HISTORY OF TRABZON
The city center rises in irregular terraces from the sea in the north to Boztepe in the south. Değirmendere, Kuzgendere (or Tabakhane) and Zağnos streams divided the settlement from south to north with deep gorges. Remains of the oldest known settlement of the city were identified on an irregularly high table-shaped area between the Tabakhane and Zağnos streams. For this reason, it is widely believed that the name Trabzon comes from the ancient Greek word "trapezos", which means table or trapezoidal shape. The first name of Trabzon as Trapezos was written by the Greek commander Kesnophon, BC. It can be found in the ancient source called "Anabasis", which describes the events that took place in the 4th century.
The Miletians of Ionian origin came from Western Anatolia after B.C. They came to the Black Sea in the 7th century and established colonial cities on the coasts. Trabzon is also counted among these colonies, whose center is Sinop, and many researchers point to this period as the first foundation of the city. However, local tribes such as Kolkhs, Drillers and Makrons had been living around Trabzon for a long time.
In the same century, the Black Sea Region was invaded by the Cimmerians coming from the Caucasus and the Scythians following them. However, it is controversial whether these movements occurred before or after the establishment of the colonies. B.C. In the 6th century, Trabzon came under the rule of the Persians and remained in the satrapy called Pont Cappadocia.
Macedonian King Alexander the Great B.C. In 334, he ended Persian domination in all of Anatolia. During the confusion after Alexander's sudden death, Pont satrap II. Mithridates, son of Ariantes, founded the Pontus State in the Black Sea with the support of the local people. Trabzon, BC In 280, it remained within the borders of the Pontus state, whose center was Amasya.
B.C. In the 1st century, the Romans became stronger in the west and began to invade Anatolia. The Kingdom of Pontus was dissolved after the Roman King Pompey defeated the Pontus King Mithridates V in the Kelkit valley. Thus, Trabzon, B.C. It came under Roman rule in 66. With Augustus in Rome, B.C. The imperial period began in 27 BC. As a result of the administrative regulation of Augustus, Trabzon was included in the vassalage called Pontus Polemoniacus, and during the time of Emperor Tiberius (14-37 AD), it remained within the borders of Cappadocia Province, another administrative division. During the reign of Emperor Nero (54-68), it was given the privilege of being a free city. During this period, Trabzon is included in historians' books as a "famous" and "rich" city. During the time of Vespasian (69-79), who gave importance to the defense of the eastern border of the Roman Empire, Trabzon was included in the Cappadocia-Galatya Province.
During the reign of the famous Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138), important construction activities were carried out in Trabzon, as in the whole empire, and many religious and military buildings, roads, aqueducts and an artificial harbor, the ruins of which were visible until recently, were built. After Hadrian, Trabzon was built. The heyday of the Ottoman Empire came to an end, and in 244 the authority to print money was taken away. Although the Trabzon coins minted during the Roman Period had busts of Roman Emperors on their fronts, their own mythological figures dating back to the Pontus Kingdom period were featured on the backs, and Greek writing was used.
Trabzon was attacked by the Goths, who raided the entire Eastern Black Sea Region in 276, and the entire city was burned and destroyed in this attack. We understand from a Latin inscription in the Trabzon Museum that in the last periods of the Roman Empire, at the beginning of the 4th century, during the quadruple administration of Diocletian, Maximian, Constantinius and Galerius, some reconstruction activities were carried out in Trabzon.
When the Roman Empire was divided into two in 395, Trabzon remained within the borders of the Eastern Roman / Byzantine Empire, whose center was Istanbul. Byzantine Emperor Justinianus (527-564) initiated a new construction activity by restoring the city walls in Trabzon. During the time of Heraclius (610-641), the empire began to be divided into military regions, and Trabzon became the center of the Khaldia Theme, established during the time of Theophilos (829-842).
Muslim Arabs came to the Eastern Black Sea and Trabzon during their raids on Anatolia from the beginning of the 8th century.
IV of the Byzantine Empire in 1204. After it was captured by the Latins who came with the Crusades, Alexios and David, the grandchildren of Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, who escaped from Istanbul, established the Komnenos Kingdom independently in Trabzon in 1204, with the help of Georgian Queen Tamara. The Kingdom of Komnenos, which was able to maintain its political existence by establishing marriage ties with the Anatolian Seljuks and paying taxes, experienced its brightest period during the reign of Manuel Komnenos I (1238-1265). The title of "the happiest" appears on the coins of Manuel I, who became economically stronger with the influence of the silver mines in Gümüşhane.
