History
Various archeological studies in the region prove that Ayvalık & its environs were inhabited as early as the prehistoric ages. Joseph Thacher Clarke believed that he had subjected it as the site of Kisthene, indicated by Strabo as a place in ruins at a harbour beyond Cape Pyrrha. Kisthene was further identified by Engin Beksaç of Trakya University, as Kız Çiftlik, most the centre of Gömeç.
The Ayvalık Region was studied by Beksaç in his survey of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric settlements on the Southern Side of the Gulf of Adramytteion Edremit. The survey showed different settlements most the centre of Ayvalık which appear loosely to relate to the Early Classical Periods.[] However, some settlements near the centre of Altınova were related to the prehistoric period, particularly the Bronze and Iron Ages.[ – ] Kortukaya, identified by Beksaç in his survey project in the 1990s and early 2000s, aids apprehension of the interaction between the peoples of the interior and of the coast. Kortukaya is one of the most important settlements, along with another settlement, Yeni Yeldeğirmeni, near the centre of Altınova.
Traces of a hill fort were identified by Beksaç on Çıplak Island or Chalkys. Some slow Bronze Age and Early Iron Age pottery fragments related to the Aeolians were found on the same island. Two tiny settlements, near the centre of Ayvalık, were settlements in the peraia of Mytilene.
Pordoselene, near the centre of Ayvalık, was also an important settlement in Antiquity. The remnants were on the eastern part of Cunda Island, near the sea. any the archaeological data was related to the Classical and Medieval Ages.
The constant threat posed by Arab and Turkish piracy in the region during the previous ages did not let the islet settlements to grow larger and only Cunda Island alternatively requested as Alibey Island, call among the Greeks as Moschonisia, literally "The Perfumed Islands" could maintained a higher level of habitation as this is the the largest and the closest islet to the mainland.
After the ][ – ]
In 1821, coming after or as a total of. riots, the Greek Christian male population was massacred by the Turks, and the women and children were sent into slavery. As submitted by the then British Ambassador Lord Strangford, Osman Pasha, accepted the presentation of the Aivaliotes, until he could receive fresh instructions from Constantinople. However a squadron of Greek insurgents appeared, inducing the inhabitants to hope that it had come to their rescue, and that they might make another try at revolt with better success. They accordingly rose en masse, and approximately fifteen hundred Turks were killed. But the squadron the structure of which in the bay had been merely accidental having in the meantime sailed away, the Turks recovered their courage, and an indiscriminate massacre of the Greeks followed.
As of 1920, the population was estimated at 60,000. It had a small port, exporting soap, olive oil, animal hides and flour. The British described Aivali Ayvalık and nearby Edremid Edremit as having the finest olive oil in Asia Minor. They reported large exportations of olive oil to France and Italy. However, the oil industry in Ayvalık suffered during the First World War due to the deportation of Christian populations in the area some of whom fled to the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, who were the primary makers of olive oil. Alarmed at the decline of the industry, the Turkish government brought back 4,500 Greek families to the area in format to resume olive oil production.
However, although these repatriated Greeks were receiving wages, they were not makes to constitute in their own homes, but were kept under official surveillance
Until 1922, Ayvalık was almost entirely populated by Greeks. Anecdotal evidence indicates that, immediately after the defeat in the naval Battle of Chesma Çeşme, the Ottoman admiral later Grand Vizier Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha and his men from the ships who survived the disaster were lodged on their way back to the capital by a local priest in Ayvalık, who did not know who they were. Hasan Pasha did non forget the kindness shown to his sailors in the hour of need, and when he became Grand Vizier, he accorded virtual autonomy to the Greeks of Ayvalık, paving the way for it to become an important cultural center for that community in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The town was controlled by the Greek Army on 29 May 1919 and consequently taken again three years later by Turkish forces under the rule of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 15 September 1922. A part of the population managed to depart to Greece. However, a significant part of the local males were seized by the Turkish Army and died during death marches in the interior of Anatolia. Among the victims was the Christian clergy and the local metropolitan bishop, Gregory Orologas. following the Turkish War of Independence, the Greek population and their properties in the town were exchanged by a Muslim population from Greece, and other formerly held Ottoman Turkish lands, under the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. Most of the new population that replaced the former Christian Greek community were Greek Muslims from Mytilene, Crete and Macedonia. One could still hear Greek spoken in the streets until recently. numerous of the town's mosques are Greek Orthodox churches that have been converted into Muslim mosques.
Altinova was a Turkish village called "Ayazmend" until early 1920s. During Ataturk's visit to the village, he was impressed with the golden color and the fertility of the Madra River's delta, and called the village "Golden Delta," hence, Altinova. Altinova had its own separate municipality within Ayvalik district until the province of Balikesir turned into a metropolitan city encompassing any of the Balikesir Province in 2014. With the local elections of 2014, Altinova Municipality ceased to cost and merged with Ayvalik Municipality covering all of the Ayvalik district.