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Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Historically known as Trebizond, the city was founded in 756 BC as Trapezous by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid Empire by Cyrus the Great and was later part of the independent Kingdom of Pontus that challenged Rome until 68 BC. Thenceforth part of the Roman and later Byzantine Empire, the city was the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In 1461 it came under Ottoman rule. During the early modern period, Trabzon, because of the importance of its port, again became a focal point of trade to Persia and the Caucasus. Today Trabzon is the second largest city and port on the Black Sea coast of Turkey with a population of almost 300,000. The urban population of the city is 330,836 (Ortahisar), with a metropolitan population of 822,270. Trabzon has 18 districts in total.
In Spanish the name was known from chivalric romances and Don Quixote.
Because of its similarity to and , (1991). 9788424908799, Gredos. ISBN 9788424908799 acquired the meaning "hullabaloo, imbroglio".
The city was founded in classical antiquity in 756 BC as Tραπεζούς ( Trapezous), by Milesian traders from Sinope. It was one of a number (about ten) of Milesian emporia or trading colonies along the shores of the Black Sea. Others included Abydos and Cyzicus in the Dardanelles, and nearby Giresun. Like most Greek colonies, the city was a small enclave of Greek life, and not an empire unto its own, in the later European sense of the word. As a colony, Trapezous initially paid tribute to Sinope, but early banking (money-changing) activity is suggested to have occurred in the city already in the 4th century BC, according to a silver Ancient drachma coin from Trapezus in the British Museum, London. Cyrus the Great added the city to the Achaemenid Empire, and was possibly the first ruler to consolidate the eastern Black Sea region into a single political entity (a satrapy).
Trebizond's trade partners included the Mossynoeci. When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand mercenaries were fighting their way out of Persia, the first Greek city they reached was Trebizond (Xenophon, Anabasis, 5.5.10). The city and the local Mossynoeci had become estranged from the Mossynoecian capital, to the point of civil war. Xenophon's force resolved this in the rebels' favor, and so in Trebizond's interest.
Up until the conquests of Alexander the Great the city remained under the dominion of the Achaemenids. While the Pontus was not directly affected by the war, its cities gained independence as a result of it. Local ruling families continued to claim partial Persian heritage, and Persian culture had some lasting influence on the city; the holy springs of Mt. Minthrion to the east of the old town were devoted to the Persian-Anatolian Greek god Mithra. In the 2nd century BC, the city with its natural harbours was added to the Kingdom of Pontus by Pharnaces I. Mithridates VI Eupator made it the home port of the Pontic fleet, in his quest to remove the Romans from Anatolia.
After the defeat of Mithridates in 66 BC, the city was first handed to the Galatians, but it was soon returned to the grandson of Mithradates, and subsequently became part of the new client Kingdom of Pontus. When the kingdom was finally annexed to the Roman Empire province of Galatia two centuries later, the fleet passed to new commanders, becoming the Classis Pontica. The city received the status of civitas libera, extending its judicial autonomy and the right to mint its own coin. Trebizond gained importance for its access to roads leading over the Zigana Pass to the Armenian frontier or the upper Euphrates valley. New roads were constructed from Persian Empire and Mesopotamia under the rule of Vespasian. In the next century, the emperor Hadrian commissioned improvements to give the city a more structured harbor.William Miller, Trebizond: The Last Greek Empire, 1926, (Chicago: Argonaut Publishers, 1968), p. 9 The emperor visited the city in the year 129 as part of his inspection of the eastern border (limes). A mithraeum now serves as a crypt for the church and monastery of Panagia Theoskepastos ( Kızlar Manastırı) in nearby Kizlara, east of the citadel and south of the modern harbor.
Septimius Severus punished Trebizond for having supported his rival Pescennius Niger during the Year of the Five Emperors. In 257 the city was pillaged by the Goths, despite reportedly being defended by "10,000 above its usual garrison" and two bands of walls. Trebizond was subsequently rebuilt, pillaged again, by the Sasanian Empire, in 258, and then rebuilt once more. It did not soon recover. Only in the reign of Diocletian does an inscription allude to the restoration of the city; Ammianus Marcellinus had nothing to say of Trebizond except that it was "not an obscure town."
Christianity had reached Trebizond by the third century, for during the reign of Diocletian occurred the martyrdom of Eugenius and his associates Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila.Miller, Trebizond, p. 10 Eugenius had destroyed the statue of Mithras which overlooked the city from Mount Minthrion (Boztepe), and became the patron saint of the city after his death. Early Christians sought refuge in the Pontic Mountains south of the city, where they established Vazelon Monastery in 270 AD and Sumela Monastery in 386 AD. As early as the First Council of Nicea, Trebizond had its own bishop.Hewsen, 46 Subsequently, the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the Metropolitan Bishop of Poti. Then during the 9th century, Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Lazica.
The city regained importance when it became the seat of the theme of Chaldia. Trebizond also benefited when the trade route regained importance in the 8th to 10th centuries; 10th-century Muslim authors note that Trebizond was frequented by Muslim merchants, as the main source transshipping into eastern Muslim countries.R.B. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles: material for a history up to the Mongol conquest, 1972, pp 63, 213, noted by David Jacoby, "Silk Economics and Cross-Cultural Artistic Interaction: Byzantium, the Muslim World, and the Christian West", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 58 (2004:197–240) p. 219 note 112. According to the 10th century Arabs geographer Abul Feda it was regarded as being largely a Lazica port. The Italian maritime republics such as the Republic of Venice and in particular the Republic of Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries, using Trebizond as an important seaport for trading goods between Europe and Asia. Some of the Silk Road caravans carrying goods from Asia stopped at the port of Trebizond, where the European merchants purchased these goods and carried them to the port cities of Europe with ships. This trade provided a source of revenue to the state in the form of custom duties, or kommerkiaroi, levied on the goods sold in Trebizond.Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California, 1971), p. 16 The Greeks protected the coastal and inland trade routes with a vast network of garrison forts.Robert W. Edwards, "The Garrison Forts of the Pontos: A Case for the Diffusion of the Armenian Paradigm", Revue des Études Arméniennes 19, 1985, pp.181–284.
Following the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Trebizond came under Seljuk Turks rule. This rule proved transient when an expert soldier and local aristocrat, Theodore Gabras took control of the city from the Turkish invaders, and regarded Trebizond, in the words of Anna Comnena, "as a prize which had fallen to his own lot" and ruled it as his own kingdom.Miller, Trebizond, p. 12 Supporting Comnena's assertion, Simon Bendall has identified a group of rare coins he believes was minted by Gabras and his successors.Bendall, "The Mint of Trebizond under Alexius I and the Gabrades", Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series, 17 (1977), pp. 126–136 Although he was killed by the Turks in 1098, other members of his family continued his de facto independent rule into the next century.
Geographically, the Empire of Trebizond consisted of little more than a narrow strip along the southern coast of the Black Sea, and not much further inland than the Pontic Mountains. However, the city gained great wealth from the taxes it levied on the goods traded between Persia and Europe via the Black Sea. The Mongol siege of Baghdad in 1258 diverted more trade caravans towards the city. Genoese and to a lesser extent Venetian traders regularly came to Trebizond. To secure their part of the Black Sea trade, the Genoese bought the coastal fortification "Leonkastron", just west of the winter harbour, in the year 1306. The Venetians likewise built a trading outpost in the city, a few hundred meters to the west of the Genoese. In between these two Italian colonies settled many other European traders, and it thus became known as the "European Quarter". Small groups of Italians continued to live in the city until the early decades of the 20th century. One of the most famous persons to have visited the city in this period was Marco Polo, who ended his overland return journey at the port of Trebizond, and sailed to his hometown Venice with a ship; passing by Constantinople (Istanbul) on the way, which was retaken by the in 1261.
Together with Persian goods, Italian traders brought stories about the city to Western Europe. Trebizond played a mythical role in European literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Miguel de Cervantes and François Rabelais gave their protagonists the desire to possess the city.'The lure of Trebizond' by Antony Eastmond, in Byzantium's Other Empire: Trebizond, p. 22, 2016, Istanbul Next to literature, the legendary history of the city – and that of the Pontus in general – also influenced the creation of paintings, theatre plays and operas in Western Europe throughout the following centuries.
The city also played a role in the early Renaissance; the western takeover of Constantinople, which formalized Trebizond's political independence, also led Byzantine intellectuals to seek refuge in the city. Especially Alexios II of Trebizond and his grandson Alexios III were patrons of the arts and sciences. After the great city fire of 1310, the ruined university was reestablished. As part of the university Gregory Choniades opened a new academy of astronomy, which housed the best observatory outside Persia. Choniades brought with him the works of Shams al-Din al-Bukhari, "Shams al‐Dīn al‐Bukhārī". Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 1047–1048. Retrieved 12 January 2018. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Al-Khazini from Tabriz, which he translated into Greek. These works later found their way to western Europe, together with the astrolabe. The observatory Choniades built would become known for its accurate solar eclipse predictions, but was probably used mostly for astrology purposes for the emperor and/or the church. Astronomy in the Trebizond Empire Ahmet M. Zehiroğlu (trans. by Paula Darwish). from Trabzon İmparatorluğu 2016, Trabzon. Scientists and philosophers of Trebizond were among the first western thinkers to compare contemporaneous theories with classical Greek texts. Basilios Bessarion and George of Trebizond travelled to Italy and taught and published works on Plato and Aristotle, starting a fierce debate and literary tradition that continues to this day on the topic of national identity and global citizenship. They were so influential that Bessarion was considered for the position of Pope, and George could survive as an academic even after being defamed for his heavy criticism of Plato.
