Söke

Söke

Söke is a district located in the west of Aydın province in the Aegean Region, on the coast of the Aegean Sea. In the north of the district, there is Selçuk district of Izmir province, Germencik in the northeast, Koçarlı in the east, Kuşadası in the northwest and Didim in the south. It is the largest district of the province in terms of surface area of 1064 km², and the 4th largest district in terms of population after Efeler, Nazilli and Kuşadası. There are 49 neighborhoods in the district. It is said that towards the end of the Byzantine Empire's rule, around 1300, Aydın Bey brought the Turkmen tribes here and made Söke the center of the tribe on behalf of the grandfather of Süleyman Şah, the head of one of these tribes. Although Söke, which was the center of the Menteşe Principality in 1426, continued to be the center of the Menteşe Sanjak of the Aydın Province during the Ottoman period, it remained the sanjak of the Kaptanpaşa Province from the 17th century and a district of the Sığla sanjak of the Aydın Province in 1841. After 1924, it became a district of Aydin. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, Yörük tribes belonging to the Bozdoğan Tribe from Söke were forced to migrate to regions such as Kozan Postkabasakal village, Zeytinbeli town, Tarsus and Çukurova by the Ottoman Empire.