Trabzon

Bronze statue of Hermes, 2nd c. BC, found near Tabakhane bridge in the center of Trabzon. Displayed in Trabzon Museum.

Head and hand of a 2nd c. BC bronze statue of (possibly Anahit as) Aphrodite, found near Kelkit to the south of Trabzon province. On display in the British Museum.

Before the city was founded as a Greek colony the area was dominated by Colchians (west Georgian) and Chaldian (Anatolian) tribes. The Hayasa, who had been in conflict with the Central-Anatolian Hittites in the 14th century BC, are believed to have lived in the area south of Trabzon. Later Greek authors mentioned the Macrones and the Chalybes as native peoples. One of the dominant Caucasian groups to the east were the Laz, who were part of the monarchy of the Colchis, together with other related Georgian peoples.[13][14][15]

The city was founded in classical antiquity in 756 BC as Tραπεζούς (Trapezous), by Milesian traders from Sinope.[16] It was one of a number (about ten) of Milesian emporia or trading colonies along the shores of the Black Sea. Others included Abydos and Cyzicus in the Dardanelles, and nearby Kerasous. Like most Greek colonies, the city was a small enclave of Greek life, and not an empire unto its own, in the later European sense of the word. As a colony, Trapezous initially paid tribute to Sinope, but early banking (money-changing) activity is suggested to have occurred in the city already in the 4th century BC, according to a silver drachma coin from Trapezus in the British Museum, London. Cyrus the Great added the city to the Achaemenid Empire, and was possibly the first ruler to consolidate the eastern Black Sea region into a single political entity (a satrapy).

Thálatta! Thálatta! ("The Sea! The Sea!").
Trebizond was the first Greek city the Ten Thousand reached on their retreat from Persia. 19th c. illustration by Herman Vogel.

Trebizond's trade partners included the Mossynoeci. When Xenophon and the Ten Thousand mercenaries were fighting their way out of Persia, the first Greek city they reached was Trebizond (Xenophon, Anabasis, 5.5.10). The city and the local Mossynoeci had become estranged from the Mossynoecian capital, to the point of civil war. Xenophon's force resolved this in the rebels' favor, and so in Trebizond's interest.

Up until the conquests of Alexander the Great the city remained under the dominion of the Achaemenids. While the Pontus was not directly affected by the war, its cities gained independence as a result of it. Local ruling families continued to claim partial Persian heritage, and Persian culture had some lasting influence on the city; the holy springs of Mt. Minthrion to the east of the old town were devoted to the Persian-Anatolian Greek god Mithra. In the 2nd century BC, the city with its natural harbours was added to the Kingdom of Pontus by Pharnaces I. Mithridates VI Eupator made it the home port of the Pontic fleet, in his quest to remove the Romans from Anatolia.

After the defeat of Mithridates in 66 BC, the city was first handed to the Galatians, but it was soon returned to the grandson of Mithradates, and subsequently became part of the new client Kingdom of Pontus. When the kingdom was finally annexed to the Roman province of Galatia two centuries later, the fleet passed to new commanders, becoming the Classis Pontica. The city received the status of civitas libera, extending its judicial autonomy and the right to mint its own coin. Trebizond gained importance for its access to roads leading over the Zigana Pass to the Armenian frontier or the upper Euphrates valley. New roads were constructed from Persia and Mesopotamia under the rule of Vespasian. In the next century, the emperor Hadrian commissioned improvements to give the city a more structured harbor.[17] The emperor visited the city in the year 129 as part of his inspection of the eastern border (limes). A mithraeum now serves as a crypt for the church and monastery of Panagia Theoskepastos (Kızlar Manastırı) in nearby Kizlara, east of the citadel and south of the modern harbor.

Martyrdom of Eugenius, Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila. Work dated to 985, Vatican Library.

Parts of the city walls of Trabzon and the Eugenius Aqueduct are among the oldest remaining structures in the city.

Septimius Severus punished Trebizond for having supported his rival Pescennius Niger during the Year of the Five Emperors. In 257 the city was pillaged by the Goths, despite reportedly being defended by "10,000 above its usual garrison" and two bands of walls.[17] Trebizond was subsequently rebuilt, pillaged again, by the Persians, in 258, and then rebuilt once more. It did not soon recover. Only in the reign of Diocletian does an inscription allude to the restoration of the city; Ammianus Marcellinus had nothing to say of Trebizond except that it was "not an obscure town."

