Kayseri and Armenians

City of Kayseri plays a very important role in the history of Armenian Church. With 400.000 population in 250 AD. İt became the most important of Middle Anatolia. Yet it means more than this to Armenian community since Kayseri is the city where Surp Kirkor was raised, studied and adopted Christianity as his religion.

"Kayseri is a very sacred territory that played a crucial role fort he constitution of St. Kirkor's spiritual formation.After Istanbul Council in 381,Kayseri Episcopacy was joined to Istanbul Church and Kayseri remained the Head Patriarchate."

In 361 Kayseri continued to be a very efficient religion center in Greek-Armenian geography. It stil played an important role in assigning religion leaders for Armenian Community even after St Kirkor Lusavoric. His sons Arisdages and Virtanes, Husig (son of Vırtanes) , Nerses (from the same blood) became Armenian Catholicos with approval of Kayseri archbishop.


The spiritual center for Kayseri Armenians was in Efkere inside the Surp Garabed Monestry.(In the present it is in Bahceli district in Gesi.)

It was where a part of the baptizer Yahya's bones were found and the monestry was built by St.Thaddeus in the 4th century.This monestry was built upon a hill and was a very important pilgrimage point.In this monestry there was a caravansaray, a library with 200 writings and 20.000 books and a seminary that provided highest level of education.

Armenians In The Time Of Ottoman

In his book,Evliya Celebi states for Kayseri that: "Pastrami and sujuk of this city go to Sultans as gift. It is located by Mount Erciyes so the climate is cold. The people are fit and couregous.The educated ones speak Farsy and Arabic but Turkish is the common public language. You hear Armenian spoken but neither Greek nor Kurdish.In Boyacıoglu gate you find Karakas the Armenian doctor who is a very talented surgeon.He has completed his studies of Medicine in Spain. He has a blue water for toothaches and a red water to take this tooth out with your bare hands.

From the beginning of 17th century Kayseri started to become known in the markets of Amsterdam and Venice with its Armenian traders. The armenians were ahead not only in trade but also in manufactering. In such an early date as 1856 the textile factory that was built by Hasırcıyan brothers carried 300 weaving stalls.The carpets and fabrics weaved and produced by Kayseri Armenians found a tremendous amount of buyers even in foreign markets. The ones who lived in high plateus during summer were famous with the fruit they grew and the wine they produced. It has been with Armenians' effort and hard work that Kayseri became very famous with its pastrami and sujuk since livestock industry was first held by Armenian people.

In brief, Armenians played the major role in improvement of Kayseri's trade.

In 1700s Armenians did not serve for military instead they paid jizya tax and tribute to the state. Their outfit and shoe colors were different than Muslims'.

For instance Jewish and Armenian community used to wear shoes in black and purple color, Greeks wore red and the muslims especially the wealthy class wore yellow.There was a primacy in Kayseri which was subsidiary to Istanbul Patriarchate.

According to 1914 Ottoman census of population there were over 50.000 Armenian living in Kayseri. In the city center there were 3 churches along with schools that belonged to Orthodox Armenian community. Those were; Surp Sakis Church (Hagopyan School), Surp Asdvadzadzin Church (Hagyan School) Surp Kirkor Lusavoric Church ( Gumusyan and Aramyan School).

According to census carried out by the Armenian Patriarchate between 1901-1902, it was identified that there were 42 Armenian Schools with 3795 male and 1140 female students and 125 teachers.

The city had a very advanced cultural life. Armenians had their own theatre groups and a press that published weekly magazine Dikris in 1907, weekly newspaper Sepor in 1910 and weekly magazine Nor Serunt in 1912.

In Yukarı Talas district there were mansions that belonged to rich Armenians. Kalust Gulbenkyan, one of the most famous Armenians who was an oil king and a generous donator has roots of his ancestors in this region.

Armenians In The Time Of Rebublic

In the present day, except for a few households, there does not exist an assembled Armenian community in Kayseri. There are faith visitations organized by Istanbul Armenians to Surp Kirkor Lusavoric Church twice a year. Many Armenians from different parts of Turkey and abroad participate to these visits as well.