Çaykara ( Romeika: Κατωχώρι, ''Kadahor'') is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Trabzon Province Trabzon Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey on the Black Sea coast. Its area is 4,628 km2, and its population is 818,023 (2022). Located in a strategic ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its area is 574 km², and its population is 13,070 (2022). As of 2023, the Mayor of Çaykara is Hanefi Tok ( AKP). Çaykara village lies in a V-shaped

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

along the Solaklı River in the

Pontic Mountains The Pontic Mountains or Pontic Alps (, meaning 'North Anatolian Mountains'), form a mountain range in northern Anatolia, Turkey. They are also known as the "Parhar Mountains" in the local Turkish and Pontic Greek languages. The term ''Parhar'' ...

, at an elevation of around 300 metres. Çaykara district lies to the south of

Dernekpazarı Dernekpazarı (formerly: ''Kondu'', ''Kondualtı'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Trabzon Province, Turkey. Its area is 89 km2, and its population is 3,761 (2022). The current mayor of the town is Mehmet Aşık (Justic ...

(Kondu) and forms the upper part of the Of-valley system ('Solaklı Vadisi' in Turkish), with peaks reaching to over 3300 meters. The western half of

İkizdere İkizdere (Laz: Xuras) is a town in Rize Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey, Black Sea region of Turkey. It is the seat of İkizdere District.

district - which lies just east of Çaykara and is now part of Rize province - was historically also part of the same administrative and cultural region. Large swathes of the district are made up of

old-growth An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

temperate broadleaf and mixed forest Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. Thes ...

, gradually making way for

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alpine tundra gets ...

at higher altitudes.

Etymology

The district takes its name from the Çaykara

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

, which forms through the conjunction of the Solaklı and Yeşilalan

brooks Brooks may refer to: * Brook (small stream) Places Antarctica * Cape Brooks Canada *Brooks, Alberta United Kingdom * Brooks, Cornwall * Brooks, Powys, a location United States * Brooks, Alabama * Brooks, Arkansas * Brooks, California *Brooks, ...

. The historic name of Çaykara is Kadahor or ''Katokhôr'' (from Kato Choriou "lower village" in

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek (, ; or ''Romeika'') is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety ...

). As is typical in

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or Nomad, nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and low ...

communities in the Pontic Mountains and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

, Kadahor was settled with a number of subordinate upland villages for different seasons, which explains its name. However, in current times the name 'Tsaikara' (Τσαϊκάρα) is also used in Pontic Greek.

History

Current Çaykara district covers the upper parts of the 'Ophis' ('Solaklı' in modern Turkish)

river valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a ...

, and its

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

. The river Ophis and a homonymous Greek settlement at its mouth were first mentioned in antiquity by

Arrian Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; ; ) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander, and philosopher of the Roman period. '' The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best source on the campaigns of ...

. A path besides the river functioned as a trade route connecting the coast with eastern Anatolia, through 'Paipert' (current

Bayburt Bayburt () is a city in northeast Turkey lying on the Çoruh River. It is the seat of Bayburt Province and Bayburt District.Bandon) to which the area of Çaykara belonged was known as Stylos. It lay between the bandon of Sourmena and Rhizaion. Settlement of the higher parts of the valley is first attested in the middle-ages, when it was part of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. The history of individual villages and towns in the district going back to antiquity is unknown. This may be due to the frequent landslides that occur there, and the limited archeological research which has been conducted. A few place names hint at a possible

Chaldia Chaldia (, ''Khaldia'') was a historical region located in the mountainous interior of the eastern Black Sea, northeast Anatolia (modern Turkey). Its name was derived from a people called the ''Chaldoi'' (or '' Chalybes'') that inhabited the reg ...

n presence in the valley before it was

Hellenized Hellenization or Hellenification is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language, and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonisation often led to the Hellenisation of indigenous people in the Hellenistic period, many of the te ...

, such as the Haldizen (Χάλντιζεν) stream in the southeast of the district and the village 'Halt' (Χάλτ, or Söğütlü in Turkish), downstream in Of-district. It is assumed that Kadahor was one of the original settlements in the area, which may explain its name and function as the central market-town of the upper valley. Of 1877

According to local oral histories, the valley functioned as an alternative trading route during the late medieval period connecting

Trabzon Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is a city on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. The city was founded in 756 BC as "Trapezous" by colonists from Miletus. It was added into the Achaemenid E ...

