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Trabzon

Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Persia in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast.[3] The Venetian and Genoese merchants paid visits to Trabzon during the medieval period and sold silk, linen and woolen fabric. Both republics had merchant colonies within the city – Leonkastron and the former "Venetian castle" – that played a role to Trabzon similar to the one Galata played to Constantinople (modern Istanbul).[4] Trabzon formed the basis of several states in its long history and was the capital city of the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 and 1461. 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.

Trabzon
Clockwise from top: Sumela Monastery viewed from across the Altındere valley; Lake Uzungöl; Atatürk Square; a general view of the city centre from Boztepe; Hagia Sophia of Trabzon; and Atatürk's House
Nickname: 
City of Tale in the East
Trabzon
Location in Turkey
Trabzon
Trabzon (Black Sea)
Trabzon
Trabzon (Asia)
Coordinates: 41°00′18″N 39°43′21″E / 41.00500°N 39.72250°E / 41.00500; 39.72250
CountryTurkey
RegionBlack Sea Region
ProvinceTrabzon
Establishedc. 756 BC
Government
 • GovernorAziz Yıldırım
 • MayorMurat Zorluoğlu (AKP)
Area
 • District188.85 km2 (72.92 sq mi)
Elevation
0 m (0 ft)
Population
 (2012)[2]
 • Urban
312,060
 • Urban density1,700/km2 (4,300/sq mi)
 • Metro
811,901
Demonym(s)Trapezian, Trapezuntine, Trebizonian, Trabzonlu, Trabzonite
Time zoneUTC+3 (TRT)
Postal code
61xxx
Area code(+90) 462
Licence plate61
ClimateCfa
Websitewww.trabzon.bel.tr
www.trabzon.gov.tr

Name edit

 
Coin of Trapezous from the 4th century BC in the British Museum. The coin promotes the colonial Greek city as a 'table of plenty'.

The Turkish name of the city is Trabzon. It is historically known in English as Trebizond. The first recorded name of the city is the Greek Tραπεζοῦς (Trapezous), referencing the table-like central hill between the Zağnos (İskeleboz) and Kuzgun streams on which it was founded (τράπεζα meant "table" in Ancient Greek; note the table on the coin in the figure). In Latin, Trabzon was called Trapezus, which is a latinization of its ancient Greek name. Both in Pontic Greek and Modern Greek, it is called Τραπεζούντα (Trapezounta). In Ottoman Turkish and Persian, it is written as طربزون. During Ottoman times, Tara Bozan was also used.[5][6][7][8] In Laz it is known as ტამტრა (T'amt'ra) or T'rap'uzani,[9] in Georgian it is ტრაპიზონი (T'rap'izoni) and in Armenian it is Տրապիզոն Trapizon. The 19th-century Armenian travelling priest Byjiskian called the city by other, native names, including Hurşidabat and Ozinis.[10] Western geographers and writers used many spelling variations of the name throughout the Middle Ages. These versions of the name, which have incidentally been used in English literature as well, include: Trebizonde (Fr.), Trapezunt (German), Trebisonda (Sp.), Trapesunta (It.), Trapisonda, Tribisonde, Terabesoun, Trabesun, Trabuzan, Trabizond and Tarabossan.

In Spanish the name was known from chivalric romances and Don Quixote. Because of its similarity to trápala and trapaza,[11] trapisonda acquired the meaning "hullabaloo, imbroglio".[12]

History edit

Iron Age and Classical Antiquity edit

 
Bronze statue of Hermes, 2nd c. BC, found near Tabakhane bridge in the center of Trabzon. Displayed in Trabzon Museum.
 
Head and hand of a 2nd c. BC bronze statue of (possibly Anahit as) Aphrodite, found near Kelkit to the south of Trabzon province. On display in the British Museum.

Before the city was founded as a Greek colony the area was dominated by Colchians (west Georgian) and Chaldian (Anatolian) tribes. The Hayasa, who had been in conflict with the Central-Anatolian Hittites in the 14th century BC, are believed to have lived in the area south of Trabzon. Later Greek authors mentioned the Macrones and the Chalybes as native peoples. One of the dominant Caucasian groups to the east were the Laz, who were part of the monarchy of the Colchis, together with other related Georgian peoples.[13][14][15]

The city was founded in classical antiquity in 756 BC as Tραπεζούς (Trapezous), by Milesian traders from Sinope.[16] 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 Kerasous. 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 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).

 
Thálatta! Thálatta! ("The Sea! The Sea!").
Trebizond was the first Greek city the Ten Thousand reached on their retreat from Persia. 19th c. illustration by Herman Vogel.

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 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 Persia and Mesopotamia under the rule of Vespasian. In the next century, the emperor Hadrian commissioned improvements to give the city a more structured harbor.[17] 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.

 
Martyrdom of Eugenius, Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila. Work dated to 985, Vatican Library.
 
Parts of the city walls of Trabzon and the Eugenius Aqueduct are among the oldest remaining structures in the city.

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.[17] Trebizond was subsequently rebuilt, pillaged again, by the Persians, 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.[18] 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.[19] Subsequently, the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the Metropolitan Bishop of Poti.[19] Then during the 9th century, Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Lazica.[19]

Byzantine period edit

 
Saint Anne Church, to the east of the walled city, is the oldest church in the city, possibly dating back to the 6th or 7th century.
 
The 10th-century cathedral Panaghia Chrysokephalos (now Fatih Mosque), the most impressive Byzantine building in the city

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."[20] An inscription above the eastern gate of the city, commemorated the reconstruction of the civic walls at Justinian's expense following an earthquake.[20] 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.[21]

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 Byzantine silks into eastern Muslim countries.[22] According to the 10th century Arab geographer Abul Feda it was regarded as being largely a Lazian 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.[4] 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.[23] The Greeks protected the coastal and inland trade routes with a vast network of garrison forts.[24]

Following the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Trebizond came under Seljuk 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.[25] Supporting Comnena's assertion, Simon Bendall has identified a group of rare coins he believes was minted by Gabras and his successors.[26] Although he was killed by the Turks in 1098, other members of his family continued his de facto independent rule into the next century.

Empire of Trebizond edit

The Empire of Trebizond was formed after Georgian expedition in Chaldia,[27] commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Located at the far northeastern corner of Anatolia, it was the longest surviving of the Byzantine 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 Lazian border state. Thus from the point of view of the Byzantine writers connected with the Lascaris and later with the Palaiologos, the rulers of Trebizond were not emperors.[28][29]

 
Hagia Sophia
(now Ayasofya mosque & museum)
 
Hagios Eugenios
(now Yeni Cuma Mosque)
The young empire required new buildings to honor its name. Their architectural style differs from previous Byzantine architecture, while still retaining many features. Caucasian and Eastern Anatolian influences are especially evident in Hagia Sophia.
 
Fresco of Alexios III between his wife and mother at the Panagia Theoskepastos Monastery, as drawn by Charles Texier

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 Byzantines in 1261.

 
Fantastical depiction of Trebizond by Pisanello in a fresco of the Sant'Anastasia church in Verona, painted between 1436 and 1438

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.[30] 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,[31] Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Abd al-Rahman 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 astrological purposes for the emperor and/or the church.[32] 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, 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.[33]

Constantinople remained the Byzantine capital until it was conquered by the Ottoman 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[citation needed] 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.

 
The Cassone with the 'Conquest of Trebizond' by Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Painted just after the fall of the city, it depicts Trebizond as being equal to Constantinople (at the far left). Even the battle displayed in between the two cities was mostly a fantasy. The city held a legendary place in Western European literature and thought throughout the late medieval period and the renaissance, with a lasting influence that can be felt even to present times.

Ottoman era edit

 
The first known plan of Trebizond, drawn around 1604–1610 by Julien Bordier. Many characteristics of the city can be recognized: the two streams dividing the central core, the separately walled quarters, the Genoese town next to the winter harbour, Haghia Sophia at the bottom right, and Boztepe hill at the top left.
 
The first city-view of Trebizond, published by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort after a drawing by himself or his assistant Claude Aubriet during a visit in 1701. The view shows the city from Haghia Sophia in the distance all the way to the winter harbour. The drawing was made from Boztepe, which is still the most popular place to view the city.

