Trabzon / Treizond,
Turkey
Treizond in the Ottoman Empire is now
Trabzon Turkey.
The
history of Trebizond was almost unknown, until
Professor Fallmerayer discovered the Chronicle of
Michael Panaretos among the books of Cardinal
Bessarion, preserved at Venice. From this
chronicle, with the aid of some unpublished MSS.,
and a careful review of all the published sources
of information, he wrote a history of Trebizond, which
displays great critical acuteness. His able work
is entitled, Geschichte des Kaiserthums von
Trapezunt, Miinchen, 1827, 4to. After
visiting Trebizond, in 1840, the learned
professor published the results of his personal
researches at Trebizond and Mount Athos in the Transactions
of the Historical Class of the Royal Academy of
Munich, vol. iii. part 3, and vol. iv. part
1. The Chronicle of Panaretos, and a discourse of
Eugenikos in praise of Trebizond, were published
by the learned Professor Tafel of Tubingen, who
has by his researches shed much light on several
dark periods of Byzantine history; Eustathii
Metropolitae Thessalonicensis Opuscula,
accedunt Trapezuntinae Historiae Scriptons
Panaretus et Evgenicus, Francofurti ad M.,
410.
The
little that can be learned concerning the history
of Trebizond in English literature will be found
in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire, vii. 327, edit. Smith. Walter Scott
implies that Trebizond had been conquered by the
Turks in the time of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, for
in Ivanhoe the Templar says to Rebecca, ' Mount
thee behind me on my gallant steed—on Zamor
the gallant horse that never failed his rider. I
won him in single fight from the Soldan of
Trebizond.' Sir Walter overlooked Gibbon's
observation (vii. 169), Trebizond alone, defended
on either side by the sea and mountains,
preserved at the extremity of the Euxine the
ancient character of a Greek colony and the
future destiny of a Christian empire."
History
of Greece from Its Conquest by The Romans To The
Present Time B.C. 146 TO A. D. 1864
By George Finlay, LL.D. And Edited by the Rev. H.
F. Tozer, M.A. Tutor and Late Fellow of Exeter
College Oxford. In Seven Volumes Vol. IV
Medieval Greece And The Empire of Trebizond A.D.
12O4 — 1461 at the Clarendon Press, M DCCC
LXXVIl
| The Kavass of the
Local Branch of the Ottoman Bank at Trebizond,
a Montenegrin, who left Trebizond in
Signor Gorrini's company* and is at the
present moment in Cairo, has made the
following statement to Mr. Malezian,
Secretary of the General Armenian Union
of Benevolence :— "
The very evening of the day on which the
order arrived from Constantinople, they
threw into the sea about forty of the
intellectuals and the members of
political parties, saying to them : ' You
are to be sent into exile by the sea
route.'
"
At the present moment there is not a
single Armenian left at Trebizond except
two employees of the Ottoman Bank, who
will also be deported as soon as other
persons arrive from Constantinople to
take their place.
"
Children have been converted to Islam and
handed over to Mohammedan families. Those
who cry and do not keep quiet have their
throats cut.
"
After the Armenians had gone, their
houses were confiscated.
"
The whole thing was organized by the
members of the Committee of Union and
Progress.
"
The exiles were not allowed to take with
them either money or clothes or
provisions. Five hundred Armenian
soldiers were disarmed, and then deported
and massacred on the road. As for the
other exiles, they must have been
massacred without exception, for the news
received from Djevizlik (a village six
hours from Trebizond, on the one and only
road leading to Gumushkhane) makes it
certain that the exiles were seen passing
that place in batches, while beyond
Djevizlik no one has seen them pass. At
the same time, the river Yel-Deyirmeni
brought down every day to the sea a
number of corpses, mutilated and
absolutely naked, the women with their
breasts cut off."
*
" I hired the motor launch for
myself and three members of my household,
one of them a Montenegrin kavass who was
under our protection."— Th»
Italian Consul, Signor Gorrini, in the
interview published in the Rome journal
" II Messaggero," 25th August.
1915.
The Treatment
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire By
Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Great Britain. 59
|
Trabzon in 14
One of the most obvious policies for the
western enemies of Mohammad was to enter into
communication with his enemies in the orient and
attempt to concert some common action. Such
negotiations had been set on foot by Popes
Nicholas and Calixtus. The last two sovereigns of
the dynasty of the Grand Comneni of Trebizond,
who were now the representatives of the Roman
Empire, John IV and David, had endeavoured to
organise an alliance of the principalities of
Asia Minor and Armenia, and to gain the support
of Persia. It was upon Uzun Hasan, Prince of the
Turkmen of the White Sheep, that they above all
relied. In 1459 David wrote to the Duke of
Burgundy announcing the conclusion of such a
league, and expressing the conviction that, if
east and west were to strike together now, the
Ottoman could be abolished from the earth. But
the league availed not David, when two years
later Mohammad came to destroy the empire of
Trebizond (1461), and Uzun Hasan left him in the
lurch. He surrendered on the offer of favourable
treatment; but he was not more fortunate than the
King of Bosnia; he and his family were afterwards
put to death. At the same time Mohammad seized
Genoese Amastris, and
likewise Sinope, an independent Seljuk state:
and thus he became master of the whole southern
board of the Pontic Sea.
The Cambridge modern history,
Volume 1 , Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg
Acton Acton, Ernest Alfred Benians Editors Sir
Adolphus William Ward, Sir George Walter
Prothero, Stanley Mordaunt Leathes, The
University press, 1912
|