The Black Death arrived at the city in September 1347, probably via Kaffa. At that time the local aristocracy was engaged in the Trapezuntine Civil War.
In 1340, Tur Ali Beg, an early ancestor of the Aq Qoyunlu, raided Trebizond. In 1348, he besieged Trebizond, however he failed and lifted the siege. Later on, Alexios III of Trebizond gave his sister to Kutlu Beg son of Tur Ali Beg, and established a kinship with them.
Constantinople remained the Byzantine capital until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, who also conquered Trebizond eight years later, in 1461.
Its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after the Ottoman conquest in 1461, as a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants, usually referred to as Pontic Greeks, continued to live in the area during Ottoman rule, up until 1923, when they were deported to Greece. A few thousand Greek Muslims still live in the area, mostly in the Çaykara-Of dialectical region to the southeast of Trabzon. Most are Sunni Muslim, while there are some recent converts in the city and possibly a few Crypto-Christians in the Tonya/Gümüşhane area to the southwest of the city. Compared to most previously Greek cities in Turkey, a large amount of its Greek Byzantine architectural heritage survives as well.
In 1598 it became the capital of its own province - the Trebizond Eyalet - which in 1867 became the Vilayet of Trebizond. During the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, his son Selim I (later Sultan Selim I) was the Sanjak-bey of Trabzon, and Selim I's son Suleiman the Magnificent was born in Trabzon in 1494. The Ottoman government often appointed local Chepni people and Laz people as the regional beylerbey. It is also recorded that some Bosniaks were appointed by the Sublime Porte as the regional beylerbeys in Trabzon. The Eyalet of Trabzon had always sent troops for the Ottoman campaigns in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Trebizond had a wealthy merchant class during the late Ottoman period, and the local Christian minority had a substantial influence in terms of culture, economy and politics. A number of European consulates were opened in the city due to its importance in regional trade and commerce. In the first half of the 19th century, Trebizond even became the main port for Persian exports. The opening of the Suez Canal greatly diminished the international trading position of the city, but did not halt the economic development of the region. In the last decades of the 19th century, the city saw some demographic changes. As the population of the province greatly expanded due to increased living standards, many families and young men - mostly Christians, but also some Jews and Greek or Turkish speaking Muslims - chose to migrate to the Crimea and southern Ukraine, in search for farmland or employment in one of the cities which had been newly established there. Among these migrants were the grandparents of Bob Dylan At pages 12-13. and Greek politicians and artists. Many Christian and Muslim families from Trabzon also moved to Constantinople, where they established businesses or sought employment - such as the grandfather of Ahmet Ertegün. These migrants were active in a wide range of trades including baking, confection, tailoring, carpentry, education, advocacy, politics and administration. The influence of this diaspora has since continued, and can still be seen in the many restaurants and shops in cities around the Black Sea in the 21st century such as in Istanbul, Odesa and Mariupol. At the same time, thousands of Muslim refugees from the Caucasus arrived in the city, especially after 1864, in what is known as the Circassian genocide.
Next to Constantinople, Smyrna (now İzmir) and Salonika (now Thessaloniki), Trebizond was one of the cities where western cultural and technological innovations were first introduced to the Ottoman Empire. In 1835, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions opened the Trebizond Mission station that it occupied from 1835 to 1859 and from 1882 to at least 1892. Hundreds of schools were constructed in the province during the first half of the 19th century, giving the region one of the highest literacy rates of the empire. First, the Greek community set up their schools, but soon the Muslim and Armenian communities followed. International schools were also established in the city; An American school, five French schools, a Persian school and a number of Italian schools were opened in the second half of the 19th century. The constitutional revolution of 1908 and its aftermath in Trabzon Ahmetoglu, S., 2019, p.127-128, Doctoral Thesis, Leiden University The city got a post office in 1845. New churches and mosques were built in the second half of the 19th century, as well as the first theater, public and private printing houses, multiple photo studios and banks. The oldest known photographs of the city center date from the 1860s and depict one of the last from Persia.
Between one and two thousand Armenians are believed to have been killed in the Trebizond vilayet during the Hamidian massacres of 1895. While this number was low in comparison to other Ottoman provinces, its impact on the Armenian community in the city was large. Many prominent Armenian residents, among them scholars, musicians, photographers and painters, decided to migrate towards the Russian Empire or France. The large Greek population of the city was not affected by the massacre.Rev. Edwin Munsell Blis on the Hamidian Massacres in 'Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection', 2014, p. 147, Paul R. Bartrop & Steven Leonard Jacobs (eds) Ivan Aivazovsky made the painting Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895 based on the events. Due to the high number of Western Europeans in the city, news from the region was being reported on in many European newspapers. These western newspapers were in turn also very popular among the residents of the city.