The last Emperor of Trebizond, David, surrendered the city to Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461.[34] Following this takeover, Mehmed II sent many Turkish settlers into the area, but the old ethnic Greek, Laz and Armenian 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.[35] 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.[35] However, a significant portion of the local Christians were Islamized 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.[36]

In 1598 it became the capital of its own province - the Eyalet of Trebizond - which in 1867 became the Vilayet of Trebizond. During the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, his son Prince Selim (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 Turks and Laz beys as the regional beylerbey.[citation needed] It is also recorded that some Bosniaks were appointed by the Sublime Porte as the regional beylerbeys in Trabzon.[citation needed] The Eyalet of Trabzon had always sent troops for the Ottoman campaigns in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.

 
Trebizond Meydan around 1868, Dmitri Ivanovich Yermakov
 
Men and woman gathered for the funeral of an Armenian cleric. Hatchik Tcholakian, 1892.

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[37] 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 Izmir) 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.[38] 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.[39] 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 camel trains 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.[40] Ivan Aivazovsky made the painting Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895 based on the events.[41] 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

 
Lithograph of Trebizond from the sea by the Dickinson Brothers of London, 1853. It shows the city from 'Khonsi point' at the left to Platana (Akçaabat) at the right. This is the first impression most European travellers got of the city (in good weather) until the second half of the 20th century.

Modern era edit

 
A theater performance in Trebizond c. 1900
 
The Philharmonic orchestra of Trebizond
 
Operating room of the Acriteon Hospital

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 1300[42] lives. Especially the port quarter Çömlekçi and surrounding neighborhoods were targeted.

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.[43][44] 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.[45]

The coastal region between the city and the Russian frontier became the site of key battles between the Ottoman and Russian 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.[46] 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.[47] Many adult Turkish males left the city out of fear for reprisals, even though governor Chrysantos included them in his administration. According to some sources the Russians banned Muslim mosques, and forced Turks, who were the largest ethnic group living in the city, to leave Trabzon.[48] However, already during the Russian occupation many Turks who had fled to surrounding villages started to return to the city, and governor Chrysantos helped them to re-establish their facilities such as schools, to the dismay of the Russians.

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.

 
Chrysanthos Philippidis, metropolitan and governor of Trabzon during part of the First World War. He protected the local population, regardless of religion or ethnicity.
 
Ali Şükrü Bey, publisher and politician from Trabzon who opposed violence against ethnic minorities and paid the ultimate price for his criticism of Mustafa Kemal

During the Turkish War of Independence several Christian Pontic Greek 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,[49] 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.[50] 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 Turkish Republic. The efforts of the pro-Ottoman, 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 Greeks from Trebizond and the vicinity, who moved to Greece (founding the new towns of Nea Trapezounta, Pieria and Nea Trapezounta, Grevena amongst others).[51]

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.

 
Uzun Sokak, a pedestrianized shopping street
 
Atatürk Alani at Meydan square in Taksim (central Trabzon)

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 Genocide - 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 language - known as "Romeika" in the local vernacular, Pontiaka in Greek, and Rumca in Turkish - is spoken mostly by the older generations.[52]

Geography and climate edit

 
Historic mansions in Akçaabat (formerly Platana village)

Trabzon Province has a total area of 4,685 square kilometres (1,809 sq mi) and is bordered by the provinces of Rize, Giresun, and Gümüşhane. The total area is 22.4% plateau and 77.6% hills. The Pontic Mountains pass through the Trabzon Province.

Trabzon used to be an important reference point for navigators 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.[4] The Italian maritime republics such as Venice and in particular Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries.[4]

Trabzon has four lakes: Uzungöl, Çakırgöl, Sera, and Haldizen Lakes. There are several streams, but no rivers in Trabzon.

Climate edit

Trabzon has a climate typical of the eastern Black Sea region, a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa, Trewartha: Cf) near the coast.[53] A very small percentage of the province can be classified as subtropical, however, as slightly elevated rural areas near the coast are oceanic (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 22 °C (72 °F) 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.[54][55]

Summers are warm, the average maximum temperature is around 28 °C (82 °F) in August, while winters are generally cool, the lowest average minimum temperature is almost 5 °C (41 °F) in February. Precipitation is heaviest in autumn and winter, with a marked reduction in the summer months, a microclimatic condition of the city center compared to the rest of the region.[56] 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.

The water temperature, like in the rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, is generally mild, and fluctuates between 8 °C (46 °F) and 20 °C (68 °F) throughout the year.

Climate data for Trabzon (1991–2020, extremes 1927–2020)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 25.9
(78.6)
30.1
(86.2)
35.2
(95.4)
37.6
(99.7)
38.2
(100.8)
36.7
(98.1)
37.0
(98.6)
38.2
(100.8)
37.9
(100.2)
33.8
(92.8)
32.8
(91.0)
26.4
(79.5)
38.2
(100.8)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 11.3
(52.3)
11.4
(52.5)
13.0
(55.4)
16.3
(61.3)
20.0
(68.0)
24.5
(76.1)
27.5
(81.5)
28.1
(82.6)
25.1
(77.2)
21.0
(69.8)
16.5
(61.7)
13.1
(55.6)
19.0
(66.2)
Daily mean °C (°F) 7.7
(45.9)
7.5
(45.5)
9.2
(48.6)
12.2
(54.0)
16.4
(61.5)
20.9
(69.6)
23.8
(74.8)
24.4
(75.9)
21.1
(70.0)
17.2
(63.0)
12.7
(54.9)
9.5
(49.1)
15.2
(59.4)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 5.0
(41.0)
4.6
(40.3)
6.2
(43.2)
9.0
(48.2)
13.4
(56.1)
17.6
(63.7)
20.6
(69.1)
21.2
(70.2)
17.8
(64.0)
14.1
(57.4)
9.6
(49.3)
6.8
(44.2)
12.2
(54.0)
Record low °C (°F) −7.0
(19.4)
−7.4
(18.7)
−5.8
(21.6)
−2.0
(28.4)
4.2
(39.6)
9.2
(48.6)
11.0
(51.8)
13.5
(56.3)
7.3
(45.1)
3.4
(38.1)
−1.6
(29.1)
−3.3
(26.1)
−7.4
(18.7)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 88.8
(3.50)
63.1
(2.48)
69.3
(2.73)
62.8
(2.47)
55.5
(2.19)
52.3
(2.06)
34.7
(1.37)
59.4
(2.34)
85.4
(3.36)
134.1
(5.28)
103.2
(4.06)
93.5
(3.68)
902.1
(35.52)
Average precipitation days 10.82 9.68 11.09 11.32 11.00 9.95 7.32 9.32 9.64 11.27 9.27 10.64 121.3
Average relative humidity (%) 69 69 73 75 77 75 73 73 74 73 70 68 72
Mean monthly sunshine hours 71.3 84.8 99.2 135.0 170.5 192.0 176.7 151.9 147.0 127.1 105.0 65.1 1,525.6
Mean daily sunshine hours 2.3 3.0 3.2 4.5 5.5 6.4 5.7 4.9 4.9 4.1 3.5 2.1 4.2
Source 1: Turkish State Meteorological Service[57]
Source 2: Weatherbase[58][59]

Economy edit

 
Postcard of the art nouveau style theatre/cinema in Trabzon

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.[60] 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 hazelnuts were exported.[61] The tobacco produced in Trabzon was called Trebizond-Platana. It was described as having "large leaves and a bright colour."[62] Trabzon was known for producing poor quality cereals, mostly for local use.[63]

Trabzon produced a white green bean, which was sold in Europe. It was, as of 1920, the only vegetable exported out of the province.[62] Poultry farming was also popular in Trabzon. Sericulture was seen in the area before 1914.[64] The area produced copper, silver, zinc, iron and manganese. Copper was kept for local use by coppersmiths. During the Balkan Wars production ceased due to poor exportation and fuel supplies.[65]

Trabzon Airport opened in 1957.

People edit

History edit

Trebizond was an overwhelmingly Christian and Greek city at the time of its fall to the Ottomans 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.[66]

 
Bessarion 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.
 
