Long before the cultural revival of the modern era, the Laz of the eastern Black Sea rose in open revolt against the Ottoman state. Between 1814 and 1834 the Lazistan and Trabzon regions were shaken by the Tuzcuoglu Rebellions, one of the most serious challenges to Ottoman authority ever mounted on the Black Sea coast.

Why the Laz rose up

For generations the coast had been ruled in practice by local lords known as derebeys (“valley lords”) and ayans. The most powerful of these around Rize was the Tuzcuoglu family. When Sultan Mahmud II launched sweeping reforms to centralise the empire and strip these local lords of their autonomy, the Tuzcuoglu and their allies refused to give up their power.

Memis Aga and the fall of Trabzon

The first and most dramatic phase was the revolt of Tuzcuoglu Memis Aga (1814–1817). On learning that the state had ordered his execution, he withdrew to Rize and raised the region in arms. The insurgents soon controlled the whole coast from Hopa to Giresun, and in August 1816 they besieged and captured the city of Trabzon itself, taking first the port and then the fortress. Memis Aga was killed in 1817 and is still remembered locally as a martyr.

The final uprising

Resistance flared again under Kalcioglu Osman Bey (1818–1821) and a last time under Tuzcuoglu Tahir and his kinsmen (1832–1834), an episode also known as the Laz Rebellion. The rebels were successful at first, especially in early 1833, but the state sent a large irregular army that stormed Rize, plundered Lazistan and crushed the revolt by the spring of 1834. Tahir was executed and his family deported to Istanbul.

The end of the valley lords

With the defeat of the Tuzcuoglu, the age of the independent Laz derebeys came to an end and the central government finally imposed its rule over the coast. The rebellions are still remembered as a powerful symbol of Laz autonomy and resistance, and the family is recalled among the notable names on our Famous Laz People page.

Learn more: Tuzcuoglu Rebellions on Wikipedia.

Map: extent of the Tuzcuoglu Memis Aga rebellion (yellow) within the Trabzon vilayet, by Skudaslazuri, CC0 / public domain.