The Black Sea region's population is 8,439,213 based on the 2010 census. 4,137,166 people live in cities and 4,301,747 people in villages. This makes it the only one of the seven regions of Turkey in which more people live in rural rather than urban areas.
Though the overwhelming majority is Turkish, the east of the region is also inhabited by theLaz, a people who speak aKartvelian language which is closely related toGeorgian and converted toIslam fromGeorgian Orthodoxy in the late Ottoman period as well as MuslimGeorgians, also theHemsin, Armenian converts to Islam, andPontic Greeks, who converted to Islam in the 17th century.[citation needed] While a large community (around 25% of the population) ofChristian Pontic Greeks[2] remained throughout thePontus area (includingTrabzon andKars in northeastern Turkey/the Russian Caucasus) until the 1920s, and in parts of Georgia and Armenia until the 2010s, preserving their own customs anddialect of Greek, the vast majority have since left, mainly to Greece. However, most Muslim Pontic Greeks remained in Turkey.
The Black Sea region has a steep, rocky coast with rivers that cascade through the gorges of the coastal ranges. A few larger rivers, those cutting back through thePontic Mountains (Doğu Karadeniz Dağları), have tributaries that flow in broad, elevated basins. Access inland from the coast is limited to a few narrow valleys because mountain ridges, with elevations of 1,525 to 1,800 meters in the west and 3,000 to 4,000 meters in the east inKaçkar Mountains, form an almost unbroken wall separating the coast from the interior. The higher slopes facing northwest tend to be densely forested. Because of these natural conditions, theBlack Sea coast historically has been isolated fromAnatolia.
The mild, dampoceanic climate of the Black Sea coast makes commercial farming profitable. Running fromZonguldak in the west toRize in the east, the narrow coastal strip widens at several places into fertile, intensely cultivated deltas. TheSamsun area, close to the midpoint, is a majortobacco-growing region; east of it are numerous citrus groves. East of Samsun, the area aroundGiresun is known for the production ofhazelnuts, and farther east theRize region has numeroustea plantations. All cultivable areas, including mountain slopes wherever they are not too steep, are sown or used as pasture. The western part of the Black Sea region, especially the Zonguldak area, is a center of coalmining andheavy industry.
The North Anatolian Mountains in the north are an interrupted chain of folded highlands that generally parallel the Black Sea coast. In the west, the mountains tend to be low, with elevations rarely exceeding 1,500 meters, but they rise in an easterly direction to heights greater than 3,000 meters south of Rize. Lengthy, trough-like valleys and basins characterize the mountains. Rivers flow from the mountains toward theBlack Sea. The southern slopes—facing the Anatolian Plateau—are mostly unwooded, but the northern slopes contain dense growths of both deciduous and evergreen trees.
Panoramic view of thePontic Mountains in the Black Sea Region of Turkey
Most of the Black Sea region has a borderlinehumid subtropical andoceanic (Köppen:Cfa/Cfb) climate; with high and evenly distributed rainfall the year round. At the coast, summers are warm and humid, and winters are cool and damp. The eastern part of the coast averages 2,500 millimeters annually which is the highest precipitation in the country. Snowfall is quite 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 in the whole Turkish Black Sea coast is always cool and fluctuates between 8° and 20 °C throughout the year.