Suleiman the Magnificent was born in Trebizond on November 6, 1494. He was one of the greatest emperors in history and vastly enlarged the territories of the Ottoman Empire, which became one of the world's leading superpowers in the 16th century, together with its arch-rival in the Mediterranean, the Spanish Empire. Portrait after Titian in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

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.[67]

During the 13th and 14th centuries, numerous Armenian families migrated there from Ani.[67] 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.[68] 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 percent[69] of the city's population.[70] 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.[71] 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 Greek (and in some regions Armenian) speakers imposed features from their mother language into the Turkish spoken in the region. Heath W. Lowry's[72] work with Halil İnalcık on Ottoman tax books (Tahrir Defteri)[73] 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 (and other ancient Greek colonies 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 Hellenized religiously and linguistically.[74] 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.[75]

Urbanization edit

Population 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Total 740,569 748,982 765,127 763,714 757,353 757,898 758,237 766,782 768,417
Urban 396,646 390,797 408,103 415,652 757,353 757,898 758,237 766,782 768,417

Main sights edit

 
Zağnos bridge and central Ortahisar neighborhood
 
Vernacular architecture in masonry

Trabzon has a number of tourist attractions, some of them dating back to the times of the ancient empires 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.

  • The Hagia Sophia (formerly Turkish: Ayasofya Müzesi, now a mosque), a stunning Byzantine church, is probably the town's most important tourist attraction.
  • Trabzon Castle ruins are visible in the town but cannot be visited as they fall in a military zone. The outside wall of the castle now serves as the back wall of a military building.
  • The "Atatürk Köşkü" is a villa built in 1890 by a local Greek merchant. In 1924 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed in the villa during his visit to Trabzon. He stayed there again in 1937. It houses period rooms and serves as a monument to the memory of the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey.
  • Boztepe Park is a small park and tea garden on the hills above Trabzon that has a panoramic view of nearly the entire city. The terrain in Trabzon is ascending in such a way that although the view is far above that of the buildings below, it is still close enough to be able to observe the flow of traffic and the people moving about in the city.
  • Uzun Sokak is one of the most crowded streets of Trabzon.
  • Trabzon Museum is located in the town centre and offers interesting exhibits on the history of the region, including an impressive collection of Byzantine artifacts.
  • Trabzon's Bazaar District offers interesting shopping opportunities on ancient narrow streets, continuing from Kunduracılar Street from the Meydan (town square).
  • Saint Anne Church, Trabzon, is located in the city centre of Trabzon, and one of the oldest in the city.
  • Kostaki Mansion is located to the north of Zeytinlik, near Uzun Sokak.
  • Uzungöl Dursun Ali İnan Museum An ethnographic museum in Uzungol that tells the history of Trabzon and the region.

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 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the city. Uzungöl is known for its natural environment and scenery. Other sites of interest in the broader region include:

  • Kaymaklı Monastery, a formerly Armenian Monastery of the All-Saviour (arm. Ամենափրկիչ Վանք, Amenaprgič Vank);
  • Kızlar Monastery of Panagia Theoskepastos (the God-veiled Virgin);
  • Kuştul Monastery of Gregorios Peristereotas (gr. Ιερά Μονή του Αγίου Γεωργίου Περιστερεώτα, Ierá Moní tou Agíou Georgíou Peristereóta);
  • Vazelon Monastery of Agios Savvas (Maşatlık);
  • Cave churches of Agia Anna (Little Ayvasıl), Sotha (St. John), Agios Theodoros, Agios Konstantinos, Agios Christophoros, Agia Kyriakí, Agios Michail, and Panagia Tzita churches.[76]

 

Culture edit

 
Postcard of Trabzon showing the national dance Horon

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.[77] While similar to Russian Cossack 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.

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 Dame Rose Macaulay's last novel, The Towers of Trebizond (1956), which is still in print.[78]

Education edit

 
A view from the Black Sea Technical University campus

Black Sea 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.

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.[79] The building of this institution (built in 1902) still remains the most impressive Pontic Greek monument in the city and today hosts the Turkish school Anadolu Lisesi.[80]

Cuisine edit

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 hazelnuts. 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 edit

 
Photograph of a football team of Trabzonspor in 1920–1925
 
Şenol Güneş Sports Complex is the home of Trabzonspor.

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 European Cups, managing to beat numerous prominent teams such as Barcelona, Inter, Liverpool, Aston Villa, and Olympique Lyonnais. 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.

Trabzon hosted the first edition of the Black Sea Games in July 2007 and the 2011 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival.

Notable residents edit

International relations edit

Twin towns - sister cities edit

Trabzon is twinned with:[81]