After Bayezid I conquered the Samsun region in 1398, the Kingdom of Trabzon Komnenos was forced to pay annual taxes to the Ottoman Empire. David Komnenos stopped paying taxes during his reign (1458-1461), demanded back what he had already paid through the Sultan of the Akkoyunlu State, Uzun Hasan, and proposed an alliance to the great powers in Europe against the Ottomans. Thereupon, the Ottoman Forces under the leadership of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror surrounded the region, captured Trabzon in 1461 and put an end to the sovereignty of the Komnenos.
During the Ottoman Period, Trabzon was first administered as a province and sanjak by princes and governors. The first sanjak lord was Hızır Bey. In 1470, the sanjak principality was given to Prince Abdullah at a young age; Abdullah lived in Trabzon with his mother Şirin Hatun until 1479. Yavuz Sultan Selim was also a Sanjak Bey in Trabzon during his princehood (1491-1512), and his son Sultan Süleyman, who later received the title of Suleiman the Magnificent, was born here.
In the 16th century, Trabzon was united with the Lazistan Sanjak, whose center was Batumi, and was transformed into a province, and became the center of this new administrative unit. In 1867, a big fire broke out in Trabzon, many public buildings burned down and the city was later reorganized. It became a province in 1868, and apart from the central sanjak, Lazistan, Gümüşhane and Canik Sanjaks were also connected to it.
During World War I, Russians attack Trabzon (April 14, 1916). Strike forces (Militia) consisting of Trabzon residents waged a guerrilla war during this attack. Around this time, the ammunition that arrived at Trabzon Port with the support of the Battleship Hamidiye to be sent to the front was unloaded with great excitement by the young people of Trabzon and transported to Maçka.
Successful battles were fought against the Russians on Sultan Murat Plateau in Çaykara (June 10, 1916), Baltacı in Of, Yanbolu Streams in Arsin, but under the conditions of those years, the enemy could not be prevented from entering Trabzon and the Russians entered Trabzon on April 14, 1916. . During the one year, ten months and ten days that the Russians stayed in Trabzon, especially the Greeks and Armenians subjected the local people to great torture; They kill countless people.
In 1917, the "Bolshevik Revolution" occurred in Russia and the Tsarist Administration collapsed. Thereupon, a great panic begins in the Russian army. This also led to the Russians withdrawing from Trabzon. On the other hand, the Turkish Gangs, shifting from west to east and gathering in Karadağ, descended to Akçaabat, marched towards Trabzon in three directions under the command of Captain Kahraman Bey, and entered Trabzon on February 24, 1918.
Great Leader Atatürk came to Trabzon three times during the Republic period; In 1924, 1930 and 1937, the day they first came, September 15, 1924, was accepted as "ATATURK DAY" by the people of Trabzon and this was notified to him via a wire.
CONQUEST (15 AUGUST 1461)
With the conquest of Istanbul by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire and the birth of the Ottoman Empire, the necessary preparations were made for the conquest of Trabzon, which was necessary to secure the eastern borders, and the navy and land army moved to Trabzon. In 1461, Trabzon, the capital of the Komnenos Kingdom, which was besieged by the army commanded by Mehmed the Conqueror, could not withstand the siege for a long time and surrendered, thus coming under the rule of the Turks.
Fatih, who captured Trabzon and annexed it to the Ottoman Empire, stayed in the city for a few days and left the city by appointing Kazım Bey, the Sanjak Bey of Gallipoli, as the governor of Trabzon. Trabzon II was governed as an independent sanjak for a while. After Bayezid's son, Yavuz Sultan Selim, was appointed as the sanjak governor, it gained the title of "prince city".
With the appointment of Yavuz Sultan Selim as governor in 1487, construction activities in the city gained momentum and in 1515, Hatuniye Mosque and social complex were built in the name of his mother Gülbahar Hatun. Suleiman the Magnificent, who took the Ottoman Empire to the top in almost every aspect and was called "Suleiman the Magnificent" by westerners, was born in Trabzon in 1495. After Suleiman the Magnificent, who spent his childhood in Trabzon until the age of 15 and received his primary education there, became sultan, Trabzon was merged with Batumi and became a provincial center.
