Native Name: | Sancak-i Dedeağaç |
Common Name: | Sanjak of Dedeağaç |
Subdivision: | Sanjak |
Nation: | the Ottoman Empire |
Year Start: | 1878 |
Year End: | 1912 |
Event End: | First Balkan War |
P1: | Sanjak of Adrianople |
Flag P1: | Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg |
P2: | Sanjak of Gallipoli |
Flag P2: | Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg |
S1: | Kingdom of Bulgaria |
Flag S1: | Flag of Bulgaria.svg |
S2: | Ottoman Empire |
Flag S2: | Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg |
Image Map Caption: | 1907 Ottoman map of the Adrianople Vilayet, including the Sanjak of Dedeağaç in the lower middle |
Capital: | Dimetoka (1878–1884), Dedeağaç (1878–1912) |
Today: | Greece Turkey |
The Sanjak of Dedeağaç (Ottoman Turkish: Liva-i Dedeağaç, Greek, Modern (1453-);: Υποδιοίκησις Δεδέαγατς), originally in 1878–1884 the Sanjak of Dimetoka (Liva-i Dimetoka, Υποδιοίκησις Διδυμοτείχου), was a second-level province (sanjak) of the Ottoman Empire in Thrace, forming part of the Adrianople Vilayet. Its capital was Dedeağaç, modern Alexandroupolis in Greece.[1]
The sanjak was created in 1878 out of the territory of the sanjaks of Gallipoli and Adrianople, as well as the island of Samothrace, which had hitherto belonged to the Vilayet of the Archipelago.[1] The capital was originally at Dimetoka (Didymoteicho), but was moved to Dedeağaç (Alexandroupolis) in 1884. Dimetoka itself later returned under the sanjak of Adrianople.
It comprised three sub-provinces or kazas, which were further subdivided into nahiyes:[1]
Of these, the kaza of Dedeağaç and most of the kaza of Sofulu lie today in Greece, while the kaza of Enez with the parts of the kaza of Sofulu east of the Evros river lie in Turkey.[1]
The sanjak survived until it was occupied by Bulgarian troops in the First Balkan War (1912–1913), after which the portion west of the Evros became a Bulgarian (and after 1919, Greek) province, while the eastern remained under Turkish control (except for the period 1919–1922, when it was under Allied and then Greek control).[1]