See also edit

Notes and references edit

  1. ^ "Area of regions (including lakes), km²". Regional Statistics Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. 2002. Retrieved 2013-03-05.
  2. ^ "Population of province/district centers and towns/villages by districts - 2012". Address Based Population Registration System (ABPRS) Database. Turkish Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2013-02-27.
  3. ^ Trabzon (tr) 2011-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b c d William Miller (2009). The Latin Orient. Bibliobazaar LLC. pp. 51–54. ISBN 978-1-110-86390-7.
  5. ^ Campbell, Lawrence Dundas, The Asiatic annual register, or, A View of the history of Hindustan, and of the Politics, Commerce, Literature of Asia, London 1802 Page 3, Google books link
  6. ^ Malte-Brun, Conrad, Universal geography: or a description of all parts of the world ..., Volume 2 Google Books
  7. ^ "The modern traveller, a popular description geographical, historical, and topographical of the varieus countries of the globe". J. Dunkan. 14 January 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Ritter, Carl (14 January 2018). Die Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen: oder Allgemeine, vergleichende Geographie, als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und Unterrichts in physikalischen und historischen Wissenschaften. G. Reimer. ISBN 9783111959979. Retrieved 14 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Y.Dutxuri. "Türkçe Lazca sözlük / Çeviri / Online Çeviri / Lazuri.Com". www.Lazuri.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  10. ^ Özhan Öztürk claims that Ozinis means "flat place" in Laz language and Hurşidabat means "City of the Sun" in Persian/Ottoman language. Pontus: Antik Çağ’dan Günümüze Karadeniz’in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi Genesis Yayınları. Ankara, 2011. pp. 547–549 ISBN 978-605-54-1017-9
  11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1991). Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish). Vol. RI–X (3rd reprint ed.). Madrid: Gredos. p. 592. ISBN 84-249-0879-1.
  12. ^ trapisonda en Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (in Spanish) (23rd ed.). 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  13. ^ Phoenix: The Peoples of the Hills: Ancient Ararat and Caucasus by Charles Burney, David Marshall Lang, Phoenix Press; New Ed edition (December 31, 2001)
  14. ^ Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation: 2nd edition (December 1994), Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20915-3, page 45
  15. ^ "A Star in the East". TimothyGrove.Blogspot.ro. 23 July 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  16. ^ Romeo Bosneagu (22 February 2022). The Black Sea from Paleogeography to Modern Navigation: Applied Maritime Geography and Oceanography. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3-03-088762-9. OCLC 1299382109.
  17. ^ a b William Miller, Trebizond: The Last Greek Empire, 1926, (Chicago: Argonaut Publishers, 1968), p. 9
  18. ^ Miller, Trebizond, p. 10
  19. ^ a b c Hewsen, 46
  20. ^ a b Miller, Trebizond, p. 11
  21. ^ Calzolari, V. "The Armenian translation of the Greek Neoplatonic Works" in Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach, 2016, p. 51
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ Miller, Trebizond, p. 12
  26. ^ Bendall, "The Mint of Trebizond under Alexius I and the Gabrades", Numismatic Chronicle, Seventh Series, 17 (1977), pp. 126–136
  27. ^ A. A. Vasiliev, "The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1222)", Speculum, 11 (1936), pp. 18f
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ Vasilev, A. A. The Foundation Of The Empire Of Trebizond 1204–1222. 1st ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1936. Print.
  30. ^ 'The lure of Trebizond' by Anthony Eastmond, in Byzantium's Other Empire: Trebizond, p. 22, 2016, Istanbul
  31. ^ "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.
  32. ^ Astronomy in the Trebizond Empire Ahmet M. Zehiroğlu (trans. by Paula Darwish). from Trabzon İmparatorluğu 2016, Trabzon.
  33. ^ Faruk Sümer (1988–2016). "AKKOYUNLULAR XV. yüzyılda Doğu Anadolu, Azerbaycan ve Irak'ta hüküm süren Türkmen hânedanı (1340-1514).". TDV Encyclopedia of Islam (44+2 vols.) (in Turkish). Istanbul: Turkiye Diyanet Foundation, Centre for Islamic Studies.
  34. ^ Prothero, G.W. (1920). Anatolia. London: H.M. Stationery Office.
  35. ^ a b The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Richard G. Hovannisian, page 27/28, 2004
  36. ^ "Haber Yazdır : Trabzon'un fethi araştırmaları ve 15 ağustos 1461 – Of hayrat haberleri". www.OfHayrat.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  37. ^ Sounes, Howard (2001). Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-1686-4. At pages 12-13.
  38. ^ Rev. M. P. Parmalee (1892). Proceedings of the ABCFM for the year 1892. Boston: Samuel Usher. p. 229. Retrieved 1 May 2017. Trebizond was occupied as a missionary station in 1835... The following is a list of missionaries who have been connected with the station for at least one year: ... Rev. G. W. Wood, 1842 – 1843"
  39. ^ The constitutional revolution of 1908 and its aftermath in Trabzon Ahmetoglu, S., 2019, p.127-128, Doctoral Thesis, Leiden University
  40. ^ 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)
  41. ^ Davidian, Vazken Khatchig (2018). "Image of an Atrocity: Ivan (Hovhannes) Aivazovsky's Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895". Études Arméniennes Contemporaines (11): 40–73. doi:10.4000/eac.1815.
  42. ^ Daniel Maldonado in 'Historic Cities of the Islamic World', 2007, p. 525, C. Edmund Bosworth (ed)
  43. ^ Toronto Globe, August 26, 1915.
  44. ^ Takvimi Vekdyi, No. 3616, August 6, 1919, p. 2.
  45. ^ KAZA HEMŞIN / ՀԱՄՇԷՆ – HAMSHEN Virtual genocide memorial
  46. ^ Infographic by the newspaper The Sphere showing the advance of the Russian front on Trebizond, The Sphere, April 29, 1916
  47. ^ "Massacre of Christians before Evacuation of Trebizond". Adelaide, Australia: The Daily Herald. April 21, 1916. p. 5. Frightful scenes were witnessed in the Christian quarter...hundreds of civilians were killed.
  48. ^ Grand Larousse encyclopedia Turkish edition, 22, page: 11669, Librairie Larousse
  49. ^ 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
  50. ^ Clark, Bruce (2006). Twice a Stranger: The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey. Harvard University Press. pp. 112–116. ISBN 9780674023680. Retrieved 15 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  51. ^ Baum, Wilhelm (2006). The Christian minorities in Turkey. Kitab. p. 162. ISBN 978-3-902005-62-5. "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."
  52. ^ Özhan Öztürk: Pontus: Antik Çağ’dan Günümüze Karadeniz’in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi, Genesis Yayınları, Ankara, 2011, pp. 417–421, ISBN 978-605-54-1017-9; 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.
  53. ^ Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification" (PDF). Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. 4 (2): 439–473. Bibcode:2007HESSD...4..439P. doi:10.5194/hessd-4-439-2007.
  54. ^ "Türkiye İklimi". Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü. 27 May 2021.
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  56. ^ "Meteorolojik Parametrelerin Türkiye'de Analizi". Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü. 27 May 2021.
  57. ^ "Resmi İstatistikler: İllerimize Ait Genel İstatistik Verileri" (in Turkish). Turkish State Meteorological Service. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  58. ^ "Trabzon, Turkey Travel Weather Averages (Weatherbase)". Weatherbase. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  59. ^ "17038: Trabzon (Turkey)". OGIMET. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  60. ^ Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 51.
  61. ^ Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 52.
  62. ^ a b Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 61.
  63. ^ Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 60.
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  65. ^ Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 73.
  66. ^ Greene, Molly (23 July 2015). Edinburgh History of the Greeks, 1453 to 1768: The Ottoman Empire. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 75–79. ISBN 9780748694006. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
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  68. ^ 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.
  69. ^ 15.5% of 85%
  70. ^ 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.
  71. ^ Bernt Brendemoen, The Turkish dialects of Trabzon, University of Oslo, 2002 p. 18
  72. ^ Professor. Department of Near Eastern Studies. Princeton University
  73. ^ ISBN 975-518-116-4
  74. ^ Michael Meeker, "The Black Sea Turks: some aspects of their ethnic and cultural background", International Journal of Middle East Studies (1971) 2:318–345
  75. ^ 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..."
    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)
  76. ^ Karalahana.com 2008-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
  77. ^ People and culture of Trabzon and Black sea region 2010-02-10 at the Wayback Machine
  78. ^ Macaulay, Rose: The Towers of Trebizond (Collins, London, 1956)
  79. ^ Özdalga, Elisabeth (2005). Late Ottoman society: the intellectual legacy. Routledge. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-415-34164-6.
  80. ^ Bryer, Anthony (2002). The post-Byzantine monuments of Pontos. Ashgate. p. xxxiii. ISBN 978-0-86078-864-5.
  81. ^ "Kardeş Şehirler". trabzon.bel.tr (in Turkish). Trabzon. Retrieved 2020-01-17.

Further reading edit

  • Bryer, Anthony; David Winfield (March 1985). Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos (Dumbarton Oaks Studies,20) Two Volume Set. Dumbarton Oaks Pub Service. ISBN 0-88402-122-X.
  • Nystazopoulou, Marie (1964). "La dernière reconquête de Sinope par les Grecs de Trébizonde (1254–1265)". Revue des études byzantines (in French). 22 (22): 241–249. doi:10.3406/rebyz.1964.1329.
  • Schliefer, Yigal (2007-01-26). "Turkish city grapples with violent record". Christian Science Monitor.
  • Arsu, Sebnem (2007-02-08). "Suspects in Journalist's Killing Came From a Hotbed of Turkish Ultranationalist Sentiment". New York Times.
  • Özhan Öztürk (2005). Karadeniz (Black Sea): Ansiklopedik Sözlük. 2 Cilt. Heyamola Yayıncılık. Istanbul. ISBN 975-6121-00-9
  • Richard Stillwell; William L. MacDonald; Marian Holland McAllister (eds.). "Trapezus". Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.