Ottoman era paintings and drawings of Trebizond
In July 1915 most of the adult male Armenians of the city were marched off south in five convoys, towards the mines of Gümüşhane, never to be seen again. Other victims of the Armenian genocide were reportedly taken out to sea in boats which were then capsized. Toronto Globe, August 26, 1915. Takvimi Vekdyi, No. 3616, August 6, 1919, p. 2. In some areas of Trebizond province - such as the Karadere river valley in modern-day Araklı, 25 kilometers east of the city - the local Muslim population tried to protect the Christian Armenians. KAZA HEMŞIN / ՀԱՄՇԷՆ – HAMSHEN Virtual genocide memorial
The coastal region between the city and the Russian frontier became the site of key battles between the Ottoman and Russian Empire armies during the Trebizond Campaign, as part of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I. The Russian army landed at Atina, east of Rize on March 4, 1916. Lazistan Sanjak fell within two days. However, due to heavy guerrilla resistance around Of and Çaykara some 50 km to the east of Trabzon, it took a further 40 days for the Russian army to advance west.Infographic by the newspaper The Sphere showing the advance of the Russian front on Trebizond, The Sphere, April 29, 1916 The Ottoman administration of Trabzon foresaw the fall of the city and called for a meeting with community leaders, where they handed control of the city to Greek metropolitan bishop Chrysantos Philippidis.
Chrysantos promised to protect the Muslim population of the city. Ottoman forces retreated from Trabzon, and on April 15 the city was taken without a fight by the Russian Caucasus Army under command of Grand Duke Nicholas and Nikolai Yudenich. There was also a massacre of Armenians and Greeks in Trabzon just before the Russian takeover of the city.
In early 1917 Chrysantos tried to broker a peace between the Russians and the Ottomans, to no avail. During the Russian Revolution of 1917 Russian soldiers in the city turned to rioting and looting, with officers commandeering Trebizonian ships to flee the scene. Governor Chrysantos was able to calm the Russian soldiers down, and the Russian Army ultimately retreated from the city and the rest of eastern and northeastern Anatolia. In March and April of 1918 the city hosted the Trebizond Peace Conference, where the Ottomans agreed to give up their military gains in the Caucasus in return for recognition of the eastern borders of the empire in Anatolia by the Transcaucasian Seim (a short-lived transcaucasian government).
In December 1918 Trabzon deputy governor Hafız Mehmet gave a speech at the Ottoman parliament in which he blamed the former governor of Trebizond province Cemal Azmi – a non-native appointee who had fled to Germany after the Russian invasion – for orchestrating the Armenian genocide in the city in 1915, by means of drowning. Subsequently, a series of war crimes trials were held in Trebizond in early 1919 (see Trebizond during the Armenian genocide). Among others, Cemal Azmi was sentenced to death in absentia.
During the Turkish War of Independence several Christian Pontic Greeks communities in the Trebizond province rebelled against the new army of Mustafa Kemal (notably in Bafra and Santa), but when nationalist Greeks came to Trabzon to proclaim revolution, they were not received with open arms by the local Pontic Greek population of the city. At the same time the Muslim population of the city, remembering their protection under Greek governor Chrysantos, protested the arrest of prominent Christians. Liberal delegates of Trebizond opposed the election of Mustafa Kemal as the leader of the Turkish revolution at the Erzurum Congress.
The governor and mayor of Trebizond were appalled by the violence against Ottoman Greek subjects, Seattle City Council and Asia Minor – The articles of Herbert Adams Gibbons in the Christian Science Monitor Stavros T. Stavridis in The National Herald, September 26, 2017 and the government of Trabzon thus refused arms to Mustafa Kemal's henchman Topal Osman, who was responsible for mass murders in the western Pontus which were part of the Greek genocide. Osman was forced out of the city by armed Turkish port-workers. Governor Chrysantos travelled to the Paris Peace Conference, where he proposed the establishment of the Republic of Pontus, which would protect its different ethnic groups. For this he was condemned to death by the Turkish Nationalist forces, and he could not return to his post in Trebizond. Instead, the city was to be handed to 'Wilsonian Armenia', which likewise never materialized. Following the war, the Treaty of Sèvres was annulled and replaced with the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). As part of this new treaty, Trebizond became part of the new Turkey. The efforts of the pro-Ottoman Empire, anti-nationalist population of Trebizond only postponed the inevitable, because the national governments of Turkey and Greece agreed to a mutual forced population exchange. This exchange included well over 100,000 Pontic Greeks from Trebizond and the vicinity, who moved to Greece (founding the new towns of Nea Trapezounta, Pieria and Nea Trapezounta, Grevena amongst others).Baum, Wilhelm (2006). The Christian minorities in Turkey. Kitab. p. 162. . "On October 11, 1922, Turkey concluded an armistice with the allied forces, but not with the Greeks. The Greeks in the other settlement areas of Asia Minor were also expelled at that time, like e.g. the Kappadocian Greeks in the Goreme area and the other Greeks in Pontus, in the Trebizond area and on the west coast."