Christianity had reached Trebizond by the third century, for during the reign of Diocletian occurred the martyrdom of Eugenius and his associates Candidius, Valerian, and Aquila.[18] Eugenius had destroyed the statue of Mithras which overlooked the city from Mount Minthrion (Boztepe), and became the patron saint of the city after his death. Early Christians sought refuge in the Pontic Mountains south of the city, where they established Vazelon Monastery in 270 AD and Sumela Monastery in 386 AD. As early as the First Council of Nicea, Trebizond had its own bishop.[19] Subsequently, the Bishop of Trebizond was subordinated to the Metropolitan Bishop of Poti.[19] Then during the 9th century, Trebizond itself became the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop of Lazica.[19]

Saint Anne Church, to the east of the walled city, is the oldest church in the city, possibly dating back to the 6th or 7th century.

The 10th-century cathedral Panaghia Chrysokephalos (now Fatih Mosque), the most impressive Byzantine building in the city

By the time of Justinian, the city served as an important base in his Persian Wars, and Miller notes that a portrait of the general Belisarius "long adorned the church of St. Basil."[20] An inscription above the eastern gate of the city, commemorated the reconstruction of the civic walls at Justinian's expense following an earthquake.[20] At some point before the 7th century the university (Pandidakterion) of the city was reestablished with a quadrivium curriculum. The university drew students not just from the Byzantine Empire, but from Armenia as well.[21]

The city regained importance when it became the seat of the theme of Chaldia. Trebizond also benefited when the trade route regained importance in the 8th to 10th centuries; 10th-century Muslim authors note that Trebizond was frequented by Muslim merchants, as the main source transshipping Byzantine silks into eastern Muslim countries.[22] According to the 10th century Arab geographer Abul Feda it was regarded as being largely a Lazian port. The Italian maritime republics such as the Republic of Venice and in particular the Republic of Genoa were active in the Black Sea trade for centuries, using Trebizond as an important seaport for trading goods between Europe and Asia.[4] Some of the Silk Road caravans carrying goods from Asia stopped at the port of Trebizond, where the European merchants purchased these goods and carried them to the port cities of Europe with ships. This trade provided a source of revenue to the state in the form of custom duties, or kommerkiaroi, levied on the goods sold in Trebizond.[23] The Greeks protected the coastal and inland trade routes with a vast network of garrison forts.[24]

Following the Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Trebizond came under Seljuk rule. This rule proved transient when an expert soldier and local aristocrat, Theodore Gabras took control of the city from the Turkish invaders, and regarded Trebizond, in the words of Anna Comnena, "as a prize which had fallen to his own lot" and ruled it as his own kingdom.[25] Supporting Comnena's assertion, Simon Bendall has identified a group of rare coins he believes was minted by Gabras and his successors.[26] Although he was killed by the Turks in 1098, other members of his family continued his de facto independent rule into the next century.

The Empire of Trebizond was formed after Georgian expedition in Chaldia,[27] commanded by Alexios Komnenos a few weeks before the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Located at the far northeastern corner of Anatolia, it was the longest surviving of the Byzantine successor states. Byzantine authors, such as Pachymeres, and to some extent Trapezuntines such as Lazaropoulos and Bessarion, regarded the Trebizond Empire as being no more than a Lazian border state. Thus from the point of view of the Byzantine writers connected with the Lascaris and later with the Palaiologos, the rulers of Trebizond were not emperors.[28][29]

Hagia Sophia
(now Ayasofya mosque & museum)

Hagios Eugenios
(now Yeni Cuma Mosque)

The young empire required new buildings to honor its name. Their architectural style differs from previous Byzantine architecture, while still retaining many features. Caucasian and Eastern Anatolian influences are especially evident in Hagia Sophia.

Fresco of Alexios III between his wife and mother at the Panagia Theoskepastos Monastery, as drawn by Charles Texier

Geographically, the Empire of Trebizond consisted of little more than a narrow strip along the southern coast of the Black Sea, and not much further inland than the Pontic Mountains. However, the city gained great wealth from the taxes it levied on the goods traded between Persia and Europe via the Black Sea. The Mongol siege of Baghdad in 1258 diverted more trade caravans towards the city. Genoese and to a lesser extent Venetian traders regularly came to Trebizond. To secure their part of the Black Sea trade, the Genoese bought the coastal fortification "Leonkastron", just west of the winter harbour, in the year 1306. The Venetians likewise built a trading outpost in the city, a few hundred meters to the west of the Genoese. In between these two Italian colonies settled many other European traders, and it thus became known as the "European Quarter". Small groups of Italians continued to live in the city until the early decades of the 20th century. One of the most famous persons to have visited the city in this period was Marco Polo, who ended his overland return journey at the port of Trebizond, and sailed to his hometown Venice with a ship; passing by Constantinople (Istanbul) on the way, which was retaken by the Byzantines in 1261.