External links edit

  • Trabzon Travel Guide
  • Governorship of Trabzon
  • Photos of Trabzon city

trabzon, trapezus, redirects, here, arcadian, city, trapezus, arcadia, historically, known, trebizond, city, black, coast, northeastern, turkey, capital, province, located, historical, silk, road, became, melting, religions, languages, culture, centuries, trad. Trapezus redirects here For the Arcadian city see Trapezus Arcadia Trabzon historically known as Trebizond is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province Trabzon located on the historical Silk Road became a melting pot of religions languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Persia in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast 3 The Venetian and Genoese merchants paid visits to Trabzon during the medieval period and sold silk linen and woolen fabric Both republics had merchant colonies within the city Leonkastron and the former Venetian castle that played a role to Trabzon similar to the one Galata played to Constantinople modern Istanbul 4 Trabzon formed the basis of several states in its long history and was the capital city of the Empire of Trebizond between 1204 and 1461 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 TrabzonMetropolitan municipalityClockwise from top Sumela Monastery viewed from across the Altindere valley Lake Uzungol Ataturk Square a general view of the city centre from Boztepe Hagia Sophia of Trabzon and Ataturk s HouseEmblem of Trabzon Metropolitan MunicipalityNickname City of Tale in the EastTrabzonLocation in TurkeyShow map of TurkeyTrabzonTrabzon Black Sea Show map of Black SeaTrabzonTrabzon Asia Show map of AsiaCoordinates 41 00 18 N 39 43 21 E 41 00500 N 39 72250 E 41 00500 39 72250CountryTurkeyRegionBlack Sea RegionProvinceTrabzonEstablishedc 756 BCGovernment GovernorAziz Yildirim MayorMurat Zorluoglu AKP Area 1 District188 85 km2 72 92 sq mi Elevation0 m 0 ft Population 2012 2 Urban312 060 Urban density1 700 km2 4 300 sq mi Metro811 901Demonym s Trapezian Trapezuntine Trebizonian Trabzonlu TrabzoniteTime zoneUTC 3 TRT Postal code61xxxArea code 90 462Licence plate61ClimateCfaWebsitewww wbr trabzon wbr bel wbr tr www wbr trabzon wbr gov wbr tr Contents 1 Name 2 History 2 1 Iron Age and Classical Antiquity 2 2 Byzantine period 2 3 Empire of Trebizond 2 4 Ottoman era 2 5 Modern era 3 Geography and climate 3 1 Climate 4 Economy 5 People 5 1 History 5 2 Urbanization 6 Main sights 7 Culture 8 Education 9 Cuisine 10 Sports 11 Notable residents 12 International relations 12 1 Twin towns sister cities 13 See also 14 Notes and references 15 Further reading 16 External linksName edit nbsp Coin of Trapezous from the 4th century BC in the British Museum The coin promotes the colonial Greek city as a table of plenty The Turkish name of the city is Trabzon It is historically known in English as Trebizond The first recorded name of the city is the Greek Trapezoῦs Trapezous referencing the table like central hill between the Zagnos Iskeleboz and Kuzgun streams on which it was founded trapeza meant table in Ancient Greek note the table on the coin in the figure In Latin Trabzon was called Trapezus which is a latinization of its ancient Greek name Both in Pontic Greek and Modern Greek it is called Trapezoynta Trapezounta In Ottoman Turkish and Persian it is written as طربزون During Ottoman times Tara Bozan was also used 5 6 7 8 In Laz it is known as ტამტრა T amt ra or T rap uzani 9 in Georgian it is ტრაპიზონი T rap izoni and in Armenian it is Տրապիզոն Trapizon The 19th century Armenian travelling priest Byjiskian called the city by other native names including Hursidabat and Ozinis 10 Western geographers and writers used many spelling variations of the name throughout the Middle Ages These versions of the name which have incidentally been used in English literature as well include Trebizonde Fr Trapezunt German Trebisonda Sp Trapesunta It Trapisonda Tribisonde Terabesoun Trabesun Trabuzan Trabizond and Tarabossan In Spanish the name was known from chivalric romances and Don Quixote Because of its similarity to trapala and trapaza 11 trapisonda acquired the meaning hullabaloo imbroglio 12 History editIron Age and Classical Antiquity edit nbsp Bronze statue of Hermes 2nd c BC found near Tabakhane bridge in the center of Trabzon Displayed in Trabzon Museum nbsp Head and hand of a 2nd c BC bronze statue of possibly Anahit as Aphrodite found near Kelkit to the south of Trabzon province On display in the British Museum Before the city was founded as a Greek colony the area was dominated by Colchians west Georgian and Chaldian Anatolian tribes The Hayasa who had been in conflict with the Central Anatolian Hittites in the 14th century BC are believed to have lived in the area south of Trabzon Later Greek authors mentioned the Macrones and the Chalybes as native peoples One of the dominant Caucasian groups to the east were the Laz who were part of the monarchy of the Colchis together with other related Georgian peoples 13 14 15 The city was founded in classical antiquity in 756 BC as Trapezoys Trapezous by Milesian traders from Sinope 16 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 Kerasous 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 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 nbsp Thalatta Thalatta The Sea The Sea Trebizond was the first Greek city the Ten Thousand reached on their retreat from Persia 19th c illustration by Herman Vogel 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 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 Persia and Mesopotamia under the rule of Vespasian In the next century the emperor Hadrian commissioned improvements to give the city a more structured harbor 17 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 Kizlar Manastiri in nearby Kizlara east of the citadel and south of the modern harbor nbsp Martyrdom of Eugenius Candidius Valerian and Aquila Work dated to 985 Vatican Library nbsp Parts of the city walls of Trabzon and the Eugenius Aqueduct are among the oldest remaining structures in the city 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 17 Trebizond was subsequently rebuilt pillaged again by the Persians 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 18 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 19 Subsequently the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the Metropolitan Bishop of Poti 19 Then during the 9th century Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Lazica 19 Byzantine period edit Main article Chaldia nbsp Saint Anne Church to the east of the walled city is the oldest church in the city possibly dating back to the 6th or 7th century nbsp The 10th century cathedral Panaghia Chrysokephalos now Fatih Mosque the most impressive Byzantine building in the city 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 20 An inscription above the eastern gate of the city commemorated the reconstruction of the civic walls at Justinian s expense following an earthquake 20 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 21 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 Byzantine silks into eastern Muslim countries 22 According to the 10th century Arab geographer Abul Feda it was regarded as being largely a Lazian 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 4 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 23 The Greeks protected the coastal and inland trade routes with a vast network of garrison forts 24 Following the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 Trebizond came under Seljuk 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 25 Supporting Comnena s assertion Simon Bendall has identified a group of rare coins he believes was minted by Gabras and his successors 26 Although he was killed by the Turks in 1098 other members of his family continued his de facto independent rule into the next century Empire of Trebizond edit Main article Empire of Trebizond The Empire of Trebizond was formed after Georgian expedition in Chaldia 27 commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople in 1204 Located at the far northeastern corner of Anatolia it was the longest surviving of the Byzantine 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 Lazian border state Thus from the point of view of the Byzantine writers connected with the Lascaris and later with the Palaiologos the rulers of Trebizond were not emperors 28 29 nbsp Hagia Sophia now Ayasofya mosque amp museum nbsp Hagios Eugenios now Yeni Cuma Mosque The young empire required new buildings to honor its name Their architectural style differs from previous Byzantine architecture while still retaining many features Caucasian and Eastern Anatolian influences are especially evident in Hagia Sophia nbsp Fresco of Alexios III between his wife and mother at the Panagia Theoskepastos Monastery as drawn by Charles TexierGeographically 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 Byzantines in 1261 nbsp Fantastical depiction of Trebizond by Pisanello in a fresco of the Sant Anastasia church in Verona painted between 1436 and 1438Together 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 Francois Rabelais gave their protagonists the desire to possess the city 30 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 31 Nasir al Din al Tusi and Abd al Rahman 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 astrological purposes for the emperor and or the church 32 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 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 33 Constantinople remained the Byzantine capital until it was conquered by the Ottoman 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 Caykara Of dialectical region to the southeast of Trabzon Most are Sunni Muslim while there are some recent converts in the city citation needed and possibly a few Crypto Christians in the Tonya Gumushane 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 nbsp The Cassone with the