Rize

For other uses, see Rize (disambiguation).

Rize (Greek: Ριζούς) is the capital of Rize Province, in north-east Turkey, on the Black Sea coast.

Geography

The city is built around a small bay on the the Black Sea coast, on a narrow strip of flat land between the sea and the mountains behind. The coastal strip is being expanded with landfill and the city is growing up the steep hillsides away from the coast also. Rize enjoys a mild, extremely wet climate, vulnerable to storms coming off the Black Sea and therefore the surrounding countryside is luxuriant with vegetation and is attracting more and more visitors every year.

Rize is a center for processing and shipping the tea grown in the surrounding area. Tea was introduced in the region in the 1940's and 1950's, changing the region's destiny, which was deperately poor until then. The city has a tea research institute founded in 1958 and tea gardens are the main sight in the town's panoramic view. Tea and kiwifruit plants are even planted in gardens around the town. The secondary activity is fishing. Rize is linked by road with Trabzon (41 miles [66 km] west), Hopa (55 miles [88 km] east, on the Georgian border, and Erzurum (north). The nearest airport is Trabzon.

Rize is a quiet town, a typical Turkish provincial capital with little in the way of night life or enetertainment. However the border with Georgia has been open since the early 90's, the Black Sea coast road has been widened and Rize is now wealthier than in previous decades; there are more cars in the streets, higher buildings on the sea front, and some places for young people to go are opening up now. The visitors to the surrounding countryside also contribute to the economy of the town. But there is no university here and each year a new generation has to move on when finishing high school.

History

See Rize Province for the history of the area.

Notable natives

• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan The Turkish Prime Minister spent his childhood in Rize
• Mesut Yılmaz - politician and former prime minister
• Ismail Turut - Singer of folk music of the Black Sea region
• Erol Evgin singer, spent his childhood summers with his grandparents in Rize
• The ship-owning Kalkavan family
• Ahmet Tevfik İleri - poltician and former deputy prime minister
• Fahri Tatan - football player
• Kazım Ayvaz - Olympic medalist and world champion in wrestling
• Mehmet Akif Pirim - Olympic medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling
• Temel Kotil - aeronautical engineer and CEO of Turkish Airlines
• Zafer Biryol - football player
• Davut Güloglu pop singer and musician, born in Rize in 1972
• Besim Tibuk, businessman and Liberal Democrat politician, born in Rize in 1945.
• Sinan Özen singer,
• Hülya Polat Black Sea folk singer

Çaykur Rizespor, the local football team, play in the Turkish Super League and are local heroes, occasionally capable of defeating even the big Istanbul teams. They play in green and blue, reflecting the blue of the sea and the green of the tea growing on the hillsides.

Others who have never lived in Rize but come from Rize families include:

• Tarkan the Turkish pop star
• Asena television's best-known belly dancer
• Murat Karayalçın Politician, leader of the SHP
• Yaşar Okuyan journalist and nationalist politician

Population figures

Year	Population
1975	36.044
1980	43.407
1985	50.221
1990	52.031
1997	73.420
2000	78.144

See also

• Lazistan
• Pontus

References

• Özhan Öztürk (2005). Karadeniz (Black Sea): Ansiklopedik Sözlük. 2 Cilt. Heyamola Yayıncılık. İstanbul. ISBN 975-6121-00-9

External links

• Template:Tr icon Rize municipality
• Template:Tr icon local information
• Template:Tr icon local information