Fantastical depiction of Trebizond by Pisanello in a fresco of the Sant'Anastasia church in Verona, painted between 1436 and 1438

Together with Persian goods, Italian traders brought stories about the city to Western Europe. Trebizond played a mythical role in European literature of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Miguel de Cervantes and François Rabelais gave their protagonists the desire to possess the city.[30] Next to literature, the legendary history of the city – and that of the Pontus in general – also influenced the creation of paintings, theatre plays and operas in Western Europe throughout the following centuries.

The city also played a role in the early Renaissance; The western takeover of Constantinople, which formalized Trebizond's political independence, also led Byzantine intellectuals to seek refuge in the city. Especially Alexios II of Trebizond and his grandson Alexios III were patrons of the arts and sciences. After the great city fire of 1310, the ruined university was reestablished. As part of the university Gregory Choniades opened a new academy of astronomy, which housed the best observatory outside Persia. Choniades brought with him the works of Shams al-Din al-Bukhari,[31] Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini from Tabriz, which he translated into Greek. These works later found their way to western Europe, together with the astrolabe. The observatory Choniades built would become known for its accurate solar eclipse predictions, but was probably used mostly for astrological purposes for the emperor and/or the church.[32] Scientists and philosophers of Trebizond were among the first western thinkers to compare contemporaneous theories with classical Greek texts. Basilios Bessarion and George of Trebizond travelled to Italy and taught and published works on Plato and Aristotle, starting a fierce debate and literary tradition that continues to this day on the topic of national identity and global citizenship. They were so influential that Bessarion was considered for the position of Pope, and George could survive as an academic even after being defamed for his heavy criticism of Plato.

The Black Death arrived at the city in September 1347, probably via Kaffa. At that time the local aristocracy was engaged in the Trapezuntine Civil War.

In 1340, Tur Ali Beg, early ancestor of the Aq Qoyunlu raided Trebizond. In 1348, he besieged Trebizond, however he failed and lifted the siege. Later on, Alexios III of Trebizond gave his sister to Kutlu Beg son of Tur Ali Beg, and established a kinship with them.[33]

Constantinople remained the Byzantine capital until it was conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, who also conquered Trebizond eight years later, in 1461.

Its demographic legacy endured for several centuries after the Ottoman conquest in 1461, as a substantial number of Greek Orthodox inhabitants, usually referred to as Pontic Greeks, continued to live in the area during Ottoman rule, up until 1923, when they were deported to Greece. A few thousand Greek Muslims still live in the area, mostly in the Çaykara-Of dialectical region to the southeast of Trabzon. Most are Sunni Muslim, while there are some recent converts in the city and possibly a few Crypto-Christians in the Tonya/Gümüşhane area to the southwest of the city. Compared to most previously Greek cities in Turkey, a large amount of its Greek Byzantine architectural heritage survives as well.

The Cassone with the 'Conquest of Trebizond' by Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Painted just after the fall of the city, it depicts Trebizond as being equal to Constantinople (at the far left). Even the battle displayed in between the two cities was mostly a fantasy. The city held a legendary place in Western European literature and thought throughout the late medieval period and the renaissance, with a lasting influence that can be felt even to present times.

The first known plan of Trebizond, drawn around 1604–1610 by Julien Bordier. Many characteristics of the city can be recognized: the two streams dividing the central core, the separately walled quarters, the Genoese town next to the winter harbour, Haghia Sophia at the bottom right, and Boztepe hill at the top left.

The first city-view of Trebizond, published by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort after a drawing by himself or his assistant Claude Aubriet during a visit in 1701. The view shows the city from Haghia Sophia in the distance all the way to the winter harbour. The drawing was made from Boztepe, which is still the most popular place to view the city.

