Tortum (; ; ) is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Erzurum Province Erzurum Province () is a province and metropolitan municipality in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Its area is 25,006 km2, and its population is 749,754 (2022). The capital of the province is the city of Erzurum. It is the fourth lar ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its area is 1,463 km², and its population is 15,259 (2022). The current mayor is Muammer Yiğider from the

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

(AKP).

History

Tortum was part of the area known as Diaueni, Tayk or Tao and was ruled by

Hayasa-Azzi Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa (, ) was a Late Bronze Age confederation in the Armenian Highlands and/or Pontic region of Asia Minor. The Hayasa-Azzi confederation was in conflict with the Hittite Empire in the 14th century BC, leading up to the ...

ans,

Diauehi Diauehi (Modern ka, დიაოხი , Urartian ''Diauehi'', Greek ''Taochoi'', Armenian '' Tayk'', possibly Assyrian ''Daiaeni'') was a tribal union located in northeastern Anatolia, that was recorded in Assyrian and Urartian sources dur ...

Urartians Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...

Iberians The Iberians (, from , ''Iberes'') were an ancient people settled in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. They are described in Greek and Roman sources (among others, by Hecataeus of Mil ...

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

and Byzantines. Tortum was a part of some proto-Armenian states (Hayasa-Azzi; Urartu), proto-Georgian

Kingdom of Iberia In Greco-Roman geography, Iberia (Ancient Greek: ''Iberia''; ; Parthian: ; Middle Persian: ) was an exonym for the Georgian kingdom of Kartli or Iveria ( or ), known after its core province. The kingdom existed during Classical Antiquity and ...

(4th - 2nd centuries BC) and Kingdom of Greater Armenia (2nd century BC - 5th century). Between the 9th and 16th century it was part of the

Kingdom of the Iberians The Kingdom of the Iberians ( ka, ქართველთა სამეფო, tr) was a medieval Georgia (country), Georgian monarchy under the Bagrationi dynasty which emerged circa 888 Anno Domini, AD, succeeding the Principality of Iberi ...

Kingdom of Georgia The Kingdom of Georgia (), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a Middle Ages, medieval Eurasian monarchy that was founded in Anno Domini, AD. It reached Georgian Golden Age, its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign ...

and Georgian principality of

Samtskhe-Saatabago The Samtskhe-Saatabago or Samtskhe Atabegate ( ka, სამცხე-საათაბაგო), also called the Principality of Samtskhe (სამცხის სამთავრო), was a Georgian feudal principality in Zemo Kartli, rul ...

. It was first an Ottoman vassal in the early 16th century and was annexed in 1550. The area of Tortum was contested by the Safavids and the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in the 16th-17th century but remained Ottoman after 1625. Georgians and Armenians made up the vast majority of the population in Tortum. During Georgian rule, half of the ethnic Armenian population became Chalcedonians and joined the Georgian Orthodox church, while the rest of the Armenians remained part of the Armenian church. Armenian cleric Hakop Karnetsi recorded in the 1650s that a man named Mullah Jaffar took census and placed heavy taxes in the region, causing the Armenian Chalcedonians to convert en-masse to Islam. Tortum was a sanjak in

Erzurum Eyalet The Erzurum Eyalet () was an eyalet of the Ottoman Empire. It was established after the conquest of Western Armenia by the Ottoman Empire. Its reported area in the 19th century was . History The eyalet was established in 1533. Early in the 17th c ...

. The region was in the early Ottoman period largely Christian but acquired a Muslim majority in the mid 18th century, as the Georgian population fled to the inner provinces of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. During World War I, Ottoman troops crossed Tortum in the disastrous

Battle of Sarikamish The Battle of Sarikamish was an engagement between the Russian Empire, Russian and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empires during World War I. It took place from December 22, 1914, to January 17, 1915, as part of the Caucasus campaign. The battle resul ...

. Then the Russians occupied the town and held it between 1915 and 1917. After the February revolution of 1917 they left it to the Armenians. The Ottoman army advanced some time later and captured Tortum on 16 March 1918. The town has a ruined citadel. The Muslim Armenians continued to speak Armenian well into early the 19th century when they were Turkified.

Climate

Economy

As of 1920, Tortum was producing

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

Composition

There are 58

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Tortum District:Mahalle
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 12 July 2023. * Akbaba * Aksu * Aktaş * Alapınar * Alpaslan * Arılı * Aşağı Serdarlı * Bağbaşı * Bahçeli * Ballı * Çakıllı * Çamlıca * Çardaklı * Çataldere * Çaylıca * Çiftlik * Cihanlı * Çivilikaya * Demirciler * Derekapı * Derinpınar * Dikmen * Doruklu * Esendurak * Gökdere * Hamidiye * İncedere * Kaleboynu * Kaledibi * Kapıkaya * Karlı * Kazandere * Kemerkaya * Kireçli * Kırmalı * Konak * Meydanlar * Pehlivanlı * Peynirli * Şenyurt * Serdarlı * Sögütlü * Suyatağı * Taşbaşı * Taşoluk * Tatlısu * Tipili * Tortumkale * Uzunkavak * Vişneli * Yağcılar * Yamankaya * Yavuz Sultan Selim * Yazyurdu * Yellitepe * Yukarı Sivri * Yumaklı * Ziyaretli

References

External links