largest and the closest islet to the mainland.
After the Byzantine period, the region came under the rule of the Anatolian beylik of Karasi in the 13th century and was later annexed to the territory of the Ottoman beylik (principality), which was to become the Ottoman Empire in the following centuries.
The locals contributed with their economies to the Greek struggle for Independence, including the famous Psorokostaina. Until 1922, Ayvalık was almost entirely by populated by Greeks. Anecdotal evidence indicates that, immediately after the defeat in the naval Battle of Chesma(Çeşme), the Ottoman admiral (later grand vizier) CezayirliGaziHasan 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 not 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 command of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on 15 September 1922. 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 Turk lands under the 1923 agreement for the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations. Most of the new population that replaced the former Greek community were Muslim Turks from Mytilene, Crete andMacedonia. One could still hear Greek spoken in the streets until recently. Many of the town's mosques are Greek Orthodox churches that have been converted into Muslim mosques