The last Emperor of Trebizond, David, surrendered the city to Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1461.[34] Following this takeover, Mehmed II sent many Turkish settlers into the area, but the old ethnic Greek, Laz and Armenian communities remained. According to the Ottoman tax books (tahrir defterleri), the total population of taxable adult males (only those with a household) in the city was 1,473 in the year 1523.[35] The total population of the city was much higher. Approximately 85% of the population was Christian, and 15% Muslim. Thirteen percent of the adult males belonged to the Armenian community, while the vast majority of Christians were Greeks.[35] However, a significant portion of the local Christians were Islamized by the end of the 17th century - especially those outside the city - according to a research by Prof. Halil İnalcık on the Ottoman tax books (tahrir defterleri). Between 1461 and 1598 Trabzon remained the administrative center of the wider region; first as 'sanjac center' of Rum Eyalet, later of Erzincan-Bayburt eyalet, Anadolu Eyalet, and Erzurum Eyalet.[36]

In 1598 it became the capital of its own province - the Eyalet of Trebizond - which in 1867 became the Vilayet of Trebizond. During the reign of Sultan Bayezid II, his son Prince Selim (later Sultan Selim I) was the Sanjak-bey of Trabzon, and Selim I's son Suleiman the Magnificent was born in Trabzon in 1494. The Ottoman government often appointed local Chepni Turks and Laz beys as the regional beylerbey. It is also recorded that some Bosniaks were appointed by the Sublime Porte as the regional beylerbeys in Trabzon. The Eyalet of Trabzon had always sent troops for the Ottoman campaigns in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Trebizond Meydan around 1868, Dmitri Ivanovich Yermakov

Men and woman gathered for the funeral of an Armenian cleric. Hatchik Tcholakian, 1892.

Trebizond had a wealthy merchant class during the late Ottoman period, and the local Christian minority had a substantial influence in terms of culture, economy and politics. A number of European consulates were opened in the city due to its importance in regional trade and commerce. In the first half of the 19th century, Trebizond even became the main port for Persian exports. The opening of the Suez Canal greatly diminished the international trading position of the city, but did not halt the economic development of the region. In the last decades of the 19th century, the city saw some demographic changes. As the population of the province greatly expanded due to increased living standards, many families and young men - mostly Christians, but also some Jews and Greek or Turkish speaking Muslims - chose to migrate to the Crimea and southern Ukraine, in search for farmland or employment in one of the cities which had been newly established there. Among these migrants were the grandparents of Bob Dylan[37] and Greek politicians and artists. Many Christian and Muslim families from Trabzon also moved to Constantinople, where they established businesses or sought employment - such as the grandfather of Ahmet Ertegün. These migrants were active in a wide range of trades including baking, confection, tailoring, carpentry, education, advocacy, politics and administration. The influence of this diaspora has since continued, and can still be seen in the many restaurants and shops in cities around the Black Sea in the 21st century such as in Istanbul, Odesa and Mariupol. At the same time, thousands of Muslim refugees from the Caucasus arrived in the city, especially after 1864, in what is known as the Circassian genocide.

Next to Constantinople, Smyrna (now Izmir) and Salonika (now Thessaloniki), Trebizond was one of the cities where western cultural and technological innovations were first introduced to the Ottoman Empire. In 1835, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions opened the Trebizond Mission station that it occupied from 1835 to 1859 and from 1882 to at least 1892.[38] Hundreds of schools were constructed in the province during the first half of the 19th century, giving the region one of the highest literacy rates of the empire. First, the Greek community set up their schools, but soon the Muslim and Armenian communities followed. International schools were also established in the city; An American school, five French schools, a Persian school and a number of Italian schools were opened in the second half of the 19th century.[39] The city got a post office in 1845. New churches and mosques were built in the second half of the 19th century, as well as the first theater, public and private printing houses, multiple photo studios and banks. The oldest known photographs of the city center date from the 1860s and depict one of the last camel trains from Persia.

Between one and two thousand Armenians are believed to have been killed in the Trebizond vilayet during the Hamidian massacres of 1895. While this number was low in comparison to other Ottoman provinces, its impact on the Armenian community in the city was large. Many prominent Armenian residents, among them scholars, musicians, photographers and painters, decided to migrate towards the Russian Empire or France. The large Greek population of the city was not affected by the massacre.[40] Ivan Aivazovsky made the painting Massacre of the Armenians in Trebizond 1895 based on the events.[41] Due to the high number of Western Europeans in the city, news from the region was being reported on in many European newspapers. These western newspapers were in turn also very popular among the residents of the city.