- through the coastal town of Of - to Persia and beyond. At that time the valley was part of the

Empire of Trebizond The Empire of Trebizond or the Trapezuntine Empire was one of the three successor rump states of the Byzantine Empire that existed during the 13th through to the 15th century. The empire consisted of the Pontus, or far northeastern corner of A ...

. On a hill overlooking Çaykara town, just west of the village (Zeleka), lies a ruined fortress which according to locals was constructed by Genoese traders. The Genoese also held the fortress town of

Bayburt Bayburt () is a city in northeast Turkey lying on the Çoruh River. It is the seat of Bayburt Province and Bayburt District.Ottoman rule in 1461, following the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond by Sultan

Mehmed II Mehmed II (; , ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror (; ), was twice the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from August 1444 to September 1446 and then later from February 1451 to May 1481. In Mehmed II's first reign, ...

. According to Greek historiographers the valleys attracted residents of coastal cities who sought refuge from Ottoman taxation. While the population of the valley at that time was mostly made up of Greek-speaking Christians, the locals did have interactions with nomadic Turkish tribes on the summer pastures. According to the Ottoman tax books (''tahrir defterleri'') of 1486, there were 1277 people living in the historic villages that were located within the present-day Çaykara district (namely the villages of Ğorğoras (in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Γοργορά), Holayisa, Paçan and Zeno (in Greek: Ξένος), where there were 235 houses (1 of them inhabited by

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s, 234 of them by

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

.)History of Çaykara
/ref> During the Ottoman period the valley also housed a small number of

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

, who had settled there in the villages Fotinos and Harhes after they had been attacked and chased-off from neighboring valleys by a clan leader called İslamoğlu Bey. According to the Ottoman tax books (''tahrir defterleri'') of 1681, the inhabitants of the villages of Ğorğoras, Holayisa, Paçan, Zeno, Yente, Haldizen, İpsil (in Greek: Υψηλή), Okene, Sero (Siros), Kadahor, Hopşera, Sarahos (in Greek: Σαχάρω), Fotinos (in Greek: Φωτεινός) and Zeleka had been fully converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. In 1681, there were 2100 people living in 380 houses, all of them Muslims. The villages in the valley had a well developed educational system; In the late Ottoman period the uplands of Çaykara housed dozens of seminaries, attracting students from across Anatolia. As a result, the region had one of the highest literacy rates in the empire, and many of the inhabitants of the valley registered surnames in the 19th century - well before other Muslim groups in Anatolia. This history of literacy is reflected in the many scientists, politicians, musicians, directors, etc. that came from the sparsely populated villages in the district. At times the valley also attracted small groups of settlers or refugees from other parts of the empire, such as Arabs from Maraş and

Circassians The Circassians or Circassian people, also called Cherkess or Adyghe (Adyghe language, Adyghe and ), are a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian ethnic group and nation who originated in Circassia, a region and former country in t ...

from the Caucasus. In 1915, during the

Caucasus Campaign The Caucasus campaign comprised armed conflicts between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, later including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, the German Empire, the Central Caspian Dict ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Ottoman forces and local guerrillas fought the invading

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

army at the ''Sultan Murat Plateau'' ( ), a high plateau southwest of Çaykara's town center. A monumental cemetery for the fallen Ottoman soldiers, named ''Şehitler Tepesi'' (Hill of Martyrs) is located there. The Russian army constructed a new road through the valley, connecting it to the Anatolian plateau south of the Pontic Mountains. The road was meant to function as an alternative supply route for the Russian forces in eastern Anatolia, as they were unable to hold the Zigana Pass south of Trabzon. Part of the road is still in use as the D915, which is recognized as one of the most dangerous roads in the world due to its many hairpins without guard rails. Because of their Islamic identity, the inhabitants of Kadahor/Çaykara were not deported during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. A few dozen families from the valley that had retained their Christian beliefs chose to resettle in

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, in the village of Nea Trapezounta (New Trabzon). Many families across the valley retain some contact with relatives in Greece. Until 1925, Çaykara was a village bound to the Of district within

. In 1925, it became a bucak (subdistrict), and on 1 June 1947 it became an

ilçe The Provinces of Turkey, 81 provinces of Turkey are divided into 973 districts (''ilçeler''; sing. ''ilçe''). In the Ottoman Empire and in the early Turkish Republic, the corresponding unit was the ''qadaa, kaza''. Most provinces bear the s ...

