In 1900 Armenians, Greeks, Turkish and a few Jews lived in this area. But, as a result of conflicts in the last years of the Ottoman empire, or due to ethnic problems between these nations, some of the people were killed or forced to leave the area to the others. At the beginning of the conflicts Turks left the villages and ran away to the mountains in fear of their lives, some of the Turks were killed by the others. At the end of the Turkish independence war(1924), which took place also around this area, all of the non-Muslims were forced to leave the area as Turks were planning to take their revenge. In this process the village was destroyed by the Greeks and Armenians, and some say the Turks were also involved in this while re-capturing the village. At the end of the war the village was totally empty.
After the war Turks migrated from the Balkans (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Yugoslavia) and were settled in the village by the Turkish war government. Since then people have come from other parts of Turkey.
The 1999 earthquake was hard on Bahçecìk, several hundred people died. There has been reconstruction,thanks to the people from all over the world.
Below are some modern pictures of an old "American college" and missionaries houses from Bahçecìk. This may be the site of Robert Chambers early experience.