Ottoman era paintings and drawings of Trebizond

• 
  Trebizond from the sea by Ivan Aivazovsky
• 
  Engraving of the port at Çömlekçi by C. Lapante
• 
  Trebizond by Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager
• 
  Trebizond from the sea by Y.M. Tadevossian
• 
  Trebizond from the south by Godfrey Vigne
• 
  The quarantine station by Jules Laurens
• 
  Street view by Nikolay Lanceray

Lithograph of Trebizond from the sea by the Dickinson Brothers of London, 1853. It shows the city from 'Khonsi point' at the left to Platana (Akçaabat) at the right. This is the first impression most western travellers got of the city (in good weather) until the second half of the 20th century.

A theater performance in Trebizond c. 1900

The Philharmonic orchestra of Trebizond

Operating room of the Acriteon Hospital

In 1901 the harbour was equipped with cranes by Stothert & Pitt of Bath in England. In 1912 the Sümer Opera House was opened on the central Meydan square, being one of the first in the empire. The start of the First World War brought an abrupt end to the relatively peaceful and prosperous period the city had seen during the previous century. First Trebizond would lose many of its young male citizens at the Battle of Sarikamish in the winter of 1914–15, while during those same months the Russian navy bombarded the city a total of five times, taking 1300[42] lives. Especially the port quarter Çömlekçi and surrounding neighborhoods were targeted.

In July 1915 most of the adult male Armenians of the city were marched off south in five convoys, towards the mines of Gümüşhane, never to be seen again. Other victims of the Armenian genocide were reportedly taken out to sea in boats which were then capsized.[43][44] In some areas of Trebizond province - such as the Karadere river valley in modern-day Araklı, 25 kilometers east of the city - the local Muslim population tried to protect the Christian Armenians.[45]

The coastal region between the city and the Russian frontier became the site of key battles between the Ottoman and Russian armies during the Trebizond Campaign, as part of the Caucasus Campaign of World War I. The Russian army landed at Atina, east of Rize on March 4, 1916. Lazistan Sanjak fell within two days. However, due to heavy guerrilla resistance around Of and Çaykara some 50 km to the east of Trabzon, it took a further 40 days for the Russian army to advance west.[46] The Ottoman administration of Trabzon foresaw the fall of the city and called for a meeting with community leaders, where they handed control of the city to Greek metropolitan bishop Chrysantos Philippidis. Chrysantos promised to protect the Muslim population of the city. Ottoman forces retreated from Trabzon, and on April 15 the city was taken without a fight by the Russian Caucasus Army under command of Grand Duke Nicholas and Nikolai Yudenich. There was also a massacre of Armenians and Greeks in Trabzon just before the Russian takeover of the city.[47] Many adult Turkish males left the city out of fear for reprisals, even though governor Chrysantos included them in his administration. According to some sources the Russians banned Muslim mosques, and forced Turks, who were the largest ethnic group living in the city, to leave Trabzon.[48] However, already during the Russian occupation many Turks who had fled to surrounding villages started to return to the city, and governor Chrysantos helped them to re-establish their facilities such as schools, to the dismay of the Russians. In early 1917 Chrysantos tried to broker a peace between the Russians and the Ottomans, to no avail. During the Russian Revolution of 1917 Russian soldiers in the city turned to rioting and looting, with officers commandeering Trebizonian ships to flee the scene. Governor Chrysantos was able to calm the Russian soldiers down, and the Russian Army ultimately retreated from the city and the rest of eastern and northeastern Anatolia. In March and April of 1918 the city hosted the Trebizond Peace Conference, where the Ottomans agreed to give up their military gains in the Caucasus in return for recognition of the eastern borders of the empire in Anatolia by the Transcaucasian Seim (a short-lived transcaucasian government). In December 1918 Trabzon deputy governor Hafız Mehmet gave a speech at the Ottoman parliament in which he blamed the former governor of Trebizond province Cemal Azmi – a non-native appointee who had fled to Germany after the Russian invasion – for orchestrating the Armenian Genocide in the city in 1915, by means of drowning. Subsequently, a series of war crimes trials were held in Trebizond in early 1919 (see Trebizond during the Armenian Genocide). Among others, Cemal Azmi was sentenced to death in absentia.

Chrysanthos Philippidis, metropolitan and governor of Trabzon during part of the First World War. He protected the local population, regardless of religion or ethnicity.