During the war Trebizond parliamentarian Ali Şükrü Bey had been one of the leading figures of the first Turkish opposition party. In his newspaper Tan, Şükrü and colleagues publicized critiques of the Kemalist government, such as towards the violence perpetrated against Greeks during the population exchange. Şükrü argued that recognition of ethnic diversity was not a threat to the Turkish nation.
Topal Osman's men would eventually murder parliamentarian Şükrü for his criticism of the nationalist government of Mustafa Kemal in March 1923. Topal Osman was later sentenced to death and killed while resisting arrest. After pressure from the opposition, his headless body was hanged by his foot in front of the Turkish parliament. Ali Şükrü Bey, who had studied in Deniz Harp Okulu (Turkish Naval Academy) and worked as a journalist in the United Kingdom, is seen as a hero by the people of Trabzon, while in neighboring Giresun there is a statue of his murderer Topal Osman. Three years later Trabzon deputy Hafız Mehmet – who had testified to his knowledge of, and opposition to, the Armenian Ggenocide – was also executed, for his alleged involvement in the İzmir plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal. The literal decapitation of the Turkish political opposition – which was in large part based in the Trabzon region – decreased the city's national influence, and led to a long-standing animosity between the Kemalists and the population of Trabzon. A political and cultural divide between the Eastern Black Sea Region and the rest of Anatolia continued to exist throughout the 20th century, and still influences Turkish politics today. Even in the 21st century, politicians who hail from Trabzon are often faced with xenophobic attacks from both nationalist and conservative circles.
During World War II shipping activity was limited because the Black Sea had again become a war zone. Hence, the most important export products, tobacco and hazelnuts, could not be sold and living standards degraded.
As a result of the general development of the country, Trabzon has developed its economic and commercial life. The coastal highway and a new harbour have increased commercial relations with central Anatolia, which has led to some growth. However, progress has been slow in comparison to the western and the southwestern parts of Turkey.
Trabzon is famous throughout Turkey for its anchovies called hamsi, which are the main meal in many restaurants in the city. Major exports from Trabzon include hazelnuts and tea.
The city still has a sizable community of Greek-speaking Muslims, most of whom are originally from the vicinities of Tonya, Sürmene and Çaykara. However, the variety of the Pontic Greek - known as " Romeika" in the local vernacular, Pontiaka in Greek, and Rumca in Turkish - is spoken mostly by the older generations.Özhan Öztürk: Pontus: Antik Çağ’dan Günümüze Karadeniz’in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi, Genesis Yayınları, Ankara, 2011, pp. 417–421, ; Peter Mackridge: Greek-Speaking Muslims of North-East Turkey: Prolegomena to a study of the Ophitic sub-dialect of Pontic, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 115–137; Ömer Asan: Pontus Kültürü, Belge Yayınları, Istanbul, 1996.
Trabzon used to be an important pilotage for navigation in the Black Sea during harsh weather conditions. The popular expression "perdere la Trebisonda" (losing Trebizond) is still commonly used in the Italian language to describe situations in which the sense of direction is lost. The Italian maritime republics such as Venice and in particular Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries.
Trabzon has four lakes: Uzungöl, Çakırgöl, Sera, and Haldizen Lakes. There are several streams, but no rivers in Trabzon.
Summers are warm, the average maximum temperature is around in August, while winters are generally cool, the lowest average minimum temperature is almost in February. Precipitation is heaviest in autumn and winter, with a marked reduction in the summer months, a microclimate condition of the city center compared to the rest of the region. Snowfall is somewhat common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows (this is due to the "lake-effect snow"). The heaviest recorded snowfall in the city center was 115 cm (45.3 inches), recorded on 15 January 1950.
The water temperature, like in the rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, is generally mild, and fluctuates between and throughout the year.
Trabzon produced a white green bean, which was sold in Europe. It was, as of 1920, the only vegetable exported out of the province. Poultry farming was also popular in Trabzon. Sericulture was seen in the area before 1914. The area produced copper, silver, zinc, iron and manganese. Copper was kept for local use by . During the Balkan Wars production ceased due to poor exportation and fuel supplies.
Trabzon Airport opened in 1957.
Laz people also live in Trabzon. Numerous villages inside and out of Trabzon of the Laz date back as early as the period of Queen Tamar's rule (Georgian: თამარი, also transliterated as T'amar or Thamar; c. 1160 – 18 January 1213) in the newly unified Kingdom of Georgia. During the Queen's rule, sizeable groups of immigrating Georgians moved to Trabzon where they continue to preserve their native tongue. There was an Armenian community in Trebizond as early as the 7th century.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, numerous Armenians families migrated there from Ani. Robert W. Edwards published part of an early 15th-century diary from the Castilian ambassador who visited Trabzon and compared the churches of the Greek and Armenian communities.Robert W. Edwards, "Armenian and Byzantine Religious Practices in Early Fifteenth-Century Trabzon: A Spanish Viewpoint", Revue des Études Arméniennes 23, 1992, pp. 81–90. It was stated by the ambassador that the Armenians, who were not well-liked by the Greeks, had a population large enough to support a resident bishop. According to Ronald C. Jennings, in the early 16th century, Armenians made up approximately 13 percent15.5% of 85% of the city's population.Jennings, Ronald C. (Jan. 1976) Urban Population in Anatolia in the 16th Century: International Journal of MiddleEast Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 pp. 21–57. At present, Trabzon does not have an Armenian-speaking community.
