İstasyondan Fenere - MERSiN - From Railway Station to the Lighthouse

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İSTASYONDAN FENERE MERSİN

MERSIN FROM RAILWAY STATION TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

T

uryağ Company runs the Mersyna Oil facilities. Besides, there are factories producing furniture, horseshoe, nail, soap, raki, macaroni, and electricity.

B

efore the Republic, there were one Arab Orthodox, two Greek Orthodox, one Maronite, one Catholic, three Armenian Churches and one Synagogue against five Mosques. At 1930's, only Catholic, Maronite, Arab Orthodox Churches are left behind. As Greeks leave as a result of population exchange, and Armenian leave after occupation, these churches become enough for the parish. We will touch briefly on a few special ones of ten existing districts in Mersin:

Mersin’e Dair...

About Mersin...

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askiye-Kiremithane-District: A district where people coming from Latakia and Damascus, Aleppo, Idlib and other areas of Syria, settle. The society is Sunni Muslim. The language spoken among each other is generally Arabic. Latakia citizens deal with sea and port businesses, while the others deal with domestic and foreign trade.

N

üzhetiye District (also called as Sursok District) is a district where the elite of the city, who are Lebanese-born or Syrian-born and mainly dealing with foreign trade, settle. Generally most of the rich people of Mersin are at this quarter. The ones with a lower income abide around Public House at shanty looking houses on a high area. This area is called Çardak District by public.

T

he residents of Crete District (at the present İhsaniye District), a district Turks

migrating from Crete domiciled in the period of Padishah Abdülhamit, are busy with gardening. Businesses like working as coachman, coffeehouse running are also among means of subsistence. At the beginning, their Turkish is poor, later on, even they speak with a bad accent; their speech begins to resemble Turkish. For a long while, the milk of the yellow, relatively big goats they brought from Crete, dissimilar to our goats, is a part of their means of living.

B

ahçe District is the district where Arabian-born Alawi citizens abide. At that period, it is the most neglected neighborhood of Mersin. There is no proper road or electricity in most parts. Except for a few stone buildings, the houses are mud-brick huts with reed roofs or barracks. They speak Arabic among themselves. The district is

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