The village is located in Strandzha mountains, 20 km north of the centre of Kırklareli, near the border with Bulgaria.
History
In the 19th century, Dereköy was a Bulgarian village in the Kaza of Kırklareli, which was in turn in the Vilayet of Edirne. In 1873, the village consisted of 360 households with 1684 Bulgarians.[3]
After the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877–1878, first families from Dereköy migrated to Razgrad and Tutrakan to the newly sovereign Bulgaria. According to statistics provided by Ljubomir Miletitsch, Dereköy had about 150 households and 634 inhabitants in 1900, all of whom were Christian Bulgarians.[4]
After the outbreak of the Balkan War in 1912, 16 volunteers from Dereköy fought in the Macedonia-Edirne-volunteer corps of the Bulgarian army.[5] After the outbreak of the Second Balkan War, when the Turkish army recaptured eastern Thrace, the whole Bulgarian population of Dereköy escaped to Bulgaria.
The border
The border crossing point lies about 11 km north west of the village centre. The Bulgarian counterpart is Malko Tarnovo. It was opened in 1970. It occupies a land size of 17.811 m2. Modernization of the facilities is still ongoing.[6]
References
^Köy, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
^Македония и Одринско. Статистика на населението от 1873 г. Македонски научен институт (deutsch: Makedonien und Regieon Edirne. Bevölkerungsstatistik von 1873; Makedonisches wissenschaftliches Institut, Sofia, 1995, Seite 32–33.
^Ljubomir Miletitsch: Разорението на тракийскитeѣ българи презъ 1913 година (bulg. Razorjawaneto na trakijskite balgari prez 1913 godina), Verlag Balgarski Bestseller, Sofia, 2003, S. 297, ISBN954-9308-14-6
^Македоно-одринското опълчение 1912-1913 г. Личен състав, Bulgarischer Zentralarchiv, Sofia, 2006, S. 842.
^"Dereköy Kapisi" (in Turkish). Dereköy Gümrük Müdürlüğü. Retrieved 13 October 2012.