The Chepni people, a tribe of Oghuz Turks who played an important role in the history of the eastern Black Sea area in the 13th and 14th centuries, live in the Şalpazarı (Ağasar valley) region of the Trabzon Province.Bernt Brendemoen, The Turkish dialects of Trabzon, University of Oslo, 2002 p. 18 Very little has been written on the Turkification of the area. There are no historical records of any considerable Turkish-speaking groups in the Trabzon area until the late 15th century, with the exception of the Chepnis. The original Pontic Greek (and in some regions Armenian) speakers imposed features from their mother language into the Turkish spoken in the region. Heath W. Lowry'sProfessor. Department of Near Eastern Studies. Princeton University work with Halil İnalcık on Ottoman tax books ( Tahrir Defteri) Trabzon Şehrinin İslamlaşması ve Türkleşmesi 1461–1583 provides detailed demographic statistics for the city of Trabzon and its surrounding areas during the Ottoman period.
It is possible that the majority of the population of Trabzon and Rize (another ancient Greek colony in the Pontus region) — except up to the time of the Chepni Turk immigration waves — consisted of indigenous Caucasian tribes (the Colchians and the Laz) who had been partly Hellenization religiously and linguistically.Michael Meeker, "The Black Sea Turks: some aspects of their ethnic and cultural background", International Journal of Middle East Studies (1971) 2:318–345 Michael Meeker stresses the cultural resemblances (e.g. in village structure, house types, and pastoral techniques) between the Eastern Black Sea coast and the areas in the Caucasus proper.Meeker, 1971: p. 326 " As the mentioned, the villages along the Black Sea coast from Ordu to Artvin are composed of many hamlets, each dominating a hilltop or mountainside on which its own crops are separately planted. This type of settlement pattern is in sharp contrast with the typical nucleated Anatolian village, but its characteristic of many rural settlements of the Western Caucasus notably those of Abkhaz, Circassians, Georgians, Mingrelians, and Ossetes..."
Other sites of the city include: Fatih Mosque (originally the Panagia Khrysokephalos Church), Yeni Cuma Mosque (originally the Agios Eugenios Church), Nakip Mosque (originally the Agios Andreas Church), Hüsnü Köktuğ Mosque (originally the Agios Elevtherios Church), İskender Pasha Mosque, Semerciler Mosque, Çarşı Mosque, Gülbahar Hatun Mosque and Türbe (commissioned by Sultan Selim I), and Kalepark (originally Leonkastron).
Within Trabzon Province, the main attractions are the Sümela Monastery (i. e. the Monastery of the Panagia Soumelá) and the Uzungöl lake. The monastery is built on the side of a very steep mountain overlooking the green forests below and is about south of the city. Uzungöl is known for its natural environment and scenery. Other sites of interest in the broader region include:
The people of Trabzon have a reputation for being religiously conservative and nationalist. Many Trabzonites generally show a strong sense of loyalty to their family, friends, religion and country. Atatürk selected his presidential guards from Trabzon and the neighbouring city of Giresun because of their fierce fighting ability and their loyalty.
Outside of the relatively urban space of Trabzon proper, and within parts of it as well, rural traditions from the Black Sea village life are still thriving. These include traditional gender roles, social conservatism, hospitality, and a willingness to help strangers; and all aspects, both positive and negative, of an agrarian lifestyle, such as hard work, poverty, strong family ties, and a closeness to nature.
The people of the eastern Black Sea region are also known for their wit and sense of humour; many jokes in Turkey are told about the natives of the Black Sea region Karadeniz fıkraları (Black Sea jokes). The character Temel, a universal buffoon figure found in many cultures, forms an important part of the Turkish oral tradition.
The city's profile was raised somewhat in the English-speaking world by Rose Macaulay's last novel, The Towers of Trebizond (1956), which is still in print.Rose Macaulay: The Towers of Trebizond (Collins, London, 1956)
Historically the city was a center of Greek culture and education and from 1683 to 1921, a teachers' college operated known as Phrontisterion of Trapezous, which provided a major impetus for the rapid expansion of Greek education throughout the region. The building of this institution (built in 1902) still remains the most impressive Pontic Greeks monument in the city and today hosts the Turkish school Anadolu Lisesi.
Trabzon hosted the first edition of the Black Sea Games in July 2007 and the 2011 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival.
