, settlement_type = Town , subdivision_type =

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

, subdivision_name = , timezone =

EET "Eet" is a song from Regina Spektor's fifth studio album, ''Far (album), Far''. It was released as the album's second official single in October 2009. In Europe it was released as a digital download on November 27, 2009. Music video A Viral vide ...

, utc_offset = +2 , map_caption = Location of Pazar, Rize within Turkey. , timezone_DST =

EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...

, utc_offset_DST = +3 , official_name = Pazar , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem = , blank_emblem_type = , image_map = Rize in Turkey.svg , subdivision_type1 =

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

, subdivision_name1 = Black Sea , subdivision_type2 =

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, subdivision_name2 = Rize , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Ahmet Basa , leader_party = AKP , area_footnotes = , area_blank1_title = District , area_blank1_km2 = , population_footnotes = , population_urban = , population_as_of = , population_blank1_title = District , population_blank1 = , population_density_blank1_km2 = auto , blank1_name =

Climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

, blank1_info = Cfb , elevation_m = 37 , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Turkey , postal_code_type =

Postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...

, postal_code = 53 , area_code = (0090)+ 464 , blank_info = 53 , blank_name = Licence plate , website = Pazar ( Laz and Georgian: ათინა, ''Atina''; el, Αθήνα, Athína) is a town and district of

Rize Province Rize Province ( tr, Rize ili) is a province of northeast Turkey, on the eastern Black Sea coast between Trabzon and Artvin. The province of Erzurum is to the south. It was formerly known as Lazistan, the designation of the term of Lazistan was o ...

in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

region of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, 37 km east of the city of

Rize Rize (Greek: ρίζα, Laz: რიზინი, Georgian: რიზე, , Ottoman Turkish: ريزه) is the capital city of Rize Province in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Rize is a typically Turkish provincial capital w ...

. The town contains many inhabitants of Laz and Georgian ancestries as well as other

peoples A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...

Etymology

The town was formerly named ''Atina'' (Αθήνα του Πόντου) and was renamed Pazar, meaning 'market', in 1928.

Geography

Pazar is a strip of

coast with high mountains running parallel to the coast inland. This coast has a mild climate with warm summers (22 °C in August) and cool winters (7 °C in January, it rarely snows on the coast), but very wet and humid, apart from the early summer (April–May–June) it rains heavily year round, with an average of 50 sunny days per year. The wind off the

is cold in autumn, warm and wet in summer. With all this rainfall the area is very green, and even more water is brought to the area by the many streams bringing rainwater and snowmelt down from the

mountains, including the Pazar River itself. This is a hilly district and the main economic activity is tea growing, plus some fishing, trade and light industry (tea processing) in the town of Pazar. Tea was first planted here in 1944 and there are now three factories in Pazar for processing the crop. 65% of arable land in Pazar is used for growing tea. Before tea was planted, citrus fruits and apples were grown here but this has mostly ceased now, apart from trees in family gardens, where people grow vegetables and keep poultry. There are small areas of tobacco, corn, potatoes and beans. Pazar has plenty of grazing land, including summer grazing in the high mountain pastures ('' yayla'' in Turkish) further up the

Fırtına River Fırtına or Peruma is one of the main water streams of Rize Province in the eastern Black Sea Region of Turkey. Its name is Turkish for "storm water". There is a group of more than 20 well-preserved Ottoman-era bridges over the Fırtına Deresi. ...

. At even higher altitudes efforts are being made to plant trees but it is hard to put roads through and manage a forest in these steep, high mountains. Today Pazar is a market town, and the centre of the local tea trade. Fishing was once a major activity and Pazar still has a fleet of small fishing boats although this is in decline as the Black Sea becomes polluted and the traditional

anchovies An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

flathead mullet The flathead grey mullet (''Mugil cephalus'') is an important food fish species in the mullet family Mugilidae. It is found in coastal tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. Its length is typically . It is known with numerous English name ...

red mullet Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

and other species are all in decline. Until tea was planted these districts at the far end of Turkey were all impoverished, losing generation after generation as migrant workers in Europe or Istanbul. Life is still a struggle and people still leave although now many return for the tea harvest in summer. Local handicrafts include basket-weaving and the hand-woven linen ''

Rize bezi Rize (Greek: ρίζα, Laz: რიზინი, Georgian: რიზე, , Ottoman Turkish: ريزه) is the capital city of Rize Province in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Rize is a typically Turkish provincial capital with ...

''. As in much of rural Turkey, women traditionally cover their heads, partly out tradition, partly from practical necessity as they are outside in the wind and rain.

Climate

Pazar has an oceanic climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Cfb''. The climate in this area is characterized by relatively high temperatures and evenly distributed precipitation throughout the year.

History

The first recorded occupation is the trading colony Αθήνα established here by the

Ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

Miletos Miletus (; gr, Μῑ́λητος, Mī́lētos; Hittite transcription ''Millawanda'' or ''Milawata'' (exonyms); la, Mīlētus; tr, Milet) was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander River in ...

in the 8th century BC. Along with the rest of what is now

, Athina then became part of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

and its successors the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and the Empire of Trebizond until it was brought into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

Mehmet II Mehmed II ( ota, محمد ثانى, translit=Meḥmed-i s̱ānī; tr, II. Mehmed, ; 30 March 14323 May 1481), commonly known as Mehmed the Conqueror ( ota, ابو الفتح, Ebū'l-fetḥ, lit=the Father of Conquest, links=no; tr, Fâtih Su ...

in 1461, although this coast was always vulnerable to pirates and threats of invaders from across the nearby

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

. Indeed, for two years during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Atina was occupied by

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Places of interest

* The watch tower, '' Kız Kalesi'' is on the sea front in Pazar.

Villages

Kalastas

References

External links

District governor's official website

Pazar town's web site
{{Authority control Populated places in Rize Province Populated coastal places in Turkey Laz settlements in Turkey