Conquest of Trebizond by Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York Painted just after the fall of the city it depicts Trebizond as being equal to Constantinople at the far left Even the battle displayed in between the two cities was mostly a fantasy The city held a legendary place in Western European literature and thought throughout the late medieval period and the renaissance with a lasting influence that can be felt even to present times Ottoman era edit Main articles Trebizond Eyalet and Trebizond Vilayet nbsp The first known plan of Trebizond drawn around 1604 1610 by Julien Bordier Many characteristics of the city can be recognized the two streams dividing the central core the separately walled quarters the Genoese town next to the winter harbour Haghia Sophia at the bottom right and Boztepe hill at the top left nbsp The first city view of Trebizond published by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort after a drawing by himself or his assistant Claude Aubriet during a visit in 1701 The view shows the city from Haghia Sophia in the distance all the way to the winter harbour The drawing was made from Boztepe which is still the most popular place to view the city The last Emperor of Trebizond David surrendered the city to Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461 34 Following this takeover Mehmed II sent many Turkish settlers into the area but the old ethnic Greek Laz and Armenian 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 35 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 35 However a significant portion of the local Christians were Islamized by the end of the 17th century especially those outside the city according to a research by Prof Halil Inalcik 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 36 In 1598 it became the capital of its own province the Eyalet of Trebizond which in 1867 became the Vilayet of Trebizond During the reign of Sultan Bayezid II his son Prince Selim 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 Turks and Laz beys as the regional beylerbey citation needed It is also recorded that some Bosniaks were appointed by the Sublime Porte as the regional beylerbeys in Trabzon citation needed The Eyalet of Trabzon had always sent troops for the Ottoman campaigns in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries nbsp Trebizond Meydan around 1868 Dmitri Ivanovich Yermakov nbsp Men and woman gathered for the funeral of an Armenian cleric Hatchik Tcholakian 1892 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 37 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 Ertegun 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 Izmir 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 38 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 39 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 camel trains 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 40 Ivan Aivazovsky made the painting Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895 based on the events 41 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 nbsp Trebizond from the sea by Ivan Aivazovsky nbsp Engraving of the port at Comlekci by C Lapante nbsp Trebizond by Jean Baptiste Henri Durand Brager nbsp Trebizond from the sea by Yeghishe Tadevosyan nbsp Trebizond from the south by Godfrey Vigne nbsp The quarantine station by Jules Laurens nbsp Street view by Nikolay Lanceray nbsp Lithograph of Trebizond from the sea by the Dickinson Brothers of London 1853 It shows the city from Khonsi point at the left to Platana Akcaabat at the right This is the first impression most European travellers got of the city in good weather until the second half of the 20th century Modern era edit nbsp A theater performance in Trebizond c 1900 nbsp The Philharmonic orchestra of Trebizond nbsp Operating room of the Acriteon Hospital In 1901 the harbour was equipped with cranes by Stothert amp Pitt of Bath in England In 1912 the Sumer 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 1300 42 lives Especially the port quarter Comlekci and surrounding neighborhoods were targeted In July 1915 most of the adult male Armenians of the city were marched off south in five convoys towards the mines of Gumushane never to be seen again Other victims of the Armenian genocide were reportedly taken out to sea in boats which were then capsized 43 44 In some areas of Trebizond province such as the Karadere river valley in modern day Arakli 25 kilometers east of the city the local Muslim population tried to protect the Christian Armenians 45 The coastal region between the city and the Russian frontier became the site of key battles between the Ottoman and Russian 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 Caykara some 50 km to the east of Trabzon it took a further 40 days for the Russian army to advance west 46 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 47 Many adult Turkish males left the city out of fear for reprisals even though governor Chrysantos included them in his administration According to some sources the Russians banned Muslim mosques and forced Turks who were the largest ethnic group living in the city to leave Trabzon 48 However already during the Russian occupation many Turks who had fled to surrounding villages started to return to the city and governor Chrysantos helped them to re establish their facilities such as schools to the dismay of the Russians 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 Hafiz 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 nbsp Chrysanthos Philippidis metropolitan and governor of Trabzon during part of the First World War He protected the local population regardless of religion or ethnicity nbsp Ali Sukru Bey publisher and politician from Trabzon who opposed violence against ethnic minorities and paid the ultimate price for his criticism of Mustafa Kemal During the Turkish War of Independence several Christian Pontic Greek 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 49 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 50 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 Sevres was annulled and replaced with the Treaty of Lausanne 1923 As part of this new treaty Trebizond became part of the new Turkish Republic The efforts of the pro Ottoman 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 Greeks from Trebizond and the vicinity who moved to Greece founding the new towns of Nea Trapezounta Pieria and Nea Trapezounta Grevena amongst others 51 During the war Trebizond parliamentarian Ali Sukru Bey had been one of the leading figures of the first Turkish opposition party In his newspaper Tan Sukru and colleagues publicized critiques of the Kemalist government such as towards the violence perpetrated against Greeks during the population exchange Sukru argued that recognition of ethnic diversity was not a threat to the Turkish nation nbsp Uzun Sokak a pedestrianized shopping street nbsp Ataturk Alani at Meydan square in Taksim central Trabzon Topal Osman s men would eventually murder parliamentarian Sukru 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 Sukru 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 Hafiz Mehmet who had testified to his knowledge of and opposition to the Armenian Genocide was also executed for his alleged involvement in the Izmir 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 Surmene and Caykara However the variety of the Pontic Greek language known as Romeika in the local vernacular Pontiaka in Greek and Rumca in Turkish is spoken mostly by the older generations 52 Geography and climate edit nbsp Historic mansions in Akcaabat formerly Platana village Trabzon Province has a total area of 4 685 square kilometres 1 809 sq mi and is bordered by the provinces of Rize Giresun and Gumushane The total area is 22 4 plateau and 77 6 hills The Pontic Mountains pass through the Trabzon Province Trabzon used to be an important reference point for navigators 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 4 The Italian maritime republics such as Venice and in particular Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries 4 Trabzon has four lakes Uzungol Cakirgol Sera and Haldizen Lakes There are several streams but no rivers in Trabzon Climate edit Trabzon has a climate typical of the eastern Black Sea region a humid subtropical climate Koppen Cfa Trewartha Cf near the coast 53 A very small percentage of the province can be classified as subtropical however as slightly elevated rural areas near the coast are oceanic 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 Koppen climate classification was created the city center had a borderline oceanic humid subtropical climate falling just under the 22 C 72 F 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 54 55 Summers are warm the average maximum temperature is around 28 C 82 F in August while winters are generally cool the lowest average minimum temperature is almost 5 C 41 F in February Precipitation is heaviest in autumn and winter with a marked reduction in the summer months a microclimatic condition of the city center compared to the rest of the region 56 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 The water temperature like in the rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey is generally mild and fluctuates between 8 C 46 F and 20 C 68 F throughout the year Climate data for Trabzon 1991 2020 extremes 1927 2020 Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YearRecord high C F 25 9 78 6 30 1 86 2 35 2 95 4 37 6 99 7 38 2 100 8 36 7 98 1 37 0 98 6 38 2 100 8 37 9 100 2 33 8 92 8 32 8 91 0 26 4 79 5 38 2 100 8 Mean daily maximum C F 11 3 52 3 11 4 52 5 13 0 55 4 16 3 61 3 20 0 68 0 24 5 76 1 27 5 81 5 28 1 82 6 25 1 77 2 21 0 69 8 16 5 61 7 13 1 55 6 19 0 66 2 Daily mean C F 7 7 45 9 7 5 45 5 9 2 48 6 12 2 54 0 16 4 61 5 20 9 69 6 23 8 74 8 24 4 75 9 21 1 70 0 17 2 63 0 12 7 54 9 9 5 49 1 15 2 59 4 Mean daily minimum C F 5 0 41 0 4 6 40 3 6 2 43 2 9 0 48 2 13 4 56 1 17 6 