Saimbeyli was once known as Hadjin, an Armenian town that was witness to a brutal massacre. The area has never recovered from its bloody past, as the Armenian inhabitants were killed or forceably removed and their abandoned houses taken by Turkish villagers. The Kiraz Festivali or Cherry Festival in Saimbeyli is a longheld tradition dating from the Armenians who inhabited the town before the massacre. 

An Armenian recounts the bounty of fruit in the book:

From Pilgrimage to Freedom. 

At home, in the "baghtche," they would spread large sheets under the cherry and mulberry trees, while his father or a friend climbed the tre and knocked on the limbs with a long stick.  The fuit came showering down to be dried and put away for the winter.  Tomatoes were gathered, and okra and squash and eggplants to be prepared for preservation.  Grapes, too, were gathered and after feasting on the fresh fruit, they would spread the clusters on sheets and dry them for raisins which, mixed with walnuts, would help to while away the long winter nights.