The Black Sea region is in the north of Turkey. The region is mountainous and wooded. Mountain ranges rise directly from the coast, to which they run parallel for about a thousand kilometres, covering the whole of the region. People in this region grow tea, tobacco and hazelnuts. Most of them are peasants with a little land.
Fishing is also common along the coast.
By ethnic origin the people in the region are Turks and Laz, and there are a few Georgians. In 1990, the DHKP-C started to send guerrillas to the region. In that year, guerrilla activity in the region rose. The first activity in the region took place in 1970. Mahir Cayan, the leader of the THKP-C, and his warrior comrades fell as martyrs in the skirmish in Kizildere in Tokat on March 30, 1972.