(district) of Trabzon Province. During the first half of the 20th century the mother tongue of the residents of the district remained the local Of-dialect of

(colloquially called 'Romeyka', or 'Rumca' in Turkish). Up until the first decade of the 21st century there were many elderly women who were monolingual in Romeyka. All of the permanently settled villages in the district were officially renamed in the 1960s. However, except for Çaykara and Uzungöl - which are the places where the community interacts with the state - these new Turkish names have not caught on. Local toponyms of Greek, Chaldian and Armenian origin such as the names of seasonal settlements, streams, hills and mountains remain in use. Only in the second half of the 20th century did the prevalence of 'Romeyka' start to dwindle among the younger generations. Through a series of state-sponsored programs from the 1940s to the 1970s thousands of residents of Çaykara villages were offered resettlement in other parts of the Turkish Republic and Cyprus. Çaykarali's were settled in Van's Özalp district on the Iranian border (in the village of 'Emek'), in the city

Kırıkhan Kırıkhan is a municipality and district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 715 km2, and its population is 121,028 (2022). The name ''Kırıkhan'' means "broken inn" in the Turkish language, perhaps a reference to one of the many lodgings ...

on the Syrian border, in the villages Davlos, Flamoudi and Trikomo in Northern Cyprus, and in Muş province. There is also a settlement of people from Çaykara on the island

Imbros Imbros (; ; ), officially Gökçeada () since 29 July 1970,Alexis Alexandris, "The Identity Issue of The Minorities in Greece And Turkey", in Hirschon, Renée (ed.), ''Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchang ...

, adjacent the Greek village Dereköy. These resettlements and subsequent migrations within and outside Turkey resulted in a stark decline of the population of the district - from around 40.000 people to just above 12.000. While some migrants were able to retain the use of Romeyka due to geographic isolation (those in Van) or contact with local Greek populations (those on Imbros and Cyprus), the use of the language in Çaykara district itself declined. It remains unclear if the linguistic background of the villages was a reason for the government-initiated programmes.

Composition

There are 32

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Çaykara District: * Akdoğan * Arpaözü * Aşağıkumlu * Ataköy * Baltacılı * Çambaşı * Çamlıbel * Çayıroba * Demirkapı * Demirli * Derindere * Eğridere * Işıklı * Kabataş * Karaçam * Kayran * Köknar * Koldere * Köseli * Maraşlı * Şahinkaya * Şekersu * Soğanlı * Taşkıran * Taşlıgedik * Taşören * Ulucami * Uzungöl * Uzuntarla * Yaylaönü * Yeşilalan * Yukarıkumlu

Culture

Language

The mother tongue of most inhabitants of the district above the age of 50 is the Of-dialect of Pontic Greek, ''Romeyka'' (i.e. 'language of the Romans'), which has been described as the living language closest to

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

. Due to the community's isolation the dialect retained many archaisms. The language is not taught outside the home, and for a long time it was discouraged to speak it at school. Still, some of the younger generation continue to speak the language, and many have at least a basic understanding of it. The Turkish Latin alphabet is used for communication on online platforms. There are about two dozen Grecophone villages in the district, making it the largest concentration of Greek speakers in the Turkish Republic. While locals generally don't like being addressed as Greek, they are proud of their linguistic heritage, which they use to communicate with Greek-speaking tourists. Inhabitants from Of and Çaykara also settled villages in neighboring Sürmene and Köprübaşı districts, a little further to the west. Thus there are also some pockets of Çaykara/Of-dialect Greek speaking villages in these other parts of Trabzon province. That the Of-dialect of Pontic Greek remained so virulent in this area is partly due to the fact that local imams educated and preached in this language until the second part of the 20th century. Many folk singers from the district have recorded songs in Romeyka. Native of Çaykara Vahit Tursun published a Turkish-Romeyka dictionary in 2019. Most residents of the district are also fluent in Turkish. The most popular musical instruments in the district are the

kaval The kaval is a Diatonic and chromatic, chromatic end-blown flute, end-blown oblique flute traditionally played throughout the Balkans (in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Northern Greece, and elsewhere) and ...

flute, and the kemençe violin.

Transhumance

Many of the permanent residents of the district still live a life of transhumance, migrating with their cattle between two or three different settlements belonging to the same village; An agricultural settlement near the bottom of the valley, a logging village halfway up the mountain, and a hamlet on the summer grazing land above the tree line ('parharia' or 'yayla'). Most chalets on the yayla have their own

dry stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. A certain amount of binding is obtained through the use of carefully ...