Built in 2017, a two-lane Trabzon Curling Hall is situated under stadium of the Şenol Güneş Sports Complex.
Drohgheda, Ireland
Byzantine period
By the time of Justinian, the city served as an important base in his Persian Wars, and Miller notes that a portrait of the general Belisarius "long adorned the church of St. Basil."Miller, Trebizond, p. 11 An inscription above the eastern gate of the city, commemorated the reconstruction of the civic walls at Justinian's expense following an earthquake. At some point before the 7th century the university (Pandidakterion) of the city was reestablished with a quadrivium curriculum. The university drew students not just from the Byzantine Empire, but from Armenia as well.Calzolari, V. "The Armenian translation of the Greek Neoplatonic Works" in Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach, 2016, p. 51 History of Trebizond, Virtual Genocide Memorial [4]
Empire of Trebizond
The Empire of Trebizond was formed after a Georgian expedition in Chaldia,A. A. Vasiliev, "The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1222)", Speculum, 11 (1936), pp. 18f commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Located at the far northeastern corner of Anatolia, it was the longest surviving of the Byzantine Empire successor states. Byzantine authors, such as Pachymeres, and to some extent Trapezuntines such as Lazaropoulos and Bessarion, regarded the Trebizond Empire as being no more than a Lazica border state. Thus, from the point of view of the Byzantine writers connected with the Laskaris and later with the Palaiologos, the rulers of Trebizond were not emperors.Finlay, George. The History Of Greece From Its Conquest By The Crusaders To Its Conquest By The Turks And Of The Empire Of Trebizond, 1204–1461, By George Finlay. 1st ed. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and sons, 1851. Print.Vasilev, A. A. The Foundation Of The Empire Of Trebizond 1204–1222. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1936. Print.
Ottoman era
The last Emperor of Trebizond, David, surrendered the city to Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461. Following this takeover, Mehmed II sent many Turkish settlers into the area, but the old ethnic Greeks, Laz people and Armenians communities remained. According to the Ottoman tax books ( tahrir defterleri), the total population of taxable adult males (only those with a household) in the city was 1,473 in the year 1523. The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Richard G. Hovannisian, page 27/28, 2004 The total population of the city was much higher. Approximately 85% of the population was Christian, and 15% Muslim. Thirteen percent of the adult males belonged to the Armenian community, while the vast majority of Christians were Greeks. However, a significant portion of the local Christians were Islamization by the end of the 17th century - especially those outside the city - according to a research by Prof. Halil İnalcık on the Ottoman tax books ( tahrir defterleri). Between 1461 and 1598 Trabzon remained the administrative center of the wider region; first as 'sanjac center' of Rum Eyalet, later of Erzincan-Bayburt eyalet, Anadolu Eyalet, and Erzurum Eyalet.
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Modern era
In 1901 the harbour was equipped with cranes by Stothert & Pitt of Bath in England. In 1912 the Sümer Opera House was opened on the central Meydan square, being one of the first in the empire. The start of the First World War brought an abrupt end to the relatively peaceful and prosperous period the city had seen during the previous century. First Trebizond would lose many of its young male citizens at the Battle of Sarikamish in the winter of 1914–15, while during those same months the Russian navy bombarded the city a total of five times, taking 1300Daniel Maldonado in 'Historic Cities of the Islamic World', 2007, p. 525, C. Edmund Bosworth (ed) lives. Especially the port quarter Çömlekçi and surrounding neighborhoods were targeted.
Geography
Trabzon Province has a total area of and is bordered by the provinces of Rize Province, Giresun Province, and Gümüşhane. The total area is 22.4% plateau and 77.6% hills. The Pontic Mountains pass through the Trabzon Province.
Climate
Trabzon has a climate typical of the eastern Black Sea region, a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa, Trewartha : Cf) near the coast. A very small percentage of the province can be classified as subtropical, however, as slightly elevated rural areas near the coast are oceanic climate ( Cfb/Do), the mountainous offshores are humid continental ( Dfb/Dc) and subarctic ( Dfc/Eo); and tundra ( ET/Ft) can be found in the peaks of the Pontic Alps. Furthermore, during the time the Köppen climate classification was created, the city center had a borderline oceanic-humid subtropical climate, falling just under the threshold for the hottest month of the year, yet climate change and the city's urban heat island contributed to its reclassification as humid subtropical in recent decades. This and the fact that the subtropical microclimate zone along the shore occupies a very narrow band due to the continuous parallel mountain range starting right at the coast is why local authorities still classify the city as oceanic, as this climate subtype is better representative of the entire coastal region of the province.
Economy
As of 1920, the port at Trabzon was considered "the most important of the Turkish Black Sea ports" by the British. It traded as far as Tabriz and Mosul. As of 1911, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey signed an agreement to develop a harbor at the port. When the Russians occupied Trabzon, a mole was built. They built a breakwater and were responsible for creating an extended pier, making loading and unloading easier. In 1920, Trabzon produced linen cloth, silver filagree, tanning and small amounts of cotton, silk and wool. Tobacco and were exported. The tobacco produced in Trabzon was called Trebizond-Platana. It was described as having "large leaves and a bright colour." Trabzon was known for producing poor quality , mostly for local use.