Ali Şükrü Bey, publisher and politician from Trabzon who opposed violence against ethnic minorities and paid the ultimate price for his criticism of Mustafa Kemal

During the Turkish War of Independence several Christian Pontic Greek communities in the Trebizond province rebelled against the new army of Mustafa Kemal (notably in Bafra and Santa), but when nationalist Greeks came to Trabzon to proclaim revolution, they were not received with open arms by the local Pontic Greek population of the city. At the same time the Muslim population of the city, remembering their protection under Greek governor Chrysantos, protested the arrest of prominent Christians. Liberal delegates of Trebizond opposed the election of Mustafa Kemal as the leader of the Turkish revolution at the Erzurum Congress. The governor and mayor of Trebizond were appalled by the violence against Ottoman Greek subjects,[49] and the government of Trabzon thus refused arms to Mustafa Kemal's henchman Topal Osman, who was responsible for mass murders in the western Pontus which were part of the Greek Genocide. Osman was forced out of the city by armed Turkish port-workers.[50] Governor Chrysantos travelled to the Paris Peace Conference, where he proposed the establishment of the Republic of Pontus, which would protect its different ethnic groups. For this he was condemned to death by the Turkish Nationalist forces, and he could not return to his post in Trebizond. Instead, the city was to be handed to 'Wilsonian Armenia', which likewise never materialized. Following the war, the Treaty of Sèvres was annulled and replaced with the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). As part of this new treaty, Trebizond became part of the new Turkish Republic. The efforts of the pro-Ottoman, anti-nationalist population of Trebizond only postponed the inevitable, because the national governments of Turkey and Greece agreed to a mutual forced population exchange. This exchange included well over one hundred thousand Greeks from Trebizond and the vicinity, to the relatively new Greek state.[51] During the war Trebizond parliamentarian Ali Şükrü Bey had been one of the leading figures of the first Turkish opposition party. In his newspaper Tan, Şükrü and colleagues publicized critiques of the Kemalist government, such as towards the violence perpetrated against Greeks during the population exchange. Şükrü argued that recognition of ethnic diversity was not a threat to the Turkish nation.

Uzun Sokak, a pedestrianized shopping street

Atatürk Alani at Meydan square in Taksim (central Trabzon)

Topal Osman's men would eventually murder parliamentarian Şükrü for his criticism of the nationalist government of Mustafa Kemal in March 1923. Topal Osman was later sentenced to death and killed while resisting arrest. After pressure from the opposition, his headless body was hanged by his foot in front of the Turkish parliament. Ali Şükrü Bey, who had studied in Deniz Harp Okulu (Turkish Naval Academy) and worked as a journalist in the United Kingdom, is seen as a hero by the people of Trabzon, while in neighboring Giresun there is a statue of his murderer Topal Osman. Three years later Trabzon deputy Hafız Mehmet - who had testified to his knowledge of, and opposition to, the Armenian Genocide - was also executed, for his alleged involvement in the İzmir plot to assassinate Mustafa Kemal. The literal decapitation of the Turkish political opposition - which was in large part based in the Trabzon region - decreased the city's national influence, and led to a long-standing animosity between the Kemalists and the population of Trabzon. A political and cultural divide between the Eastern Black Sea Region and the rest of Anatolia continued to exist throughout the 20th century, and still influences Turkish politics today. Even in the 21st century, politicians who hail from Trabzon are often faced with xenophobic attacks from both nationalist and conservative circles.

During World War II shipping activity was limited because the Black Sea had again become a war zone. Hence, the most important export products, tobacco and hazelnuts, could not be sold and living standards degraded.

As a result of the general development of the country, Trabzon has developed its economic and commercial life. The coastal highway and a new harbour have increased commercial relations with central Anatolia, which has led to some growth. However, progress has been slow in comparison to the western and the southwestern parts of Turkey.

Trabzon is famous throughout Turkey for its anchovies called hamsi, which are the main meal in many restaurants in the city. Major exports from Trabzon include hazelnuts and tea.