63 7 20 6 69 1 21 2 70 2 17 8 64 0 14 1 57 4 9 6 49 3 6 8 44 2 12 2 54 0 Record low C F 7 0 19 4 7 4 18 7 5 8 21 6 2 0 28 4 4 2 39 6 9 2 48 6 11 0 51 8 13 5 56 3 7 3 45 1 3 4 38 1 1 6 29 1 3 3 26 1 7 4 18 7 Average precipitation mm inches 88 8 3 50 63 1 2 48 69 3 2 73 62 8 2 47 55 5 2 19 52 3 2 06 34 7 1 37 59 4 2 34 85 4 3 36 134 1 5 28 103 2 4 06 93 5 3 68 902 1 35 52 Average precipitation days 10 82 9 68 11 09 11 32 11 00 9 95 7 32 9 32 9 64 11 27 9 27 10 64 121 3Average relative humidity 69 69 73 75 77 75 73 73 74 73 70 68 72Mean monthly sunshine hours 71 3 84 8 99 2 135 0 170 5 192 0 176 7 151 9 147 0 127 1 105 0 65 1 1 525 6Mean daily sunshine hours 2 3 3 0 3 2 4 5 5 5 6 4 5 7 4 9 4 9 4 1 3 5 2 1 4 2Source 1 Turkish State Meteorological Service 57 Source 2 Weatherbase 58 59 Economy edit nbsp Postcard of the art nouveau style theatre cinema in TrabzonAs 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 60 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 hazelnuts were exported 61 The tobacco produced in Trabzon was called Trebizond Platana It was described as having large leaves and a bright colour 62 Trabzon was known for producing poor quality cereals mostly for local use 63 Trabzon produced a white green bean which was sold in Europe It was as of 1920 the only vegetable exported out of the province 62 Poultry farming was also popular in Trabzon Sericulture was seen in the area before 1914 64 The area produced copper silver zinc iron and manganese Copper was kept for local use by coppersmiths During the Balkan Wars production ceased due to poor exportation and fuel supplies 65 Trabzon Airport opened in 1957 People editHistory editTrebizond was an overwhelmingly Christian and Greek city at the time of its fall to the Ottomans 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 66 nbsp Bessarion 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 nbsp Suleiman the Magnificent was born in Trebizond on November 6 1494 He was one of the greatest emperors in history and vastly enlarged the territories of the Ottoman Empire which became one of the world s leading superpowers in the 16th century together with its arch rival in the Mediterranean the Spanish Empire Portrait after Titian in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna 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 67 During the 13th and 14th centuries numerous Armenian families migrated there from Ani 67 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 68 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 percent 69 of the city s population 70 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 Salpazari Agasar valley region of the Trabzon Province 71 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 Greek and in some regions Armenian speakers imposed features from their mother language into the Turkish spoken in the region Heath W Lowry s 72 work with Halil Inalcik on Ottoman tax books Tahrir Defteri 73 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 and other ancient Greek colonies 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 Hellenized religiously and linguistically 74 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 75 Urbanization edit Population 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015Total 740 569 748 982 765 127 763 714 757 353 757 898 758 237 766 782 768 417Urban 396 646 390 797 408 103 415 652 757 353 757 898 758 237 766 782 768 417Main sights edit nbsp Sumela Monastery nbsp Zagnos bridge and central Ortahisar neighborhood nbsp Vernacular architecture in masonry nbsp Trabzon Museum Trabzon has a number of tourist attractions some of them dating back to the times of the ancient empires 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 The Hagia Sophia formerly Turkish Ayasofya Muzesi now a mosque a stunning Byzantine church is probably the town s most important tourist attraction Trabzon Castle ruins are visible in the town but cannot be visited as they fall in a military zone The outside wall of the castle now serves as the back wall of a military building The Ataturk Kosku is a villa built in 1890 by a local Greek merchant In 1924 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk stayed in the villa during his visit to Trabzon He stayed there again in 1937 It houses period rooms and serves as a monument to the memory of the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey Boztepe Park is a small park and tea garden on the hills above Trabzon that has a panoramic view of nearly the entire city The terrain in Trabzon is ascending in such a way that although the view is far above that of the buildings below it is still close enough to be able to observe the flow of traffic and the people moving about in the city Uzun Sokak is one of the most crowded streets of Trabzon Trabzon Museum is located in the town centre and offers interesting exhibits on the history of the region including an impressive collection of Byzantine artifacts Trabzon s Bazaar District offers interesting shopping opportunities on ancient narrow streets continuing from Kunduracilar Street from the Meydan town square Saint Anne Church Trabzon is located in the city centre of Trabzon and one of the oldest in the city Kostaki Mansion is located to the north of Zeytinlik near Uzun Sokak Uzungol Dursun Ali Inan Museum An ethnographic museum in Uzungol that tells the history of Trabzon and the region 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 Husnu Koktug Mosque originally the Agios Elevtherios Church Iskender Pasha Mosque Semerciler Mosque Carsi Mosque Gulbahar Hatun Mosque and Turbe commissioned by Sultan Selim I and Kalepark originally Leonkastron Within Trabzon Province the main attractions are the Sumela Monastery i e the Monastery of the Panagia Soumela and the Uzungol lake The monastery is built on the side of a very steep mountain overlooking the green forests below and is about 50 kilometres 31 miles south of the city Uzungol is known for its natural environment and scenery Other sites of interest in the broader region include Kaymakli Monastery a formerly Armenian Monastery of the All Saviour arm Ամենափրկիչ Վանք Amenaprgic Vank Kizlar Monastery of Panagia Theoskepastos the God veiled Virgin Kustul Monastery of Gregorios Peristereotas gr Iera Monh toy Agioy Gewrgioy Peristerewta Iera Moni tou Agiou Georgiou Peristereota Vazelon Monastery of Agios Savvas Masatlik Cave churches of Agia Anna Little Ayvasil Sotha St John Agios Theodoros Agios Konstantinos Agios Christophoros Agia Kyriaki Agios Michail and Panagia Tzita churches 76 nbsp Culture edit nbsp Postcard of Trabzon showing the national dance HoronFolk 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 77 While similar to Russian Cossack 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 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 Ataturk 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 fikralari 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 Dame Rose Macaulay s last novel The Towers of Trebizond 1956 which is still in print 78 Education edit nbsp A view from the Black Sea Technical University campusBlack Sea 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 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 79 The building of this institution built in 1902 still remains the most impressive Pontic Greek monument in the city and today hosts the Turkish school Anadolu Lisesi 80 Cuisine editThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed September 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message 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 Akcaabat kofte spicy lamb meatball from the Akcaabat 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 Vakfikebir ekmegi large country style bread Tonya tereyagi Tonya butter tava misir ekmegi deep dish corn bread and kara lahana corbasi bean and cabbage soup Taflan kavurmasi is a cherry laurel dish served with onions and olive oil Trabzon is also famous for its hazelnuts 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 edit nbsp Photograph of a football team of Trabzonspor in 1920 1925 nbsp Senol Gunes Sports Complex is the home of Trabzonspor Football is the most popular sport in Trabzon The city s top sports club Trabzonspor was until 2010 the only Turkish football club outside Istanbul to win the Super 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 Fenerbahce and Besiktas 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 European Cups managing to beat numerous prominent teams such as Barcelona Inter Liverpool Aston Villa and Olympique Lyonnais Renowned former players of Trabzonspor include Senol Gunes 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 Trabzon hosted the first edition of the Black Sea Games in July 2007 and the 2011 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival Notable residents editMain page Category People from TrabzonInternational relations editSee also List of twin towns and sister cities in Turkey Twin towns sister cities edit Trabzon is twinned with 81 nbsp Batumi Georgia since 2000 nbsp Dortmund Germany since 2013 nbsp Bishkek Kyrgyzstan since 2014 nbsp Gabes Tunisia since 2013 nbsp Rasht Iran since 2000 nbsp Rizhao China since 1997 nbsp Sochi Russia since 1993 nbsp Szigetvar Hungary since 1998 nbsp Zanjan Iran since 2001See also editAmasya ancient Amaseia capital of the Pontic Greeks during classical antiquity Anatolian Tigers Black Sea Region Kemence of the Black Sea Kolbasti World Trade Center Trabzon Capture of TrabzonNotes and references edit Area of regions including lakes km Regional Statistics Database Turkish Statistical Institute 2002 Retrieved 2013 03 05 Population of province district centers and towns villages by districts 2012 Address Based Population Registration System ABPRS Database Turkish Statistical Institute Retrieved 2013 02 27 Trabzon tr Archived 2011 11 03 at the Wayback Machine a b c d William Miller 2009 The Latin Orient Bibliobazaar LLC pp 51 54 ISBN 978 1 