Polonezköy - a polish village in Turkey

As I noticed that many Bulbers come from Turkey, I wonder how many of them know that Poles and Turkish have quite a lot of common points in history.
I'd like to share some interesting information; however, I have to admit, I've never been to this amazing country (Turkey), and I can only use the news that I found on the Web.

Polonezköy (also Adampol; the Turkish name meaning "Polish village") is a village in Turkey that was created in the mid-19th century and has a population of 390 (data for 2010). A village of Polish immigrants is on the outskirts of Istanbul, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait, in the Beykoz district, northeast of the city center. Until 1960, it was a typical rural village where, in addition to Turkish, Polish was spoken and Polish customs were practiced. The town changed its character in the second half of the twentieth century, becoming mostly a tourist destination. Traditionally, a Pole is elected mayor of Polonezköy, but only the oldest residents speak Polish, and people of Polish descent are a minority.

A piece of history
Following the November Uprising (1830/31 Poland), representatives of the Great Emigration dispersed over several European countries but found the safest haven in France. Hotel Lambert, the monarchist party led by Prince Adam Czartoryski, had its headquarters in Paris. Unlike the war-seeking revolutionaries and Democrats, the prince decided to struggle for independence through diplomatic channels for as long as feasible.
In the geopolitical game of European powers, he attempted to find a way to benefit tiny Polish interests. The route to independence had to pass via a confrontation with Russia, so the monarchists attempted to combat Russian influence on all fronts. At the end of the 1830s, Istanbul, the capital of the enormous but failing Ottoman Empire, became the focal point of European countries' competing interests, with Russia, England, France, and Austria-Hungary vying for control of its provinces.
Czartoryski, seeing the political significance of the city lying at the crossroads of continents, intended to establish a Polish presence there. Michał Czajkowski, a socialite, writer, soldier, and aspiring diplomat, became the first emissary and key agent of the right-wing movement in 1841. He was a trusted man of Prince Czartoryski. During his first weeks on the Bosphorus, Tchaikovsky heard several stories about his compatriots wandering about the High Port (Ottoman Empire) with little perspectives for worthy life.
Poles in Turkey frequently deserted the Russian army, into which they had been forcibly drafted. While fighting in the Caucasus against the Circassians, they escaped from their army and were captured by the Circassians, who treated them far worse than the Russians. They were sold into slavery to Armenians, Greeks, and Turks, or they ended up on the Empire's outskirts, unprotected by any European legation. Those who were taken in by Jews or Cossacks might complain less about their suffering because they had more empathy for Poles. This was the fate of many of the November insurgents.

Michał Czajkowski ( photo from WEB resources)

Polish secret mission
Tchaikovsky, whose mission in Constantinople was to counteract Russian (and, to a lesser extent, Austrian) interests by influencing the Ottoman Sultan's highest council of advisors, devised a plan to connect the main goal of his activities in the Port with assisting Poles scattered throughout Turkey. His vision assumed the legitimacy of the Polish presence in Anatolia, which had significant political implications for representing a formally non-existent state.

Piece of Poland in Ottomans' Emperium
The plan was to build a community near Istanbul as an asylum for Poles in need of assistance. It was intended to be a colony to which immigrants and deserters from the Russian army dispersed throughout Europe would come in search of a kind of promised land - a Slavic community in the Orient. It was also considered to build a base for a hypothetical Polish legion, which, given the right circumstances, could fight in Turkish ranks against Russian forces. The settlement was also supposed to lay the groundwork for a newly formed diplomatic post in Istanbul, which would formally legalize Polish actions on the Bosphorus. These factors overshadowed the concurrently explored idea of establishing a Polish department store on the Bosphorus.

Financial issue
Michał Czajkowski was enthusiastic about the concept to construct a settlement. He wanted to hunt for his compatriots in Kurdistan and Persia, but Prince Czartoryski quelled his zeal. The most difficult difficulty at the time was financing the project. After accepting the primary agent's proposal, Czartoryski relied on the humanitarian assistance of Catholics in Europe as well as the support of philanthropists who wanted to help the Slavs out of poverty.

