Ermenek is a town in Karaman Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It is the seat of Ermenek District. Its population is 11,629 (2022). As ancient Germanicopolis (in Isauria; has namesakes), a former bishopric, it remains a Latin Catholic titular see.
Names
The town was historically known as Germanicopolis (Greek: ), Germanig and possibly Clibanus; which later mutated to Ermenek.
History
Germanicopolis was an ancient town in the Roman province of Isauria. The city took its name from Germanicus, grandson of first Emperor Octavian Augustus, as several others.
The Crusaders sustained a great defeat at the hands of the Seljuks near the city in 1098. It passed to the Turkish dynasty of the Karamanids and became a centre of the Afşar Turks in 1228. During the Karamanid period, several of Ermenek's historical mosques were constructed, notably : Akca Mosque (1300), Ermenek Grand Mosque (1302), Sipas Mosque (1306) and Meydan mosque (1436).
It was later incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, becoming part of the Karaman Eyalet, where it was the second most important town after Karaman itself.
Ecclesiastical history
No later than the 5th century, Germanicopolis became a suffragan bishopric of the Archdiocese of Seleucia in Isauria, in the sway of the Patriarchate of Antioch.
Four of its bishops are known during the Byzantine government : Tyrannus, participant at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 Bisulas in the sixth century Eustathius, participant at the Second Council of Nicaea in 797 Basil(eus), participant at the Council of Constantinople in 879-880 which reinstated that Byzantine capital's Patriarch Photius 878
Titular see
The diocese was nominally restored no later than 1717 as Latin Titular bishopric of Germanicopolis (Latin) / Germanicopoli (Curiate Italian) / Germanicopolitan(us) (Latin adjective).