Corlu - History

History

Bronze Age relics have been found in various areas of Thrace including Çorlu and by 1000 BC the area was a Phrygian colony named Tzirallum/Tzirallun or Tzirallon. The area was subsequently controlled by Greeks, Persians, Romans and the Byzantines. The Roman name of Çorlu was Cænophrurium that is the stronghold of the Caeni, and was the place where Emperor Aurelian was murdered in 275. There were important Roman and Byzantine fortifications here and the town was a base for controlling large areas of Thrace.

Following a tumultuous early history, Çorlu was brought under Ottoman control by Sultan Murad I, who immediately ordered the destruction of the Roman walls as part of a policy of opening up the town under Pax Ottomana. In the Ottoman period, the town remained an important staging post on the road from Istanbul to Greece.

In the early 16th century, the nearby village of Uğraşdere was the battleground where Sultan Beyazid II defeated his son Selim I (August 1511); a year later Beyazid II was defeated by Selim and was the first Ottoman father to be overthrown by his son. Beyazid II died in Çorlu on his way to exile in Dimetoka. Coincidentally, Selim himself died in Çorlu nine years into his reign. Both father and son are buried in Istanbul.

In the late 18th century, when the Ottoman Empire began to decline in military as well as economic power, the city found itself at the crossroads of numerous conflicts. Turkish refugees were settled in the city when the Ottomans lost control of Crimea to the Russians. The grandchildren of these refugees met the Russians themselves when Çorlu was briefly occupied by Russian troops in The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. During the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, Çorlu was the command post of the Ottoman army, but was taken by Bulgarian troops in December 1912. The city was recaptured by Turkish forces during the Second Balkan War in July 1913. Çorlu was then occupied by Greek troops from 1920 to 1922 during the Turkish War of Independence, and was freed after the struggles of the national resistance.

The city formally became a part of the Republic of Turkey following the declaration of the Republic in 1923. Çorlu continues to be an important garrison of the Turkish army today as the home of the 189th Infantry Regiment.