Hemshin peopleThe Hemshin people (Համշէնցիներ, Hamshentsiner; Hemşinliler), also known as Hemshinli or Hamshenis or Homshetsi, are a bilingual small group of Armenians who practice Sunni Islam after they had been converted from Christianity in the beginning of the 18th century and are affiliated with the Hemşin and Çamlıhemşin districts in the province of Rize, Turkey. They are Armenian in origin, and were originally Christian members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, but over the centuries evolved into a distinct community and converted to Sunni Islam after the conquest of the region by the Ottomans during the second half of the 15th century.
TurkeyTurkey (Türkiye, ˈtyɾcije), officially the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ˈtyɾcije dʒumˈhuːɾijeti), is a country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in West Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is off the south coast.
RizeRize (Ρίζα; რიზინი; რიზე; ريزه) is a coastal city in the eastern part of the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Rize Province and Rize District. Its population is 119,828 (2021). Rize is a typically Turkish provincial capital with little in the way of nightlife or entertainment. However the border with Georgia has been open since the early 1990s, the Black Sea coast road has been widened and the town is much wealthier than it used to be.
ArtvinArtvin (Laz and tr; Արտուին) is a city in northeastern Turkey about inland from the Black Sea. It is the seat of Artvin Province and Artvin District. Its population is 25,841 (2021). It is located on a hill overlooking the Çoruh River near the Deriner Dam. It is a former bishopric and (vacant) Armenian Catholic titular see and the home of Artvin Çoruh University. Artifacts dating back to the Bronze Age and even earlier have been found.
Georgians in TurkeyGeorgians in Turkey (tr) refers to citizens and denizens of Turkey who are, or descend from, ethnic Georgians. In the census of 1965, those who spoke Georgian as first language were proportionally most numerous in Artvin (3.7%), Ordu (0.9%) and Kocaeli (0.8%). Georgians live scattered throughout Turkey, although they are primarily concentrated in two major regions: The Black Sea coast, in the provinces of Giresun, Ordu, Samsun, Sinop, Amasya, and Tokat.
GümüşhaneGümüşhane (ɟyˈmyʃhaːne) is a city in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the seat of Gümüşhane Province and Gümüşhane District. Its population is 39,214 (2022). The city lies along the Harşit River, about southwest of Trabzon. The city lies at an elevation of . It is suggested that the ancient Thia (Θεία in Greek, a settlement of Roman, Late Roman and Byzantine periods) was located west of modern Gümüşhane, in modern Beşkilise.
MingreliansThe Mingrelians (margalepi; tr) are an indigenous Kartvelian-speaking ethnic subgroup of GeorgiansStuart J. Kaufman Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War ::Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War], p 86: "Additionally, the Georgian category includes an array of politically important subgroups especially Mingrelians, Svans and Ajarians" that mostly live in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (samargalo; tr) region of Georgia. They also live in considerable numbers in Abkhazia and Tbilisi.
AdjariansThe Adjarians (Ačarlebi) are an ethnographic group of Georgians living mainly in Adjara in south-western Georgia and speaking the Adjarian dialect of the Georgian language. The Adjarians had their own territorial entity, the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, founded on 16 July 1921 as the Adjara ASSR. After years of post-Soviet stalemate, the region was brought closer within the framework of the Georgian state in 2004, retaining its autonomous status.
ColchisIn classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis ('kɒlkɪs; Κολχίς) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi (ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the Colchians, are generally thought to have been an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe ancestral to contemporary western Georgians, namely Svans and Zans. According to David Marshall Lang: "one of the most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus by the Middle Bronze Age.
MacronesThe Macrones (მაკრონები) (Μάκρωνες, Makrōnes) were an ancient Colchian tribe in the east of Pontus, about the Moschici Mountains (modern Yalnizçam Dağlari, Turkey). The name is allegedly derived from the name of Kromni valley (Κορούμ, located 13 km north-east of Gümüşhane) by adding Kartvelian ma- prefix which denotes regional descendance. The Macrones are first mentioned by Herodotus (c. 450 BC), who relates that they, along with Moschi, Tibareni, Mossynoeci, and Marres, formed the nineteenth satrapy within the Achaemenid Persian Empire and fought under Xerxes I.