"Catholicism and mercy speak for this project." - a statement the head of the Hotel Lambert In response to one of the letters that Tchaikovsky sent to Paris.
This was also planned to be the project's label, concealing its Polish nature and shielding it from political ramifications from Russia. These were the fears of the French envoy in Turkey, who, although silently supporting the scheme and approving of the Lazarists' cooperation with Poland, rejected financial assistance in order not to anger the Muscovites. Czartoryski accepted the fact that Paris did not stand in the way of the idea.
According to the 1774 treaty, Russia had the right to demand the extradition of Poles who were working against it, but in this situation, it was a toothless right that would endanger Russia's image. According to the proposal, Poles liberated from slavery and wandering the streets of Istanbul in poverty would be moved to the village, where their fortunes would improve by migrating to the countryside. If the tsar referred to himself as the Lord of Poland, why didn't he care about his subjects' welfare and freedom? The public reaction would have been consistent with the Polish line, of which Tchaikovsky was aware.

Settlement rules
The agreement with the Lazarists was made on March 3, 1842, and the first cottage in the Polish community was dedicated on March 19. It was named Adampol in honor of its leader, Prince Adam Czartoryski.
The requirement for residing in the countryside was Polish nationality or, at the very least, Catholic faith and Slavic ancestry, as well as a recommendation to be an upright and nice person. According to Jerzy Łątka's book "Adampol. "Polish village on the Bosphorus," the colony was initially attended by disheartened persons who experienced the anguish of being a soldier in a foreign army but were unaccustomed to regular work on their own. As a result, the first few years were volatile, with fighting and disagreements, and some of the settlers returned to their wretched lives in the city.
However, a dozen or so people worked tirelessly to construct additional houses and clear the dense forest, increasing the amount of land under cultivation. The original huts, constructed on bare ground, were basic one-room buildings. Farmers slept there, as did their families over time, but cattle was also kept there. There was no furniture; you sat on stumps, handcrafted benches, and slept on stoves. Only later did the people start performing their own carpentry.
Czajkowski attempted to ensure that the village generated income for itself. In the long run, it was meant to provide financial assistance for Polish initiatives in the East. Although Adampol absorbed high maintenance costs and provided no benefits in its early years, it was primarily Prince Czartoryski who financed current expenses whenever possible, and in emergency situations, Czajkowski also paid the monks who fed the Poles out of his own pocket, while the Lazarists themselves received donations from European philanthropists. Some of the village caretakers shown a commercial sense; they attempted to expand goat and cow breeding, but frequent changes in this role prevented these endeavors from succeeding.

The prosperity of the village
To make Adampol more appealing and promote it, Czajkowski built a kennel on the property and welcomed visitors to hunt wild boars in the surrounding woodlands. French envoys, as well as affluent English and French people, were drawn to the Polish settlement by its welcoming atmosphere. Adampol was located a few dozen kilometers from Istanbul. You may get there by sailing down the Bosphorus and then transferring to horses waiting for you on land. After three hours of walking, we came upon straw roofed buildings with a cross towering above them. Beehives and vineyards were preserved, but were eventually abandoned due to unfavorable northwest winds.
There were plenty of cherry blooming in the village (in the twentieth century, the town was even known as Cherry Village), and the Polish love of flowers was evident in the gardens in front of residences. Western visitors were captivated by Polish warmth and Sarmatian traditions.
The phenomenon was not Adampol's familiarity, but rather its residents' exceptional past. Life here was founded by exiles who had suffered harsh labor and were placed on the outskirts of society. The struggle for survival and the hard physical labor in the field from morning to evening were offset by safety and the knowledge that a patriotic center was being built from the ground up, a small piece of homeland, an independent, own land in exile. This story also enthralled Polish emigrants throughout Europe. In Turkey, the settlement was portrayed as an example of an old adversary seeking safety in a kind and accepting country, presumably the Ottoman Empire.

The village nowdays
After over a century, the Polish rural atmosphere, national awareness, customs, and culture have endured. Students from Istanbul were drawn to sleeping on the hay, hunting continued in the woodlands, and the town's familiarity added recreational appeal. However, the prohibition on learning Polish, the lack of longing for the dream homeland, which was now a real country to which one could emigrate, and, most importantly, connecting the village to the outside world by building a road to a nearby town, quickly transformed the center of Polishness into a typical tourist resort.
In the 1960s, Adampol became a popular weekend destination from Istanbul. Residential buildings began to be converted into guesthouses with rooms for rent, and in subsequent years, wealthy people, celebrities, and businesses began to relocate here and build villas. However, looking for remnants of Polishness outside of the church, cemetery, and dumplings on restaurant menus amid Turkish delicacies is pointless.

Resources:
https://polonezkoy.com/
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonezk%C3%B6y
https://histmag.org/Adampol-jak-powstala-polska-wioska-pod-Stambulem-21956
https://bezdroza.pl/ciekawostki,Polonezkoy___polska_wies_w_Turcji_,11128.html