Historical Irrigation in the Plain of Bayburt

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HISTORICAL IRRIGATION IN THE PLAIN OF BAYBURT

İSPANYA GRENADA’DA 1999 YILINDA

GERÇEKLEŞEN

17TH ICID (INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE)

KONGRESİ İÇİN HAZIRLANMIŞTIR

MAKALE, BİLDİRİLER KİTABINDA

SAYFA 71-86

R 7 OLARAK YAYINLANMIŞTIR

KATILMADIĞIMIZ BU TOPLANTIYA

BU İMKAN PROF. DR. H. FAHLBUSCH

TARAFINDAN SAĞLANMIŞTIR

BİLGİSAYARLI RESİMLER

ÖZTUĞ BİLDİRİCİ TARAFINDAN

GERÇEKLEŞTİRİLMİŞTİR

5 HISTORICAL IRRIGATION IN THE PLAIN OF BAYBURT

IRRIGATION HISTORIQUE DANS LA PLAINE DE BAYBURT

MEHMET BİLDİRİCİ İ. ÖZTUĞ BİLDİRİCİ Civil Engineer Surveying Engineer Atakan Sokak 11/7 Mecidiyeköy- İstanbul İTÜ Faculty of Civil Engineering İstanbul Turkey Turkey

ABSTRACT Bayburt is a small city in the Eastern Black Sea region on the Trabzon-Iran transit route. It has 34.000 inhabitants according to 1990 census. Bayburt is 176 km far from Trabzon on the Black Sea coast and 124 km from Erzurum on the silk route to Iran and Asian continent. Bayburt Plain is surrounded by the mountains in the North and in the South as Karadeniz and Otlukbeli mountains. Average altitude of the plain is 1800-1500 meter. Bayburt city center is in the Eastern part of the plain. Bayburt Plain is set on the headwaters of Çoruh River. The creeks, Pulur, Lori, Haho and the Çoruh River irrigate the semi arid plain with earth canals without monumental structures that have been constructed in the old ages. Old irrigation systems in Bayburt Plain are very important in the economic life of today, even in the past. It can be accepted as the granary of Black Sea region. In this article we will try to discover these historical irrigation systems in the perspective of the history of the region. RESUME Bayburt est une petite ville qui de trouve dans la region de l’orient de Karadeniz. Elle est en meme Temps un passage sur la destination vers Trabzon-Erzurum ainsi que vers le pays de l’İran. 34.000 d’habitant restent dans cette ville. La distance entre la ville d’Erzurum avec Bayburt est 124 km , avec Trabzon est 176 km . Le hauteur de la mere de cette ville est 1800-1500 m La plaine de Bayburt a des ressources de l’irrigation comme la riviere de Çoruh ainsi que cette reviere de nouverie avec les revierlettes de Pulur, Lori et avec Haho 80 villages de la region profitent depuis les anciens temps jusq au nos jours avec de l’eau de revieres,grace a cela la plainte de Bayburt procure le besoine de l’agriculture de toute la region de l’orient de Karadeniz. Dans notre expose nous tacherons d’analyser et d’expliquer le system d’irrigation historique de cette region.

6 1. INTRODUCTION Modern Turkey, Anatolia, or Asia Minor in the past, was the cradle of several civilizations since the Neolithic era. Many races and civilizations passed in the region. Trabzon, a big and populous city in the sea side, Gümüşhane and Bayburt inside have been the centers of trade and culture in the Eastern Black Sea region. All have rich historical background with the masterworks and the edifices of Roman, Byzantine, Armenian, Pontus, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. The irrigation systems, roads, underground water mains etc. are substructures without having monumental edifices that are very important in the economic life of the cities. There are so many irrigation systems to be explored and investigated in Turkey. This branch of the history is very new even in Europe. We have found very important documents from “Devlet Su İşleri” - shortly DSİ- (State Hydraulic Works) about the irrigation systems of Bayburt Plain and visited the area and decided to discover the systems (DSİ 1960 and DSİ 1987).

2. WATER RESOURCES The climate of the region is semi arid with dry summers and cold moist winters. The annual precipitation is about 450 mm, this value is over 2500 mm in the coastal province centre of Rize. The water resources of Bayburt Plain, which is surrounded in the North and South by the mountains, are the creeks as Pulur, Lori, Haho and Çoruh rivers shown in Figure 1. The creeks Pulur, Lori and Haho unite at Çıphınıs and are named as Çoruh, which was Akampsis in the past. It flows over Bayburt to İspir, Yusufeli, Artvin Borçka and crosses the Turkish border enters into the Republic of Georgia and flows into the Black Sea. The hydrological documents about Çoruh at Laleli (Kındız) observation point, 53 km from Bayburt on Çoruh River according to EİE-1995 during the years between1971-1989 are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The hydrological documents about Çoruh Average Discharge 26.4 m³/sec Minimum Discharge 3.2 m³/sec Average discharge in the irrigation period 9 m³/sec Length of Çoruh in Turkey 422 km Length of Çoruh in Georgia 24 km Average Discharge at Borçka 202 m³/sec Minimum Discharge at Borçka 39 m³/sec Maximum Discharge at Borçka 2400 m³/sec

Figure 4: Çayıryolu and Masat irrigation projects that were planned by DSİ (Les plans d’irrigation Çayıryolu et Masat conçus par le DSİ)

3. IRRIGATION SYSTEM In over 80 villages of Bayburt Plain, the villagers have been irrigating their dry lands for centuries with simple earth canals that have been constructed by them in old ages. These villages and their water resources are shown in Figure 1, 2 and 3. The written documents come only from DSİ (DSİ 1960) which were collected and published by the order of Turkish President Süleyman Demirel than who was the General Director of DSİ in 1960. On the other hand I visited the plain in 1993 and discussed the system with Arpalı (Niv) Mayor Arif Polattimur who was Arpalı Mayor between the years 1970-1980 and 1984-1994. Arpalı (Niv) is a crowded habitation centre with the biggest irrigated lands of 1800 hectare. It is done with 7 sluice gates from June to October. Tekin Çoruh (1939), a native of Bayburt and engineer at DSİ Istanbul Directorate, had been worked in Bayburt Plain between the years 1966-1980. He visited the villages one by one at that time. It is a chance for me to meet him and discuss the system. The irrigated areas, water resources and the populations of 82 villages are shown in Table 2. – 12

11 Table 2: Pulur Creek (Gökçedere ) Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Çorozma- Petekli Çorozma 30 307 Yakupabdal Yakupabdal 80 522 Kütüdü- Çimentepe Pulur 30 131 PULUR- Gökçedere Pulur 300 2701 Hiğni – Bayrampaşa Pulur 100 182 Cebre- Çakıröz Pulur 80 205 Yukarı Hınzaveg-Çatalçeşme Pulur 150 244 SÜNÜR - Çayıryolu Pulur + Kitre 300 661 Manası- Gündoğdu Pulur 100 145 Kitre - - Kitre 80 513 Eymür - - Gökçe 50 327 TOTAL 1300

Table 3 Lori Creek ( Başpınar Creek ) Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Yukarı Lori-Başpınar Lori 500 757 Aşağı Lori - Yazıbaşı Lori 300 437 Cenci - Işıkova Lori 150 183 Zarani -Güçlü Zarani 60 154 Aşutka- Güvercindere Lori 100 110 Karayaşmak - - Lori 100 138 KSANTA- Demirözlü Lori 250 2452 Yanbaksı- Güneşli Lori 50 290 Hardişi -Çiftetaş Lori 60 248 Çorak- - Lori 100 134 Çıphınıs- Kırkpınar Lori +Siptoros 600 679 TOTAL 2270

12 Table 4: Tahsini Creek Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Tahsini- Ozansu Tahsini 70 483 Bildiç- Soğukgöze Tahsini 10 152 Zeyli - Güllüce Tahsini 70 161 Hakiğ -Çamdere Tahsini 100 123 Pulureg -Yelpınar Tahsini 200 229 Rüştüköy- - Tahsini 200 228 TOTAL 650

Table 5: Haho Creek (Sarıhan Creek) Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Haho- Sarıhan Haho 100 128 Yukarı Kışlak- Haho 10 170 Güder- - Haho 70 83 Cemele- Göldere Haho 100 166 Haşya- Aksaçlı Haho 200 119 Aşağı Kışlak- - Haho 100 89 Kelevereg- Sancaktepe Haho 300 460 Hindi -Söğütlü Haho 300 442 Siptoros- Oruçbeyli Haho + Tahsini 300 489 Saraycık- - Horhor 100 41 Cilara- Sakızlı Horhor 100 278 TOTAL 1680

Table 6: Danişment Creek Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Berne- Balca Danişment 100 589 Kaliskavar-Kabaçayır Danişment 100 474 Variçna- Mutlu Danişment 600 806 Danişment Danişment 200 536 Zağzik- Yolaltı Danişment 150 428 VARZAHAN-Uğrak Danişment 200 433 Aşağı Tomla-Çiğdemtepe Danişment + Çoruh 100 500

13 Table 7: Masat- Kopuz Creeks Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Lipana- Yaylalar Kopuz 50 138 Çitanos- Sırakayalar Kopuz 50 181 Hacıoğlu - - Kopuz 50 232 Kopuz Kopuz 150 138 Manastır- Yalındal Kopuz 150 506 Kurucagöl- - Kopuz 100 - BAYBURT (City Center) Kopuz 800 34000 Aşağı Hayk- Dikmetaş Masat+Çoruh 100 234 TOTAL 1450

Table 8: Çoruh River (Right Shore) Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Yukarı Kırzı- - Çoruh 150 913 NİV -ARPALI Çoruh 1800 3544 Pincirge- Çiçekli Çoruh 200 242 Aşağı Hınzaveg-Taşkesen Çoruh 150 174 Kestesi- Alıçlık Çoruh 150 184 TOTAL 2500

Table 9: Çoruh River (Left Shore ) Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Kilhuns- Pınargözlü Kilhuns 100 520 Vağında- Çayırköprü Çoruh 200 209 Ardusta- İncili Ardusta 100 488 TOTAL 400

Table 10: Taransos Creek Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Taransos- Sorkunlu Taransos 50 210 Erginis- Suludere Taransos 50 220 Diğer Danzut- Başpınar Taransos 50 187 Vahsen- Çatıksu Çoruh 50 735 TOTAL 200

Table 11: Gümüşdamla Creek Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Zargidi-Gümüşdamla Gümüşdamla 150 544 HART-AYDINTEPE 250 5166 Aşağı Kırzı Çoruh 100 616 TOTAL 500

Table 12: Konursu Creek Villages Names (Old-New) Water Resources Irrigated Population Name of Creeks Areas (ha) Havnus- Sarımeşe Konursu 250 323 Gütgüne-Çiğdemlik Konursu 200 270 Pağnik- Erikdibi Konursu 250 354 Abrans- Akbulut Konursu 250 366 Konursu- -- Konursu 250 2786 Mam - Değirmenlik Konursu 250 307 TOTAL

Summarised values are shown in Table 13. Table 13: Summarised values Name of Creek Number of Villages Irrigated Areas (ha) Pulur 17 1.300 Lori 11 2.270 Tahsini 6 650 Haho 11 1.680 Danişment 7 1.450 Masat 8 1.450 Çoruh (Right Shore) 6 2.500 Çoruh (Left Shore ) 3 400 Taransos 4 200 Gümüşdamla 3 500 Konursu 6 1.450 TOTAL 13.850 ha

15 According to KEVORKIAN and PABOUDJIAN 1992 Armenian origin people were living in some settlements in 1910. The list of them with the population of 1910 and 1990 are as follows: Table 14: Armenians living in some settlements in 1910 Settlements Armenians in 1910 Churches Schools Population in 1990 Bayburt 3200 5 34.000 Pulur 618 4 2.701 Niv 327 1 3544 Ksanta 1271 3 2452 Varzahan 728 2+ruins 433 Kopuz 695 1 1 138 Kelevereg 1480 2 460 Pulureg 521 2 229 Hayık 361 3 234 Hindi 583 442

In some villages more people were living before. On the other hand there were 100 watermills on the Kopuz creek, which crosses Bayburt in 1910. There is generally enough water in the creeks and earth canals, but at Gümüşdamla (Zargidi) creek by rotation. There was an interesting water quarrel between the villagers of Hart and Zargidi. Tekin Çoruh mentioned above gives the details: The villagers of Hart petitioned the government to plan a small dam to be constructed in their Hart Yayla that is shown in Figure 3. Hart Yayla is a summer habitation place for animal husbandry and 8 km far from Hart. After constructing the supposed small dam in Hart Yayla, the stored water in reservoir would flow to the lands of Zargidi village and than would be diverted with a canal to Hart plain. The annual storage capacity of the supposed small dam was 1.500.000 cubic meters. In this point the quarrel began the villagers of Zargidi have been using the water of their creek since very old times. This is a “Kadim Su Hakkı- Old Water Right“ in Turkish irrigation tradition. They insisted on irrigation first as before, even a small dam would be constructed. The villagers of Hart agreed to share water with them. On the other hand, the valuable lands of Hart Yayla would be occupied by a small dam. At the end they did not agree with each other and the supposed small dam was not built.

4. NEW IRRIGATIN PROJECT BY DSI A new irrigation project was planned by DSI on Bayburt plain with new dams, regulators and concrete canals shown in Figure 4, 5 (DSI 1987). Irrigated areas are as follows: Çayıryolu Irrigation on the creeks, Pulur, Lori, Tahsini, Haho 22.337 ha Masat Irrigation on Çoruh river 10.348 ha Total 32.685 ha

16 If the result is compared, the importance of old irrigation system of Bayburt plain will be seen. Irrigated lands with earth canals 13.850 ha Irrigated lands with new project 32.685 ha The ratio is 13.850: 32.685 = % 42 and marvellous !

5. HISTORY OF THE REGION DUE IRRIGATION The region is known as Chaldia in the past. Now Bayburt is the administrative center of the region. Summarised historical documents will be given one by one to every important settlement in Bayburt plain.

5.1 BAYBURT

Its name comes from Papert, in which pert means castle in Armenian. Armenian historian Movses of Khoren who lived in 5th century, mentioned about Bayburt in his work. Byzantine historian Prokopius who lived in 6th century wrote that the castle was constructed by Byzantine Emperor Justinianus (reg. 527-565) (EPRIKYAN 1903). After Roman, Byzantine, Armenian administration, the city and the castle was conquered by Seljuks in 1072. Erzurum governor of Seljuk Empire Tuğrul Şah had the castle repaired between the years, 1200-1230. Famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo (1254- 1324) visited Bayburt in 1271 on his way to China. Another Italian traveler H. Barberon visited Bayburt too. After Seljuks, it was administrated by Turkish Akkoyunlu tribe (White- sheep tribe) and it was conquered by Ottomans in 1514. Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Bayburt in 17th century. Armenian people lived in Bayburt and around side by side with Turkish people until 20th century. Zihni (1795-1859) is a famous poet from Bayburt in Turkish folk literature. The castle, including the church inside, reconstructed Ulu Mosq, the Saltuk türbehs (monumental tombs) are some important historical monuments of the past.

5.2 SATALA

Sadak village is the site of Roman Border City Satala that is in the Southwestern of Bayburt plain. The distance of Sadak to Pulur is 20 Km. Roman Emperor Hadrianus (reg. 117-138) probably visited Satala and Trabzon in 129. Now the ruins of Roman aqueduct can be seen.

5.3 VARZAHAN (UĞRAK)

Uğrak village is the site of mediaeval city Varzahan. It was a big and crowded city in the reigns of Armenian Bagrad and Turkish Seljuks dynasties. The ruins of 3 medieval churches were seen by European travelers and were published in their works in the 19th century. Varzahan had 728 Armenian inhabitants (433 inhabitants in 1990) and 2 churches in 1910.

5.4 HART (AYDINTEPE)

Its name probably comes from the Chaldia, ancient name of the region. A new underground ancient city and old tombs have been explored recently.

5.5 PULUR

Pulur was the first settlements of Türkmen Akkoyunlu tribe. A mosque and medrese (religious school) were founded by Ferahşad, son of Kormaz Bey in 1517 according to the inscription. Ottoman Emperor Selim I (reg. 1512-1520) gave the lands of Pulur to Ferahşad for the sake of helping himself during the Ottoman- Iranian war. The mentioned mosque was built with pink stones symbolizes Ottoman architecture. Another famous poet Celali of Bayburt (1890-1915) graduated from Pulur Medrese. In 1910 Armenian people were living and had 4 churches

5.6 SÜNÜR

Ancient writer Xenephon visited the region in 400 BC and mentioned Hellenic city Gymnias as a rich and crowded city of the age. The site of Gymnias is accepted as Sünür. There are ruins of old castles in Sünür too. The chief of Turkmen Akkoyunlu tribe, Fahreddin Kutlu lived and died in Sünür, while his tribe was living near Diyarbakır. The mosque of Sünür was built by Fahreddin Kutlu, whose tomb is there according to the inscription. Fahreddin Kutlu married to Maria Despina, the daughter of Pontos Emperor Alexios III of Trabizond. Their son Karasülük Osman was the founder of Akkoyunlu State.

5.7 OTHER VİLLAGES

Niv is an old village in the area. The drinking water comes to Niv in old earthen pipes today. The ruins of old castles come in Haho (Barıhan), Hiğni (Bayrampaşa), and Kitre. Old mosque in Yukarı Hınzaveg (Çatalçeşme) and kümbets (tombs) are the monuments of the past. In Ksanta, 1271 Armenian were living with 3 churches, in Kelevereg. 1480 Armenian were living with 2 churches. These villages were more crowded than they are today. We want to finish this article with the comment of BRYER and WINDFIELD? that explains us the existing and importance of irrigation system. “One may guess that medieval CHALDIA was better wooded and hence better watered than it is today. 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We especially appreciate Prof. Dr. H. Fahlbusch, Chairman of the Working Group on History of ICID. We finished this contribution with his advice and support. 7. REFERENCES Bryer A- Windfield D “The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos, Dukbarton Oaks Research and Collection, Washington DC. DSİ,1960 “Türkiye’de Mahalli Sulamalar Hakkında Bir inceleme “, DSİ Genel, Ankara. DSİ, 1987 “Gümüşhane-Bayburt , Çayıryolu , Aydıntepe Projesi”, DSİ, Ankara. EIE, 1995, Akım Yıllığı (Annual currents), Elektrik İşleri Etüt İdaresi, Ankara. Eprikyan S.,1903, “Unfinished Dictionary of Geography”, Venice Saint Lazar (in Armenian).