TRABZON DURING THE FIRST WORLD WARS
One of the provinces that suffered the heaviest blow of the First World War is Trabzon. The Russians declared war on the Ottoman Empire and began to advance in Turkish territory by crossing the eastern border on November 1, 1914. Against the Russian armies aiming to capture the Eastern Black Sea coast and capture Anatolia, Turkey joined the war on the side of Germany on November 3 and declared Jihad on November 14.
With the bombardment of Black Sea ports by Russian warships, Trabzon fell into the ring of fire. As a matter of fact, on November 17, 1914, a twenty-three-piece Russian fleet bombarded Trabzon, causing great destruction and loss of life.
The bombardments chased each other. Trabzon was largely destroyed by Russian bombardment on February 8 and February 11, 1915, and more than 1000 people died. The Russians intensified their coastal attacks starting from January 23, 1916. As a result of these attacks, supported by 17 warships, our troops had to retreat. Meanwhile, our warship Yavuz arrived in Trabzon. He brought 32 heavy machine guns, a battery, mountain artillery, some military supplies and two aircraft to be used on the Caucasus front. When 3rd Army Commander Kamil Pasha, who could not get the help he wanted from Istanbul, withdrew his troops towards Ilıca, the Russians occupied Erzurum on February 16, 1916.
OCCUPATION OF TRABZO:
Russian forces occupied Rize on February 24, 1916, with the support of the navy. Our military units and the forces of the local people made a heroic defense against the Russians, who were based on the Of border, at Baltacı Creek.
When the people of Trabzon, who resisted the Russian army for 22 days and 22 hours, retreated as a result of the intensification of the enemy's sea and land attacks and the lack of support from anywhere, Of District fell into enemy hands on March 15, 1916.
Later, Sürmene was occupied and the enemy came to the gates of Trabzon. On April 18, 1916, a delegation of Trabzon Greeks informed the commander of the occupation forces, General Lyhkov, that the Turks had evacuated the city on April 15-16 and invited him to the city. The occupation forces entered the Municipality Square from Erzurum Street, with the low-level madness of the minorities and the welcoming ceremonies, and took over the city. Trabzon's painful days of captivity and immigration began. Great torture was inflicted on the Muslim people who could not migrate and stayed in the city and villages.
Especially the local Greeks and Armenians literally engaged in massacre and plunder. Valuables, cultural and artistic works were taken to Russia, box by box. No place was left untouched or plundered. The brave men from Trabzon fought heroically with the enemy and cleared the treacherous Greek and Armenian gangs.
LIBERATION OF TRABZON:
When the Bolshevik revolution took place in Russia in 1917, a great panic began in the Russian army. The Treaty of Erzincan was signed with the Russians, who had to retreat, on December 18, 1917. When the Armenians did not comply with this agreement and started massacres against the Turks, Army Commander Vehip Pasha was ordered to take forward action. Our army, which received the general movement order on February 11, 1918, advanced towards the Caucasus from one side, while the 37th Division under the command of Colonel Hamdi Bey (Prselimoğlu) from Trabzon, from the other side; Reinforced with the 123rd regiment from Giresun, he set out for Trabzon. Our troops, who proceeded by clearing the gangs in the region, took back Vakfıkebir on February 14, 1918, and Akçaabat on February 18, 1918. Our troops cleared the area from enemies within a few days and entered Trabzon on February 24, 1918.
The captivity and immigration suffering of Trabzon and its people, which lasted nearly 2 years, has ended. The Ottoman Empire saved its eastern lands from invasion with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. However, Trabzon could not taste the joy of salvation. Because poverty and misery awaited the people who returned from migration in Trabzon, which was in ruins. Despite this, prayer was prohibited in old churches that had been converted into mosques by the Turks centuries ago, and the buildings were given to the Greeks. A Russian newspaper named "Trapezuntsıy Veyenny Lisok (Trabzon Military Newspaper)" was published using Turkish printing houses. This newspaper was published in Russian for four months between 1916 and 1917. The worst event of this period was the Russians' destruction of the provincial archives.