-enclosed private field, but also share a larger enclosed meadow. In good years, the fields above the tree line produce some additional barley for the cattle. The spatial structure and the ratio of public to private space differs widely between the yayla's, while there are some recurring patterns. Some of the hamlets have a strong egalitarian and communal structure, with all houses having just a small private garden of approximately the same size. In a few cases there are no private gardens at all. Other hamlets are made up of multiple generational kinship clusters, with each generation adding increasingly larger fields to their cluster. There are, however, also yayla's with a more individualistic spatial organisation. Cows roam freely on the yayla, seeking out the best alpine flowers. During the summer months herders guide their sheep through the mountains. On Tuesdays villagers head down to the local market at Çaykara town. In some villages the 'old new year' of the

Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

is celebrated on 14 January (called 'Kalandar'). Villagers dressed as folk characters go door to door making jokes and collecting food or supplies for a shared meal or other communal activity.

Tourism

In recent years the valley has become a major tourist attraction. During the summer months Lake Uzungöl attracts thousands of tourists on a daily basis. Especially in the vicinity of the lake dozens of small and medium-sized hotels have been built - often without a permit - leading to conflict with authorities. In 2019 the eclectic Uzungöl Dursun Ali İnan Museum was opened just east of the lake, showcasing objects relating to the history, culture, nature and geography of the district, as well as a large collection of tree root and trunk art. According to some researchers the state has used tourism as an instrument to subvert local culture through the 'festivalisation' of the celebrations related to the agricultural calendar and the transhumance landscapes.Elias, N. (2016). This is not a Festival. Transhumance-Based Economies on Turkey's Upland Pastures. Nomadic Peoples, 20(2), 265-286.

Villages

Within Çaykara district there are about 30 villages which are more or less permanently settled. These villages are listed north to south, with their Turkish and Greek names. In most cases these villages also have or share a distinct logging settlement, a lower communal pasture (called a 'kom' in Romeyka, 'mezire' in Turkish), and a hamlet on the high summer pasture ('parharia' or 'megalo kampos' in Romeyka, 'yayla' in Turkish). These smaller seasonally occupied places are not listed here.

Geography

Uzungöl and Lake Aygır are some of the lakes in Çaykara district.

Yaylas

In the upper parts of Çaykara district there are six distinct yaylas (summer pastures), each with multiple hamlets. The most famous one of these is Sultan Murat Yaylası, which is shared by the hamlets Sıcakoba, Hanırmak, Şahinkaya, Eğrisu, Vartan and Cerah.

Notable residents

Cevdet Sunay Ahmet Cevdet Sunay (10 February 1899 – 22 May 1982) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the fifth president of Turkey from 1966 to 1973. Early life and career Sunay was born in 1899 in the village of Ataköy nea ...

(1899), Fifth president of Turkey * Behram Kurşunoğlu (1922), physicist * Yeşim Ustaoğlu (1960), architect and film director *

Sebahattin Öztürk Sebahattin Öztürk (born 1 July 1962) is a Turkish politician, civil servant and bureaucrat who served as the Minister of the Interior of Turkey between March and August 2015. Previously the Undersecretary to the Interior Ministry since 2014, ...

(1962) Bureaucrat, governor *

Eyüp Aşık Eyüp Aşık (born 1953, Çaykara) is a former Turkish politician. He represented Trabzon in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Motherland Party (ANAP) from 1983 to 2001. In the mid-1990s he was a minister of state responsible for Te ...

(1953) politician, ex-parliamenter * Mehmet Kara (1939) politician, ex-soldier

References

Further reading * Michael Meeker, ''A Nation of Empire: The Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity'', 2002 * Margarita Poutouridou, ''The Of valley and the coming of Islam: the case of the Greek-speaking Muslims'', 1997 * Erol Sağlam, ''Constitutive Ambiguities: Subjectivities and Memory in the Case of Romeika-Speaking Communities of Trabzon, Turkey'', 2017 * Sitaridou, I. ''Greek-speaking enclaves in Pontus today: The documentation and revitalization of Romeyka'', 2013

External links

Çaykara district governor's official website

Uzungöl Website

Images of the Sultan Murat Plateau
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caykara Populated places in Trabzon Province Districts of Trabzon Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey