the late 18^th century. It increasingly continued throughout the 19^th century. This became obvious in the census of 1834/1835, according to which 49% of the male population comprised emigrants, 34% children and aged people, while only 17% of the total male population of Androniki was economically active population permanently living there.⁶

The people from Androniki followed to a great extent the emigration pattern set by other Cappadocian settlements. The emigrants abandoned their homeland at an early age. This is proven by the census of 1834/35, where emigrants of 11-13 years old have been recorded.⁷ They moved to places where relatives or fellow countrymen had already settled, in order to apprentice to their future occupation. After they had served their apprenticeship and come to the age of marriage, they returned to Androniki to get married. After the wedding they left the village again and continued their professional activities. Apart from some occasional visits to their families, they only returned to permanently settle in Androniki after their retirement, at the age of 50, or even later. Until the first half of the 19^th century they moved mainly to Constantinople (Istanbul), the traditional destination for immigrants from Cappadocia and Smyrna (Izmir). At the time immigrants from Androniki were settling in developing towns of Pontus, such as Samsun, Merzifon, Bafra and Kastamonu, where they were involved in trading tobacco and cereals. Finally, several people from Androniki were employed in the mines of Bereketli Maden. The great boost in cotton trade and, secondarily, wheat trade in the wider area of Smyrna after 1860, cotton and oil trade in Adana, Tarsus and Mersin, as well as tobacco trade in the area of Pontus, redefined the immigration map of people from Androniki against other destinations. The same reasons led them outside the Ottoman Empire, mainly to Egypt (Alexandria and Cairo).

The extremely high rate of emigration had strong effects on the settlement’s economy. Agriculture was gradually abandoned or exercised by the emigrants’ wives and Muslims. The latter very often undertook to cultivate the emigrants’ land on condition that they would give them part of the crop, usually half of it. Those who stayed in the village, together with immigrants from the surrounding area settled in Androniki, worked as professionals or craftsmen, aiming to cover the needs of the local market and the increased building activity due to the houses the immigrants built. Women were occupied in the production of local products, mainly milk crust and pasturma (seasoned camel meat), which they sold both in the nearby area and in areas where immigrants from Androniki were settled. Women wove woollen rugs on order of merchants from Kaisareia. The dramatic decline in population recorded towards the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century, when the emigrants started to take their families with them, made the local market slump as well.

3. Communal organisation

Androniki was a community under the administration of the mutasarrıflık of Kayseri and the vilayet of Ankara. Churchwardens and the members of the school board formed a common body, the so-called "eforoepitropi", and were responsible for the economic and general management of the above institutions. The eforoepitropi was staffed by elderly people –mainly men– since the rest of them were mainly emigrants. Its members were elected by the men of the village. Two opposing sides are reported, claiming the community posts.⁸ In the settlement’s heyday the church, the school and the poor had their separate funds. Later on they merged because of lack of resources.

4. Religion

Androniki came under the diocese of Caesarea and was divided into six parishes, the number of which either increased or decreased, depending on the population. The fact that after 1890 there were two parishes at first and then only one parish is not accidental. The number of priests fluctuated as well.⁹ The main church of the settlement, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built in 1835. At that very site there had been a church dedicated to the Saints Probos, Tarachos and Andronikos of Ephesos.

5. Education

There is no available information about education before 1836, when a school using the monitorial teaching system operated in Androniki. In 1864 the community funded the building of a girls’ school, while in 1873 the building of the primary and the "ellinikon" schools were funded by donations from eminent people from Androniki. According to an official document of the diocese of Kaisareia, submitted in 1892 to the Ottoman authorities and stating the Greek schools operating in the mutasarrıflık of Kayseri, in Androniki operated a boys’ school with two teachers and 109 students and a girls’ school with one female teacher and 108 students. Finally, a document from the mutasarrıf of Kaisareia to the metropolitan of Kaisareia, mentioning the schools granted a license of operation in 1905, says that the boys’ school of Androniki had been upgraded to lycee.¹⁰

No doubt that the emigrants played an important role in organising and developing education in Androniki. After all, that was the reason for the establishment of an Educational Society in Constantinople.¹¹