Owing to its Ottoman past, when people from the Middle East, North Africa, Transcaucasia, and central Asia became part of the sultan's empire, Turkey has enjoyed a rich diversity of people and cultures. Currently, however, the forces of modernization are eliminating many distinctive cultural practices, producing a more uniform society. One region that has recently come under the pressure of change is Turkey's northeast corner.
The eastern Black Sea coastal district, which extents southward from the cities of Trabzon and Hopa on the coast and south to the often misty Pontic mountain range, has been home to Greeks, Laz, Armenians, and Georgians. It has also attracted conquering Romans, Russians, and Turks. In pre-Christian times the region was known as Lazia. From A.D. 14 to 117, the ruling Romans called it "Lesser Armenia." Later it became part of the Eastern Roman, and then Byzantine, Empire and was governed from Constantinople. In 1205, a year after the warriors of the Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople, Lazia was joined to the separate Byzantine kingdom of Trebizond (its capital is now spelled "Trabzon"). This kingdom lasted until the Ottoman Turks conquered it in 1461. Until the 1950s, many of the region's residents still referred to the coastal towns by their old Laz and Greek names, rather than by their new Turkish ones. Hence, Cayeli was called Mapavri, Pazar was Atina, and Findikli was Vice.
The area's verdant splendor contrasts sharply with the brown aridity of the Anatolian plateau further south. The Pontic Mountains, with peaks reaching 10,000-14,000 feet within only 20-45 miles of the Black Sea, insulate the green coast from the dry hinterland. The mountains' seaward slopes host a virgin forest of beech, birch, maple, chestnut, oak, poplar, elm, willow, and fir at their lower elevations. At about 3,500 feet these deciduous trees mingle for a short interval with pine woods, which then climb in solitude to 6,300 feet. The forests provide habitats to deer, bears, and wild pigs, as well as to wolves, foxes, martens, and a wide variety of birds. Short rivers, so abundant in trout, descend to the sea through deeply carved ravines that historically had made east-west travel by land nearly impossible. Responding to these environmental challenges, the inhabitants have constructed camelback bridges over many of the rivers, and spacious, beautiful chalets that adorn valley ridges and high mountain slopes, accessible only by steep, narrow, winding paths that discourage all but local residents.
The Hemshin
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