- Gelevara Deresi
Gelevara Deresi is one of two main streams of
Espiye , a district ofGiresun province in the eastern Black Sea region ofTurkey . Its two main tributaries arise in the highlands ofEspiye district ofGiresun andTorul district ofGümüşhane .In the west its shorter arm originates from
Çekümbeli highland nearTohumluk village. Its longer arm starts inTekçam-Kürünbeli spring inHanzara Obası andAyıbeli Deresi inAyıbeli Obası . It is very interesting that the springs of its arms are very close to each other as to be reached nearly in one hour by foot. The source of the longer arm looks like triangular area which is used as the borders of three districts:Espiye ,Alucra andTorul . Firstly it goes to northeast direction passing throughBeytarla andSapmaz villages ofKürtün district ofGümüşhane province, then enters into Giresun borders again. After the two arms of the stream flow parallel for nearly 40-50 kilometers they aggregate as Gelevara afterArpacık village inGüce district adjacent toEspiye district. Gelevara flows down toBlack Sea in the east end ofEspiye town likeYağlıdere stream , its sister. On its mouth toBlack Sea there is a ferroconcrete bridge onD010 Highway connectingGiresun andTrabzon provinces.Gelevara stream has a high voluminous flow because the mountainous and forestry area of its headwaters and because it receives much rain during almost all seasons. The stream is mainly utilized as a sands deposit in building concrete constructions locally. Along its wonderful valley on the
Espiye -Ericek -Çakıl route you can explore beautiful slope scenes with the hills covered by the rich forests consisting of thousand species of wild trees, flowers and animals.Etymology
"Gelevara" (pronounced as ghe-lee-va-ra) is a Turkish derivative word consists of two verbs, "gelmek (to come in English)" and "varmak (to arrive in English"). It is officially and mostly called as
Gelevera Deresi in Turkish maps and documentaries there are some other local forms of its name likeÖzlüce , and some forms of folk dialects such asGelivera ,Gelivar ,Gelevera ,Gelevar ,Gelava , andGelenvar .Although Dr. Z. Cebeci interprets that it carries a meaning like "come and arrive in the sea" that was used by local people living in mountainous area in order to express their deep wishes to see beauties of the sea there are two other logical hypothesis about the origin of
Gelevera .In the article titled "
Gelivera, Kürtün " inTurkish Wikipedia , it is supposed that its name originates from "Gelivera", an old Greek village settlement (Sapmaz in present time) inKürtün district ofGümüşhane . In this article it is stated that "gelivera" is a joint word formed with "gali" and "vera" meaning "beautiful" and "ring" in modern Greek, respectively. According to the second hypothesis its name originates from daily movements of villagers on it. Since the longer arm of the stream passes through "Gelivera" village the inhabitants had frequently to go and come back between two parts of the village over it. Every day they were going and coming back between the sides of the stream. And then they defined the stream as the waterflow that must be stepped to go and come back. So in order to define their routinely go-come movement they used "gel" and "var" verbs of Turkish, and its name became "Gelevara" in the time.Issues with Gelevara
The stream is being polluted with solid wastes of
Espiye town . This serious environmental problem should be immediately solved with aid of some protection projects which will be operated by theEspiye Municipality . But any project needs the aid from international environmental organizations because the cost of recycling daily wastes of the town exceeds the income of the town municipality. At the same time the sand processing and excavations from the bed of the stream create sound pollution that fears the waterbirds and causes many other ecological problems. The existing freshwater flora and fauna is danger of extinction in the bed of the stream nearBlack Sea day to day. Also the sand excavation must be stopped to prevent the changes of natural scene and structure of the stream.Gelevara Song
Gelevara Deresi is also the title of a famousTurkish folk song. This song carrying the typical characteristics ofBlack Sea variety of Turkic regional folks is about melancholic love story that has been lived somewhere alongGelevara stream valley. Originally it is performed withkemençe (kemenche in English, pronounced as kae-man-che), a local music instrument ofBlack Sea region ofTurkey . This song with romantic notes about a dramatic love is recently remixed and performed byKazım Koyuncu , and became more popular due to his duet withŞevval Sam . He performs the song on his album "Hayde!".External links
* [http://www.espiye.bel.tr/galeri/data/media/1/8.jpgA nice view of Gelevara at the Web site of Espiye Municipality]
* [http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pushpin/ylw-pushpin.pngGoogle Map View of Gelevara]
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