Amasya (tur. Amasya, Greek Ἀμάσεια, Armenian Ամասիա) is a city and district in northern Turkey, the center of the province (il) of Amasya. The population of the city is 82 thousand inhabitants (2008). Height above sea level – 411 m.
Amasya is located in the valley of the Yeshilyrmak River; this is due to its mild climate. In the vicinity of Amasya, apple cultivation is widespread.

History
ancient times
From 281 B.C. e. to 183 BC e. Greek Amasia – the capital of the Pontic kingdom. In 63 BC. e. the city and the kingdom were conquered by Rome.

Roman-Byzantine period
Amasia was captured by the Roman Lucullus in 70 BC. e.; gradually the Pontic kingdom, together with Bithynia, was transformed into a new Roman province – Bithynia and Pontus. By this time, Amasya had become a prosperous city, the home of thinkers, poets and writers. One of them, Strabo, left a complete description of Amasia in the 1st century BC. e.
After the division of the Roman Empire by Emperor Diocletian, the city became part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. At that time, the majority of the population in the city were Greeks.

Seljuk period
After the defeat of the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071, Asia Minor, which was within the Byzantium of the 7th century, began to gradually lose its Christian and Greek character. The process of Islamization and Turkization of Asia Minor begins. The Turks moved deep into the peninsula very quickly and in 1075 the Turkish emir Danyshmendid captured Amasya and made it the capital of his state, which existed in Asia Minor for over 100 years.
The Sultan of the Iconian Sultanate, Kylych-Arslan I, captured the city and annexed it to his possessions. The city became the center of Islamic culture. Schools, mosques and other architecture of this period have survived to this day.
Periodically, Amasya passed from the hands of the Turks to the hands of the Byzantines in the XII century during the wars of Byzantium and the Iconian Sultanate. The city finally became Turkish only at the beginning of the 13th century.

Ottoman period
At the end of the 14th century, the city was conquered by the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. Amasya becomes an important city, the education of the sultan’s children is held here.
The population of Amasya during the Ottoman rule was very different from most other cities in the Ottoman Empire: in order to properly educate the future sultan, it was necessary to familiarize him in detail with most of the peoples of the empire. Each people of the empire was represented in Amasya in specific villages – a Pontic (Greek) village, an Armenian village, a Bosnian, Tatar, Turkish village, an Arab, a Kurdish village, etc.
In 1511, a major uprising of the Qizilbash Shiites began in southeastern Anatolia, which soon engulfed almost all of Asia Minor. Shahkulu Tekeli became the leader of the uprising. After a series of victories, the rebels were defeated by the Sultan’s troops, and Shahkulu himself was killed in battle and buried in Amasya.
On May 29, 1555, after a 40-year war between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia, a peace treaty was signed here on the division of spheres of influence in Transcaucasia: Western Georgia (Imeretia, Mingrelia, Guria and the western part of the principality of Samtskhe-Saatabago) and Western Armenia were ceded to the Turks, and Eastern Georgia (Kartli, Kakheti and the eastern part of Samtskhe-Saatabago) and Eastern Armenia – Persia.

In 1854, 105,000 people lived in Amasya and its surrounding villages, of which 53,400 (51%) were Armenians and 16,000 (15%) were Greeks.
In 1894-97, pogroms of Armenians took place in Amasya, as a result of which thousands of people were killed.
In 1912, 48,000 Muslims, 12,640 Armenians (with 24,000 villages) and 3,038 Greeks lived here.
In May 1915, hundreds of teachers, doctors and clergy of Armenian and Greek origin were arrested by the Turkish authorities and executed.
Since June 20, Amasian Armenians have been deported in 3 caravans in the direction of Baghdad.

The first beatings of the driven Armenians took place on the way to Tokhat – in the area of ​​Sargyshla and in Malatya. In Sargyshla, the Chetniks took children away from their parents and sold them to Muslims. Three months later, having suffered great human losses, the caravans of the Amasian Armenians reached Suruch, where the epidemic began. Until December, out of 20,000 deportees, only 1,800 survived, some of whom were deported to Deir ez-Zor in the spring of 1916.
Thanks to the capture of Aleppo (in May 1918) by the Anglo-French troops, 1500 Amasian Armenians were saved. By August 1919, due to the returnees, the number of Armenians in Amasya reached 650. A National Administrative Council was created, which until 1923 promoted the return of the Amasians to their native lands. However, the anti-Armenian policy of the Kemalist government forced many of them to move to Europe and the Arab countries. During the First World War, many Amasians joined the ranks of the Armenian volunteer movement and the Armenian Legion.

Famous Natives
Страбон (64/63 гг. до н. e. — 24 г. н. e.) — древнегреческий географ и историк, автор «Географии» в 17 книгах.
Theodore Tyron (4th century) is a Christian saint.
Amirdovlat Amasiatsi (XV century) – Armenian scientist, naturalist and doctor.
Selim I (1465 – 1520) – the ninth sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
Amasyaly Beyazid Pasha (XV – XVI centuries) – Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
Kara-Mustafa (1635 – 1683) – Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.