Tirebolu

Infobox Settlement

settlement_type = District
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = TUR
timezone=EET
utc_offset=+2
map_caption =Location of PAGENAME within Turkey.
timezone_DST=EEST
utc_offset_DST=+3

official_name = Tirebolu


image_caption =
image_blank_emblem =
blank_emblem_type =

---

subdivision_type1=Region
subdivision_name1 = Black Sea
subdivision_type2=Province
subdivision_name2 = Giresun| population_total = 17450|population_footnotes=
population_as_of =| 2000
population_footnotes =
population_density_km2 =
area_total_km2 = 210|elevation_m =
latd = 40
latm = 00
latNS = N
longd = 38
longm = 49
longEW = E
postal_code_type=Postal code
postal_code = 28500
area_code = (+90) 454
blank_info = 28|blank_name=Licence plate
leader_title=Mayor
leader_name = Burhan Takır
website = http://www.tirebolu.bel.tr/

Tirebolu (formerly Tripoli; Greek Τρίπολις) is a district and town of Giresun Province, Turkey, the Ancient Greek and Byzantine Greek Tripolis.

Geography

Tirebolu itself is a small town of 16,000 people located on the hill named "Ayana" which rises from the Black Sea shore just to the west of the Harşit River estuary. Tirebolu has a little harbour and a fishing fleet but the mainstay of the local economy is growing hazelnuts.

History

In his "Anabasis", the Greek Xenophon (431–360 BC) wrote that Colchians, Drilae, Habibs, and Tiberians had been living in the eastern parts of the Black Sea region during the centuries (BC).

The Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder tells us that nearby Tripolis was founded {elsewhere dated as 656BC) as a trading colony of the Ancient Greek city-state of Miletos, one of nearly 90 along the Black Sea coast.

Tripoli was next part of the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, one of the "three cities" that give the town its name, the others being Andoz (today's Espiye) and Bedrama (or Bedrum) in the Harşit valley. The Empire of Trebizond was then formed when the Crusaders captured Constantinople) in 1204 and the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I of Trebizond escaped to the Black Sea coast. Tripoli was in the territory of this empire.

In 1397 the town was conquered by the Ottoman Empire general Hacı Emiroğlu Süleyman.

In 1916 this coast was occupied by Russian troops for two years during the First World War.

From 1916 to 1922, this mostly Greek city in Pontos suffered in the Pontian Genocide in which over 350,000 of the 700,000 Greeks who lived in Pontos (where Greeks formed the majority of the population) were murdered by the ruling Turks in the genocide, corresponding with the Armenian Genocide. The rest of the Greek population who survived the massacres were deported (along with another 1.7 million Greeks) from their ancestral lands in Turkey in the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923.

Places of interest

The coast here is attractive and is rare in that it has not been much damaged by the Black Sea coast highway, which runs through tunnels behind the town, so with its castle, other ancient buildings including Ottoman Empire period houses, and its beaches Tirebolu is one town on this coast that has attractions for visitors. The nearest airport is Trabzon convert|80|km|mi|0|abbr=on away. Other attractions include:

* the ruins of a Greek Orthodox monastery on Haç Dağı mountain.

Notable residents

* Cengiz Karahasanoğlu, writer whose family history is entitled "from Turkestan to Tirebolu".

External links

* [http://www.tirebolu.bel.tr/ the municipality]
* [http://www.tirebolu.gov.tr/ the district governorate]
** [http://www.tirebolu.gov.tr/resim.htm photos of Tirebolu]
** [http://www.tirebolu.bel.tr/Galeri.asp and more]
* [http://chemphys.phys.boun.edu.tr/~semiz/is/MacTurk/trbl.html Pictures from the castle]
* [http://www.tirebolu.4t.com/fotosayfasi1.html Old photo collection]