Istanbul's Polish Village celebrates 171st anniversary

 

Polonezkoy, Istanbul – In 1842, Polish refugees and their families, sheltered by the Ottoman Sultan, established the village of Adampol, present day Polonezkoy, in a rural setting about 30 km north of Istanbul, on the Asian side of the city.

The name of the village honored their benefactor, Prince Adam Czartoryski, who headed a Polish government-in-exile that was solely recognized by the Ottoman Empire and who paid for the land grant.

The settlers built wooden houses, a chapel and raised cattle, poultry and pigs, as they did as farmers in their homeland, and they eventually became Turkish citizens, although maintaining their ties to Poland and their Catholic faith.

During the three unsuccessful Polish uprisings in the 19th century against Prussia, Russia and the Austria, which occupied and partitioned Polish territories, some 8,000 Polish refugees – soldiers, princes, townsmen and farmers and their families– sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire, which had a common enemy in Russia. They were settled in Adampol and camps in Edirne and Salonika. 

Only Adampol, or Polonezkoy (Polish Village) as it is now known, survives. 

Prince Czartoryski's representative in Ottoman Turkey, Michal Czajlkowski, who became known as Mehmet Sadik Pasha, organized a Polish Cossack brigade from the refugees and fought alongside the Ottoman Turks, British and French against Russia during the Crimean War.

 

Symbol of peace and friendship

"This is the perhaps the oldest Polish settlement outside Poland," says Antoni Dohoda, 77, a semi-retired electrical engineer who represents the fourth generation of Dohodas of Polonzkoy. "It is a symbol of tolerance, friendship and peace between Turkey and Poland."

Today, some 85 persons of Polish descent still live in the settlement of 490 persons. The village headman, Antoni Vilkovski, is of Polish descent.  Over the years, most of the families of Polish origin migrated to western Europe and North America for better jobs.

Mr. Dohoda, with a cherubic smiling face, noted that all Polish leaders, cabinet members and Parliamentarians visiting Turkey stop off at Polonezkoy.  Photos of then Polish President Lech Walesa's visit to Turkey in the 1990s are exhibited in a nearby old family farm house museum. 

A delegation from Polonezkoy visited Pope John Paul, the late Polish pontiff, during his visit to Turkey in 1979.

Mr. Dohoda, who worked for Siemens Corporation for many years, operates the Leonardo Restaurant-Café, in a refurbished 100-year old farm house in Polonezkoy, with his son, Jan Dohoda, and his, daughter-in-law Marilyn Dohoda. He is fluent in Polish, French, German and English.

The restaurant, established 19 years ago, serves Polish foods like Piroski, or baked buns stuffed with vegetables, meat and chicken, and offers 160 different dishes of international cuisine every day. 

The house, in which the restaurant is located, was owned by his uncle Leonard, who died 30 years ago.

The residents of Polonezkoy have turned their farm houses into hotels, pensions and restaurants that are popular year round.  The village is especially crowded on weekends when thousands of city Turks inundate the countryside.

Located in Beykoz County, Polonezkoy is only a 30 minute drive by car from Uskudar, and 20 minutes from Kavacik.

A good time to visit the village is the June Cherry Festival, when a Polish folklore troupe performs dances in the settlement.

 

Famous visitors

Over the years, many famous foreign and Turkish personalities visited the Polish village, including Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt, French novelists Gustave Flaubert, and Pierre Lotti, Orthodox Patriarch Batholomeos, Turkey's revered first president Kemal Ataturk and Turkish Presidents  Ismet Inonu, Kenan Evren and Turgut Ozal.

Turkey's best known poet, Nazim Hikmet, was of partial Polish origin. His great grandfather, General Ozenski (known as Mustafa Celalettin Pasha) was one of the original Poles exiled to Polonezkoy.

In recent years, many prominent and wealthy Turks have built villas in Polonezkoy, including businessmen and former publisher brothers Erol and Haldun Simavi, architect and recording star Erol Evgin, Turkish Bank Chairman Tanju Ozyol, and advertiser Nihat Boytuzun.