The city still has a sizable community of Greek-speaking Muslims, most of whom are originally from the vicinities of Tonya, Sürmene and Çaykara. However, the variety of the Pontic Greek language - known as "Romeika" in the local vernacular, Pontiaka in Greek, and Rumca in Turkish - is spoken mostly by the older generations.[52]

Trabzon has a climate typical of the eastern Black Sea region, a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa, Trewartha: Cf) near the coast.[53] A very small percentage of the province can be classified as subtropical, however, as slightly elevated rural areas near the coast are oceanic (Cfb/Do), the mountainous offshores are humid continental (Dfb/Dc) and subarctic (Dfc/Eo); and tundra (ET/Ft) can be found in the peaks of the Pontic Alps. Furthermore, during the time the Köppen climate classification was created, the city center had a borderline oceanic-humid subtropical climate, falling just under the 22 °C (72 °F) threshold for the hottest month of the year, yet climate change and the city's urban heat island contributed to its reclassification as humid subtropical in recent decades. This and the fact that the subtropical microclimate zone along the shore occupies a very narrow band due to the continuous parallel mountain range starting right at the coast is why local authorities still classify the city as oceanic, as this climate subtype is better representative of the entire coastal region of the province.[54][55]

Summers are warm, the average maximum temperature is around 28 °C (82 °F) in August, while winters are generally cool, the lowest average minimum temperature is almost 5 °C (41 °F) in February. Precipitation is heaviest in autumn and winter, with a marked reduction in the summer months, a microclimatic condition of the city center compared to the rest of the region.[56] Snowfall is somewhat common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two, and it can be heavy once it snows.

The water temperature, like in the rest of the Black Sea coast of Turkey, is generally mild, and fluctuates between 8 °C (46 °F) and 20 °C (68 °F) throughout the year.

Trebizond was an overwhelmingly Christian and Greek city at the time of its fall to the Ottomans in 1461. The Greek Christians slowly lost their majority through the end of that century. Initially, the Muslims were mainly immigrants from Anatolia with a minority of local converts, but this quickly changed with the emergence of an active missionary spirit in the 16th century, as mosques and dervish lodges were built in predominantly Christian neighborhoods.[66]

Laz men from Trebizond, 1910s

Bessarion was born in Trebizond on January 2, 1403. He was one of the illustrious Greek scholars who contributed to the Renaissance in Western Europe in the 15th century.

Suleiman the Magnificent was born in Trebizond on November 6, 1494. He was one of the greatest emperors in history and vastly enlarged the territories of the Ottoman Empire, which became one of the world's leading superpowers in the 16th century, together with its arch-rival in the Mediterranean, the Spanish Empire. Portrait after Titian in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Laz people also live in Trabzon. Numerous villages inside and out of Trabzon of the Laz date back as early as the period of Queen Tamar's rule (Georgian: თამარი, also transliterated as T'amar or Thamar; c. 1160 – 18 January 1213) in the newly unified Kingdom of Georgia. During the Queen's rule, sizeable groups of immigrating Georgians moved to Trabzon where they continue to preserve their native tongue. There was an Armenian community in Trebizond as early as the 7th century.[67]

During the 13th and 14th centuries, numerous Armenian families migrated there from Ani.[67] Robert W. Edwards published part of an early 15th-century diary from the Castilian ambassador who visited Trabzon and compared the churches of the Greek and Armenian communities.[68] It was stated by the ambassador that the Armenians, who were not well-liked by the Greeks, had a population large enough to support a resident bishop. According to Ronald C. Jennings, in the early 16th century, Armenians made up approximately 13 percent[69] of the city's population.[70] At present, Trabzon does not have an Armenian-speaking community.

The Chepni people, a tribe of Oghuz Turks who played an important role in the history of the eastern Black Sea area in the 13th and 14th centuries, live in the Şalpazarı (Ağasar valley) region of the Trabzon Province.[71] Very little has been written on the Turkification of the area. There are no historical records of any considerable Turkish-speaking groups in the Trabzon area until the late 15th century, with the exception of the Chepnis. The original Greek (and in some regions Armenian) speakers imposed features from their mother language into the Turkish spoken in the region. Heath W. Lowry's[72] work with Halil İnalcık on Ottoman tax books (Tahrir Defteri)[73] provides detailed demographic statistics for the city of Trabzon and its surrounding areas during the Ottoman period.

It is possible that the majority of the population of Trabzon and Rize (and other ancient Greek colonies in the Pontus region) — except up to the time of the Chepni Turk immigration waves — consisted of indigenous Caucasian tribes (the Colchians and the Laz) who had been partly Hellenized religiously and linguistically.[74] Michael Meeker stresses the cultural resemblances (e.g. in village structure, house types, and pastoral techniques) between the Eastern Black Sea coast and the areas in the Caucasus proper.[75]

Trabzon is twinned with:[81]