110 86390 7 Campbell Lawrence Dundas The Asiatic annual register or A View of the history of Hindustan and of the Politics Commerce Literature of Asia London 1802 Page 3 Google books link Malte Brun Conrad Universal geography or a description of all parts of the world Volume 2 Google Books The modern traveller a popular description geographical historical and topographical of the varieus countries of the globe J Dunkan 14 January 2018 Retrieved 14 January 2018 via Google Books Ritter Carl 14 January 2018 Die Erdkunde im Verhaltniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen oder Allgemeine vergleichende Geographie als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und Unterrichts in physikalischen und historischen Wissenschaften G Reimer ISBN 9783111959979 Retrieved 14 January 2018 via Google Books Y Dutxuri Turkce Lazca sozluk Ceviri Online Ceviri Lazuri Com www Lazuri com Retrieved 14 January 2018 Ozhan Ozturk claims that Ozinis means flat place in Laz language and Hursidabat means City of the Sun in Persian Ottoman language Pontus Antik Cag dan Gunumuze Karadeniz in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi Genesis Yayinlari Ankara 2011 pp 547 549 ISBN 978 605 54 1017 9 Corominas Joan Pascual Jose A 1991 Diccionario critico etimologico castellano e hispanico in Spanish Vol RI X 3rd reprint ed Madrid Gredos p 592 ISBN 84 249 0879 1 trapisonda en Diccionario de la Real Academia Espanola in Spanish 23rd ed 2019 Retrieved 24 July 2020 Phoenix The Peoples of the Hills Ancient Ararat and Caucasus by Charles Burney David Marshall Lang Phoenix Press New Ed edition December 31 2001 Ronald Grigor Suny The Making of the Georgian Nation 2nd edition December 1994 Indiana University Press ISBN 0 253 20915 3 page 45 A Star in the East TimothyGrove Blogspot ro 23 July 2012 Retrieved 14 January 2018 Romeo Bosneagu 22 February 2022 The Black Sea from Paleogeography to Modern Navigation Applied Maritime Geography and Oceanography Springer Nature ISBN 978 3 03 088762 9 OCLC 1299382109 a b William Miller Trebizond The Last Greek Empire 1926 Chicago Argonaut Publishers 1968 p 9 Miller Trebizond p 10 a b c Hewsen 46 a b Miller Trebizond p 11 Calzolari V The Armenian translation of the Greek Neoplatonic Works in Greek Texts and Armenian Traditions An Interdisciplinary Approach 2016 p 51 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 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 Robert W Edwards The Garrison Forts of the Pontos A Case for the Diffusion of the Armenian Paradigm Revue des Etudes Armeniennes 19 1985 pp 181 284 Miller Trebizond p 12 Bendall The Mint of Trebizond under Alexius I and the Gabrades Numismatic Chronicle Seventh Series 17 1977 pp 126 136 A A Vasiliev The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond 1204 1222 Speculum 11 1936 pp 18f 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 The lure of Trebizond by Anthony Eastmond in Byzantium s Other Empire Trebizond p 22 2016 Istanbul Shams al Din al Bukhari Thomas Hockey et al eds The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers New York Springer 2007 pp 1047 1048 Retrieved 12 January 2018 Astronomy in the Trebizond Empire Ahmet M Zehiroglu trans by Paula Darwish from Trabzon Imparatorlugu 2016 Trabzon Faruk Sumer 1988 2016 AKKOYUNLULAR XV yuzyilda Dogu Anadolu Azerbaycan ve Irak ta hukum suren Turkmen hanedani 1340 1514 TDV Encyclopedia of Islam 44 2 vols in Turkish Istanbul Turkiye Diyanet Foundation Centre for Islamic Studies Prothero G W 1920 Anatolia London H M Stationery Office a b The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times Richard G Hovannisian page 27 28 2004 Haber Yazdir Trabzon un fethi arastirmalari ve 15 agustos 1461 Of hayrat haberleri www OfHayrat com Retrieved 14 January 2018 Sounes Howard 2001 Down The Highway The Life Of Bob Dylan Grove Press ISBN 978 0 8021 1686 4 At pages 12 13 Rev M P Parmalee 1892 Proceedings of the ABCFM for the year 1892 Boston Samuel Usher p 229 Retrieved 1 May 2017 Trebizond was occupied as a missionary station in 1835 The following is a list of missionaries who have been connected with the station for at least one year Rev G W Wood 1842 1843 The constitutional revolution of 1908 and its aftermath in Trabzon Ahmetoglu S 2019 p 127 128 Doctoral Thesis Leiden University Rev Edwin Munsell Blis on the Hamidian Massacres in Modern Genocide The Definitive Resource and Document Collection 2014 p 147 Paul R Bartrop amp Steven Leonard Jacobs eds Davidian Vazken Khatchig 2018 Image of an Atrocity Ivan Hovhannes Aivazovsky s Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895 Etudes Armeniennes Contemporaines 11 40 73 doi 10 4000 eac 1815 Daniel Maldonado in Historic Cities of the Islamic World 2007 p 525 C Edmund Bosworth ed Toronto Globe August 26 1915 Takvimi Vekdyi No 3616 August 6 1919 p 2 KAZA HEMSIN ՀԱՄՇԷՆ HAMSHEN Virtual genocide memorial Infographic by the newspaper The Sphere showing the advance of the Russian front on Trebizond The Sphere April 29 1916 Massacre of Christians before Evacuation of Trebizond Adelaide Australia The Daily Herald April 21 1916 p 5 Frightful scenes were witnessed in the Christian quarter hundreds of civilians were killed Grand Larousse encyclopedia Turkish edition 22 page 11669 Librairie Larousse 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 Clark Bruce 2006 Twice a Stranger The Mass Expulsions that Forged Modern Greece and Turkey Harvard University Press pp 112 116 ISBN 9780674023680 Retrieved 15 January 2018 via Google Books Baum Wilhelm 2006 The Christian minorities in Turkey Kitab p 162 ISBN 978 3 902005 62 5 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 Ozhan Ozturk Pontus Antik Cag dan Gunumuze Karadeniz in Etnik ve Siyasi Tarihi Genesis Yayinlari Ankara 2011 pp 417 421 ISBN 978 605 54 1017 9 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 Omer Asan Pontus Kulturu Belge Yayinlari Istanbul 1996 Peel M C Finlayson B L McMahon T A 2007 Updated world map of the Koppen Geiger climate classification PDF Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 4 2 439 473 Bibcode 2007HESSD 4 439P doi 10 5194 hessd 4 439 2007 Turkiye Iklimi Meteoroloji Genel Mudurlugu 27 May 2021 File Koppen Geiger Map TUR present svg Wikipedia commons wikimedia org 6 November 2018 Retrieved 2020 11 07 Meteorolojik Parametrelerin Turkiye de Analizi Meteoroloji Genel Mudurlugu 27 May 2021 Resmi Istatistikler Illerimize Ait Genel Istatistik Verileri in Turkish Turkish State Meteorological Service Retrieved 26 June 2021 Trabzon Turkey Travel Weather Averages Weatherbase Weatherbase Retrieved 14 January 2018 17038 Trabzon Turkey OGIMET 13 January 2021 Retrieved 14 January 2021 Prothero W G 1920 Armenia and Kurdistan London H M Stationery Office p 51 Prothero W G 1920 Armenia and Kurdistan London H M Stationery Office p 52 a b Prothero W G 1920 Armenia and Kurdistan London H M Stationery Office p 61 Prothero W G 1920 Armenia and Kurdistan London H M Stationery Office p 60 Prothero W G 1920 Armenia and Kurdistan London H M Stationery Office p 64 Prothero W G 1920 Armenia and Kurdistan London H M Stationery Office p 73 Greene Molly 23 July 2015 Edinburgh History of the Greeks 1453 to 1768 The Ottoman Empire Edinburgh University Press pp 75 79 ISBN 9780748694006 Retrieved 5 June 2023 a b Victor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian Abel Poghosi Simonyan Makich Vahani Arzumanyan 1986 Yerevan Haykakan sovetakan hanragitaran Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia in Armenian Vol 12 p 87 OCLC 10431241 Robert W Edwards Armenian and Byzantine Religious Practices in Early Fifteenth Century Trabzon A Spanish Viewpoint Revue des Etudes Armeniennes 23 1992 pp 81 90 15 5 of 85 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 Bernt Brendemoen The Turkish dialects of Trabzon University of Oslo 2002 p 18 Professor Department of Near Eastern Studies Princeton University Trabzon Sehrinin Islamlasmasi ve Turklesmesi 1461 1583 ISBN 975 518 116 4 Michael Meeker The Black Sea Turks some aspects of their ethnic and cultural background International Journal of Middle East Studies 1971 2 318 345 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 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 Ozhan Ozturk 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 Karalahana com Archived 2008 06 11 at the Wayback Machine People and culture of Trabzon and Black sea region Archived 2010 02 10 at the Wayback Machine Macaulay Rose The Towers of Trebizond Collins London 1956 Ozdalga Elisabeth 2005 Late Ottoman society the intellectual legacy Routledge p 261 ISBN 978 0 415 34164 6 Bryer Anthony 2002 The post Byzantine monuments of Pontos Ashgate p xxxiii ISBN 978 0 86078 864 5 Kardes Sehirler trabzon bel tr in Turkish Trabzon Retrieved 2020 01 17 Further reading editBryer Anthony David Winfield March 1985 Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos Dumbarton Oaks Studies 20 Two Volume Set Dumbarton Oaks Pub Service ISBN 0 88402 122 X Nystazopoulou Marie 1964 La derniere reconquete de Sinope par les Grecs de Trebizonde 1254 1265 Revue des etudes byzantines in French 22 22 241 249 doi 10 3406 rebyz 1964 1329 Schliefer Yigal 2007 01 26 Turkish city grapples with violent record Christian Science Monitor Arsu Sebnem 2007 02 08 Suspects in Journalist s Killing Came From a Hotbed of Turkish Ultranationalist Sentiment New York Times Ozhan Ozturk 2005 Karadeniz Black Sea Ansiklopedik Sozluk 2 Cilt Heyamola Yayincilik Istanbul ISBN 975 6121 00 9 Richard Stillwell William L MacDonald Marian Holland McAllister eds Trapezus Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trabzon nbsp Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Trabzon Trabzon Travel Guide Governorship of Trabzon Photos of Trabzon city History of Trabzon in Karalahana com Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Trabzon amp oldid 1190875918, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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