Göksun

History

Cucusus has an ancient history, first included in Cataonia, then in Cappadocia, and then in the Roman province of Armenia Secunda. The Byzantine bishops, Paul the Confessor (died 350 AD), John Chrysostom (died 407 AD) and Emperor Basiliscus (died 476 AD) either died in or were exiled to this remote place. Of its bishops, Domnus took part in the Council of Chalcedon (451), Longinus was a signatory of the joint letter of the bishops of the province of Armenia Secunda to Byzantine Emperor Leo I the Thracian in 458 concerning the murder of Proterius of Alexandria, Ioannes was at the Second Council of Constantinople (553), and another Ioannes at the Trullan Council of 692. No longer a residential bishopric, Cucusus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. In the mid-10th century the town received many Armenian immigrants fleeing the Seljuk Turkish invasion and by 1097, when the army of the First Crusade marched towards the region and arrived at Cucusus, they encountered a large prosperous town populated by Armenians. The town, most likely with its own wall, remained under control of the Armenian princes of Cilicia but was abandoned due to Türkmen raids around 1375, with its inhabitants taking refuge in the towns of Hadjin and Zeitun. After that, the town became part of the Beylik of Dulkadir before it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1515. In April 1915, the remaining Armenian population of Cucusus was deported during the Armenian Genocide.