People
History
Trebizond was an overwhelmingly Christianity and Greeks city at the time of its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1461. The Greek Christians slowly lost their majority through the end of that century. Initially, the Muslims were mainly immigrants from Anatolia with a minority of local converts, but this quickly changed with the emergence of an active missionary spirit in the 16th century, as mosques and dervish lodges were built in predominantly Christian neighborhoods. was born in Trebizond on January 2, 1403. He was one of the illustrious Greek scholars who contributed to the Renaissance in Western Europe in the 15th century.]]
For similar ideas See: Karl Koch, Reise duch Russland nach dem Kaukasis chen Istmus in den Jahren, 1836. vol1. p. 378; W.E.D. Allen, A History of the Georgian People, London 1932. pp. 54–5; Özhan Öztürk, Karadeniz. 2005. p. 35, 757–68. For linguistic influence see: Bernt Brendomoen, Laz influence on the Black Sea Turkish Dialects, 1990 (Proceedings from 32nd meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference)
Urbanization
768,417 768,417
Main sights
Trabzon has a number of tourist attractions, some of them dating back to the times of the ancient that once existed in the region. In the city itself, one can find a hub of shops, stalls and restaurants surrounding the Meydan, a square in the center of the city, which includes a tea garden.
Culture
Folk dancing is still very much in evidence in the Black Sea Region. The "Horon" is a famous dance that is indigenous to the city and its surrounding area. It is performed by men, women, the young and elderly alike; in festivities, local weddings and harvest times. People and culture of Trabzon and Black sea region While similar to Russian Cossacks dances in terms of vividness, the Trabzon folk dance is probably indigenous to the eastern Black Sea region, which has an impressive variety of folk music.
Education
Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon hosts students from all over Turkey, especially from the Black Sea and East Anatolian regions, as well as students from the Turkic states in Central Asia.
Cuisine
Trabzon's regional cuisine is traditionally reliant on fish, especially hamsi (fresh European Anchovy similar to the British Sprat or American Smelt). Trabzon meets 20% of the total fish production in Turkey. Regional dishes include the Akçaabat köfte (spicy lamb meatball from the Akçaabat district), Karadeniz pidesi (canoe shaped pita bread, often filled with ground beef, cheese and eggs), kuymak (a Turkish fondue made with cornmeal, fresh butter and cheese), Vakfıkebir ekmeği (large country-style bread), Tonya tereyağı (Tonya butter), tava mısır ekmeği (deep-dish corn bread) and kara lahana çorbası (bean and cabbage soup). Taflan kavurması is a cherry laurel dish served with onions and olive oil. Trabzon is also famous for its . The Black Sea region of Turkey is the world's largest producer of cherry and hazelnut; and a large production area of tea; all of which play an important role in the local cuisine.
Sports
Football is the most popular sport in Trabzon. The city's top sports club, Trabzonspor, was until 2010 the only Turkish football club outside İstanbul to win the Süper Lig (six times), which was previously (until Trabzonspor's first championship title in the 1975–76 season) won only by the "Big Three" clubs of Istanbul, namely Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Beşiktaş. Due to Trabzonspor's success, the decades-old term "Big Three" which defined the most successful football clubs in Turkey had to be modified into the "Big Four".
Trabzonspor is also one of the most successful Turkish clubs in the UEFA, managing to beat numerous prominent teams such as FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Monaco, and Lyon. Renowned former players of Trabzonspor include Şenol Güneş, Lars Olsen and Shota Arveladze. In the 2021–2022 season, Trabzonspor left their Istanbul competition far behind, securing an early championship and ending a 38-year dry streak. Hundreds of thousands Trabzonite expatriates and fans from around the globe made their way to the city to participate in one of the first mass gatherings in the country for nearly two years, marking the end of the Corona pandemic. Officially the pandemic-measures had not been fully lifted, which led to some criticism towards the city's municipal government for allowing the festivities to continue for hours into the night, long past curfew.
Mayors of Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality
Notable residents
International relations
Twin towns - sister cities
Trabzon is twinned with:
See also
Notes and references
Further reading
Anthony Bryer (1985). 088402122X, Dumbarton Oaks Pub Service. 088402122X
External links
Categories: Ancient Greek Archaeological Sites In Turkey, Black Sea Port Cities And Towns In Turkey, Capitals Of Former Nations, Empire Of Trebizond, Fishing Communities In Turkey, Greek Colonies In Pontus, Populated Coastal Places In Turkey, Roman Towns And Cities In Turkey, Roman Harbors In Turkey, Milesian Pontic Colonies, Populated Places Established In The 8th Century Bc
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