Modern-day Sile (Hili) is a small town to the north-east of Istanbul on the Asian side of Turkey. Built right next to the Black Sea, Sile is a famous vacation resort. Until 1922 Greek Orthodox population used to live there in harmony with other cultural groups of the Ottoman Empire until the Asia Minor Destruction. Their main professions were trade, fishing, agriculture and livestock. In 1922, under the Treaty of Lausanne and its term of population exchange between Greece and Turkey, they were violently forced to leave their homes and come to Greece.
At first, people from Sile settled in the Peloponnese and Piraeus, mostly in the refugee area of Kokkinia and then moved to areas and villages of Macedonia and Thrace. In the area of Alexandroupolis they settled in the villages of Amphitrite, Potamos and Nea Hili and continued working as fishermen and farmers.
