Pazar Laz:Atina | |
|---|---|
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  Pazar Location in Turkey | |
| Coordinates:41°10′N40°53′E / 41.167°N 40.883°E /41.167; 40.883 | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Rize |
| District | Pazar |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Neşet Çakır (CHP) |
| Elevation | 37 m (121 ft) |
| Population (2021)[1] | 17,946 |
| Time zone | UTC+3 (TRT) |
| Area code | 0464 |
| Climate | Cfa |
| Website | pazar |
Pazar (Laz andGeorgian: ათინა,Atina;Greek:Αθήνα,romanized: Athína) is a town inRize Province in theBlack Sea region ofTurkey, 37 km east of the city ofRize. It is the seat ofPazar District.[2] Its population is 17,946 (2021).[1] The town contains many inhabitants ofLaz andGeorgian[citation needed] ancestries as well as otherpeoples. The town consists of the quarters Gazi,Kocaköprü,Ocak, Beyaztaş,Güzelyalı, Zafer,İkiztepe,Kirazlık,Cumhuriyet, Pazar,Soğuksu and Yukarı Soğuksu.[3]
The town was formerly namedAtina (Αθήνα του Πόντου) and was renamed Pazar, meaning 'market', in 1928.[4]
According toWilliam Edward David Allen, the word Athenae is a Greek adaptation of the Laz and Georgian word meaning "shadowy".
The distance between Pazar district and Rize city center is 37 km. The distance can be completed with an average of 40 minutes of vehicle travel.[1] Pazar is a strip ofBlack Sea 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 theBlack Sea 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 theBlack Sea mountains, including thePazar 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 theFırtına River. 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 traditionalanchovies,flathead mullet,red mullet 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 linenRize bezi. 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.
Pazar has anhumid subtropical climate (Köppen:Cfa). The climate in this area is characterized by mild temperatures and an abundance of precipitation, especially during fall.
| Climate data for Pazar (1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 10.1 (50.2) | 10.3 (50.5) | 12.2 (54.0) | 15.4 (59.7) | 19.4 (66.9) | 23.5 (74.3) | 25.8 (78.4) | 26.6 (79.9) | 24.0 (75.2) | 20.3 (68.5) | 15.7 (60.3) | 12.3 (54.1) | 18.0 (64.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 6.1 (43.0) | 6.3 (43.3) | 8.2 (46.8) | 11.3 (52.3) | 15.6 (60.1) | 19.8 (67.6) | 22.3 (72.1) | 22.9 (73.2) | 19.8 (67.6) | 16.0 (60.8) | 11.1 (52.0) | 8.0 (46.4) | 14.0 (57.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 3.2 (37.8) | 3.2 (37.8) | 4.8 (40.6) | 7.8 (46.0) | 12.0 (53.6) | 16.1 (61.0) | 19.0 (66.2) | 19.7 (67.5) | 16.3 (61.3) | 12.7 (54.9) | 7.9 (46.2) | 5.0 (41.0) | 10.7 (51.3) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 176.36 (6.94) | 149.32 (5.88) | 128.73 (5.07) | 79.31 (3.12) | 83.37 (3.28) | 130.92 (5.15) | 145.65 (5.73) | 187.33 (7.38) | 261.26 (10.29) | 284.1 (11.19) | 251.19 (9.89) | 236.77 (9.32) | 2,114.31 (83.24) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 12.6 | 12.4 | 12.6 | 10.0 | 9.3 | 10.2 | 9.7 | 9.9 | 11.1 | 12.4 | 11.0 | 12.3 | 133.5 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 71.1 | 70.8 | 71.3 | 73.3 | 76.1 | 76.7 | 78.0 | 78.6 | 77.6 | 77.9 | 72.7 | 70.6 | 74.5 |
| Source:NOAA[5] | |||||||||||||
The first recorded occupation is the trading colony Αθήνα established here by theAncient Greeks ofMiletos in the 8th century BC. Along with the rest of what is nowRize Province, Athina then became part of theRoman Empire and its successors theByzantine Empire and theEmpire of Trebizond until it was brought into theOttoman Empire byMehmet II in 1461, although this coast was always vulnerable to pirates and threats of invaders from across the nearbyCaucasus. Indeed, for two years during theFirst World War Atina was occupied byRussia.
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