Çaykara
Çaykara | |
---|---|
District and municipality | |
Coordinates: 40°44′51″N 40°14′31″E / 40.74750°N 40.24194°E | |
Country | Turkey |
Province | Trabzon |
Government | |
• Mayor | Hanefi Tok (AKP) |
Area | 574 km2 (222 sq mi) |
Population (2022)[1] | 13,070 |
• Density | 23/km2 (59/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |
Postal code | 61940 |
Area code | 0462 |
Climate | Cfa |
Website | www |
Çaykara (
Etymology
The district takes its name from the Çaykara stream, which forms through the conjunction of the Solaklı and Yeşilalan brooks. The historic name of Çaykara is Kadahor or Katokhôr (from Kato Choriou "lower village" in Pontic Greek).[4] As is typical in transhumance communities in the Pontic Mountains and the Caucasus, 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)
According to local oral histories, the valley functioned as an alternative trading route during the late medieval period connecting Trabzon - through the coastal town of Of - to Persia and beyond. At that time the valley was part of the Empire of Trebizond. On a hill overlooking Çaykara town, just west of the village Taşören, Çaykara (Zeleka), lies a ruined fortress which according to locals was constructed by Genoese traders. The Genoese also held the fortress town of Bayburt - south of Çaykara - which could be reached by the mountain pass near Sakarsu (modern Şekersu). Çaykara entered Ottoman rule in 1461, following the Ottoman conquest of the Empire of Trebizond by Sultan Mehmed II. 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
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.[6] In 1681, there were 2100 people living in 380 houses, all of them Muslims.[6] 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 from the Caucasus.
In 1915, during the
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
Until 1925, Çaykara was a village bound to the
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 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, 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.[8][9]
Composition
There are 32
- 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
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-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 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.[14][15] 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.[16][17]
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.
Name of village | Greek name of village |
---|---|
Akdoğan | Χοψερά |
Soğanlı | Κάτω Χοψερά |
Kabataş | Φωτεινός |
Baltacılı/Yeşilalan | Χολάισσα |
Çaykara | Κατωχωρίου |
Taşören | Ζέλεκα |
Kayran | Λιμνή |
Eğridere | Γοργοράς |
Sur | Σύρος, Σούρ' |
Koldere | Βαχτάνος |
Ataköy | Σινέκ |
Yukarıkumlu | Άνω Μίμιλος |
Aşağıkumlu | Κάτω Μίμιλος |
Çambaşı | Άνωθο |
Taşlıgedik | Μεζιρέ Πατσάν |
Çamlıbel | Άνω Σινέκ |
Taşkıran | Τσορόσ' |
Köşeli | Κλεισουρα |
Demirli | Κοτλού |
Derindere | Ασσό Φώλιζα |
Çayıroba | Γέντη |
Uzungöl | Σαράχο |
Köknar | Όκενα |
Uzuntarla | Αληθινός |
Yaylaönü | Χάρος |
Karaçam | Άνω Όκενα |
Arpaözü | Υψήλ |
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 (1899), Fifth president of Turkey
- Behram Kurşunoğlu (1922), physicist
- Yeşim Ustaoğlu (1960), architect and film director
- Sebahattin Öztürk (1962) Bureaucrat, governor
- Eyüp Aşık (1953) politician, ex-parliamenter
- Mehmet Kara (1939) politician, ex-soldier
See also
References
- ^ TÜİK. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ Karadeniz Ansiklopedik Sözlük: "Kadahor", by Özkan Öztürk. Istanbul, 2005.
- ^ Winfield, A. B. D. - The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of The Pontos, vol. I, p. 323-324, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1985, Washington DC.
- ^ a b c History of Çaykara
- ^ For daring drivers only: the world’s scariest roads Yahoo Travel, 24 April 2015
- ^ Uzungöl’s long story (tr) Karar - 27 July 2019
- ^ 'The settlers in occupied Davlos speak Greek' (gr) Politis.com - 13 March 2018
- ^ Mahalle, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ Against all odds: archaic Greek in a modern world Cambridge Group for Endangered Languages and Cultures, 1 July 2010
- ^ Schreiber, L. (2015). Assessing sociolinguistic vitality: an attitudinal study of Rumca (Romeyka) (Doctoral dissertation, Thesis). Free University of Berlin.
- ^ Turkish researcher publishes dictionary of endangered Greek language used in Trabzon Daily Sabah, 26 July 2019
- ^ Trabzon museum to display goods made from tree roots Daily Sabah, 13 November 2018
- ^ Uzungöl Dursun Ali İnan Museum (tr) Kuzey Ekspres, 15 September 2019
- ^ Of Conspiracies and Men: The Politics of Evil in Turkey Murat Altun (2016) Dissertation, University of Minnesota
- ^ Elias, N. (2016). This is not a Festival. Transhumance-Based Economies on Turkey's Upland Pastures. Nomadic Peoples, 20(2), 265-286.
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