Yeniköy is a small village neighbourhood attached to the city centre of Amasya. Its former name is Sarılar, and local people still use that name today. Within the history of Amasya, known for its citadel, mosque complexes and rock-cut tombs, this settlement is thinly documented; it belongs to the belt of villages spread around the Yeşilırmak valley, away from the city's best-known face. The change of name, the way people make their living and what is reported about the village's Armenian past nonetheless give it a place of its own. Subjects for which no documents exist are stated openly throughout.

Its Name and Former Name

The former name of Yeniköy is Sarılar. The neighbourhood's entry carries the note "formerly: Sarılar", and village introduction pages report that the name Sarılar Köyü was later used as Yeniköy and that both names are still current. The Governorate's announcements likewise refer to the neighbourhood headman as the "Sarılar Neighbourhood Headman", so even in official correspondence the old name has not been abandoned altogether. Because many settlements in Turkey bear the name Yeniköy, confusion arises easily. The one in question here is the neighbourhood attached to Amasya's central district, formerly called Sarılar.

No document has been found in open-access sources on the year or the administrative decision by which the name was changed. It is likewise unknown whether Sarılar comes from the name of a person or a community or from a feature of the place, and no origin is proposed. An academic article on the renaming of settlements in Amasya lists Yeniköy among the settlements attached to the centre that were later converted from villages into neighbourhoods; its table of renamed settlements, however, contains no Sarılar/Yeniköy pair.

Location and Surroundings

The neighbourhood lies within the boundaries of Amasya's central district; its postal code is 05100. Some sources put the settlement at about five kilometres from the city centre, though this is not a precise measurement. Amasya lies in the valley of the Yeşilırmak, in a narrow basin enclosed by high rock faces and mountains. The strip left between the cliffs at the city's back and the fertile land opened by the river is narrow, and the surrounding villages lie scattered between the valley floor and its slopes, in places by the water, in places on ground that begins to rise. At a distance of a few kilometres from the centre, this makes Yeniköy a settlement in constant daily contact with the city that has nonetheless kept its village character. No verified source has been found showing with which slope or water source Yeniköy is associated within this geography.

Armenian Past

The sources also note that no clear information about Sarılar's history is available; yet the same sources report that the village once housed an Armenian population. According to this account, a considerable Armenian community lived in the village before the Armenian events, and the name Dragup, believed to be Armenian, belongs to that period. The same account says that after the events the Armenians of the village were displaced, and that an Armenian church and houses that had belonged to Armenians remain among the village's gardens.

This is a local, second-hand account. The name of the church, its date of construction, its present condition, the size of the community and the date of its departure are not supported by documents. In general studies of the Armenian population of the Amasya sanjak and of the events of 1915, no village called Sarılar has been found mentioned separately. For this reason the village's Armenian past is reported here as a local account and no detail is added; until documents come to light, it does not seem possible to go beyond that account.

History

No information is available in open sources on the founding of Yeniköy or Sarılar, its entry in the Ottoman tahrir registers, or its place in waqf and Islamic court registers. No settlement called Sarılar or Yeniköy has been found in the full text of volumes 1-4 and 9-12 of Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar's Amasya Tarihi; the village does not appear in Osman Fevzi Olcay's Amasya Hâtıraları either, nor in the text of the study of the 1840 Amasya population register. Since no definite document has been found, no founding date, first inhabitant or event is given.

Daily Life and Livelihood

According to the sources, the people of Sarılar earn their living from fruit growing, farming and livestock, and the climate and soil of the area suit fruit cultivation. Given the orchard belt of the Yeşilırmak valley, known for Amasya apples, this livelihood seems in keeping with the surroundings. The crops listed include cherries, apples, peaches, plums, apricots, quinces, pears and walnuts, so that something is ripening in the gardens in almost every season of the year. No detailed production data has been found on which crop is grown to what extent.

Population

According to records based on TÜİK data, the 2021 population of Yeniköy is 422. Population compilation sites also show a figure of 436 for 2023; since this could not be verified from an official source, it should be regarded as approximate. Village introduction pages also give figures from the period when it was still a village: 465 for 1997, 550 for 2005 and 578 for 2007; these too are given without a stated source. On these figures the village grew between 1997 and 2007 and then lost roughly one hundred and fifty people between 2007 and 2021; but since the series come from different sources, this comparison indicates a trend only.

Yeniköy Today

Yeniköy today has the status of a neighbourhood attached to Amasya's central district and has largely kept the small scale of its village period. Official news items name Ali Kabacı as the neighbourhood headman, who took part in a visit to the governor together with other village headmen. No verified information has been found on any registered historic building, mosque, tomb or fountain in the neighbourhood. Some of the "Yeniköy Mosque" entries that appear in search results belong to settlements in other provinces, for example Giresun, and have not been attributed to this neighbourhood.

Chronology

1997: Village introduction pages give a population of 465 (source not stated).

2007: The same pages give the population as 578.

2021: The neighbourhood population is recorded as 422 (record based on TÜİK data).

The date of the change from the name Sarılar to Yeniköy, and the date of the departure of the village's Armenian community, are not definitely known; beyond this, no documented date can be given.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources