Trabzon
Created | Updated Oct 4, 2012
Trabzon is located on the misty Black Sea coast. It is famed for being the greenest part of Turkey. Mention Trabzon to Turks from elsewhere in Turkey and you're likely to get an interesting reaction. Trabzon people are reputed to be among the most conservative, and hotblooded, in Turkey, a sort of breed of Turkish rednecks.
Today Trabzon is a port linking north-eastern Turkey to towns in Russia and the Ukraine. It's also home to the Black Sea Technical University. It used to be part of the Greek Pontus Empire, and was visited by St Andrew, one of Jesus's apostles and patron saint of Russia and Greece among other countries (eg. Scotland). During the Crimean War, Trabzon served as the location of a hospital for British troops . Nowadays it boasts one of the top association football teams in the Turkish Republic, the only one outside of Istanbul ever to have won the Turkish league, and whose home kit resembles that of Barcelona.
This part of Turkey is known as the Wild East. Shootings are not uncommon. Gunfire is routinely heard as a way of celebrating Trabzonspor's successes on the football field. The English player Kevin Campbell once played for Trabzonspor, although his stay was short-lived. He objected when the club president called him a "discoloured cannibal" - a reference to Campbell's being Trabzonspor's first black player - and also criticised him by saying "We bought him as a goal machine, but he turned out to be a washing machine". Not surprisingly Kevin Campbell, who was well-liked by his team-mates, took umbrage at being described as a 'yamyam' (cannibal), and left the club.
Since the end of the cold war the town has been a popular destination for prostitutes from what was the Soviet Union. These ladies are known locally as "Natashalar", or Natashas. In the late 1990s the town's Roman Catholic priest was endeavouring to establish a ministry to help the Natashas. He wanted to provide them with another form of employment, an alternative to the sex trade. But then he decided he had made a mistake in his calling and left the Church to marry a woman he had known in his native Germany, whom he really loved. Unfortunately his successor was shot dead at point blank range by a local teenager.
The main industry in the area is the production of hazelnuts. Astonishingly, 93 percent of the world's hazelnuts are produced in Turkey.
Incidentally, should you ever come to Trabzon, Uzungol (Long Lake), Aya Sofia in Trabzon, and Sumela Monastery are highly recommended as places to visit.
Uzungol is a lake located high up in the mountains. It's quite a trek to get up there, but once you reach it the views are amazing, and you can eat fish (I think they're trout) from the lake at the lakeside hostelry. Aya Sofia is a very early church on the edge of the town with early Christian artwork and great views.
Sumela monastery is hewn out of the mountainside rocks, and is another place that requires a trek up a mountain.
