Hopa

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Hopa
Location in Turkey
Overview
Region Black Sea Region, Turkey
Province Artvin Province
Population 14,350 NA (2000)
Area 289 km²
Elevation 10 m
Coordinates NA
Postal code 08
Area code (0090)+ 466
Licence plate code 08

Hopa (Laz: Xopa; Georgian: ხოფა; Armenian: Հոպա; Russian: Хопа; also known as Khupati, Khopta, or Khopa) is a district of Artvin Province of Turkey, 67 km from the city of Artvin, at the eastern end of Turkey's Black Sea coast, on the border with Georgia.

Contents

Hopa is best known for Sarp (Georgian: Sarpi), the village where the Black Sea coast road crosses the border into the Georgian autonomous region of Adjara. The Georgian port of Batumi is just beyond the border, which was opened in 1989 and is bringing a new life to Hopa, previously a rural district at the end of the country. There is also a small port [1]. With these facilities at the foot of the road leading down over the mountains from Artvin, Hopa is now becoming a centre of trade and the population of the district has grown sharply in the last decade. There are exchange bureau and many hotels for people using the border crossing, especially truck drivers, and Hopa has a thriving prostitution industry (or serious prostitution problem), employing over 1,000 women, mainly from CIS countries [2].

The land climbs sharply from the coast up into the Sultan Selim Mountains, the hillsides are well watered and green with alder, chestnuts, hornbeams and other deciduous trees. The highest point is Mt Yavuz Sultan Selim at 1513m. The climate is warm and wet, although only July and August are hot enough to be called summer. There is snow in February.

Before the border was opened the local economy was dependent on agriculture, especially tea planting. Higher up the district is still poor, animals are grazed on the mountainside.

Hopa has a mixed population of Turks, Laz, Georgians, and Armenians (Eastern Hamshenis). The municipality is the only one in Turkey controlled by the minority left-wing Freedom and Solidarity Party (ÖDP), although as the mayor himself put it; "actually we were fortunate in that the previous incumbents did nothing at all; for example last week we collected rubbish and everyone remarked look how hard the new municipality is working".

There is currently a high rate of cancer in Hopa, attributed to fall-out from the disaster at Chernobyl, across the Black Sea from here [3].

This strip of coast was first settled by the Hurri. Subesequent rulers include Scythians, the Greeks of Pontus, the Roman Empire and Byzantium, interrupted by Sassanid Persians and Arabs in the 8th century. Turkish people moved into the area from 1068 onwards and later Sultan Selim I brought it into the Ottoman Empire during his campaign against the Crimea. There has long been a mixed population of Christians and Muslims.

The area was captured by Russia following the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) and many people of Hopa moved westwards away from the Russian-controlled zone, and some have subsequently returned.

  • Kazım Koyuncu - rock guitarist and singer, (b. Hopa 1972, d. of cancer 2005)
  • Ruşen Çakır - Journalist, formerly with Nokta magazine and NTV Turkey, specialist in Islamist politics. Born in Hopa in 1962.
  • Yılmaz Topaloğlu - the ÖDP mayor
  • Hilmi Topaloğlu - music producer
  • Mustafa Topaloğlu - folk singer, claims to have come from outer space


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