The Kelkit River (Turkish: Kelkit Irmağı or Kelkit Çayı), is a river in the Black Sea Region of Turkey. It is the longest tributary of the Yeşilırmak. Its name derives from the Armenian Gayl get (Armenian: Գայլ գետ 'wolf river', Kayl ked in Western Armenian pronunciation).[1] Its Greek name is Lykos (Greek: Λύκος), also meaning 'wolf', and romanized as Lycus.[2][3]
The valley for the last 40 km of the Kelkit's journey is the Erbaa plain (Erbaa Ovası), known in antiquity as the Phanaroea.
Notes
^Bryer, Anthony (1988). Peoples and settlement in Anatolia and the Caucasus: 800-1900. Variorum Publishing. p. 21. ...Kelkit is no more than Gayl Get, the Armenian translation of Wolf River.
^Antonio Sagona and Claudia Sagona, Archaeology At The North-east Anatolian Frontier, I: An Historical Geography And A Field Survey of the Bayburt Province (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series14, 2004. ISBN90-429-1390-8. p. 68, quoting Robert H. Hewsen, Geography of Ananias of Sirak: Aesxarhacoyc, the Long and the Short Recensions (Tubinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (TAVO): Series B), 1992, p. 153.
^Hovannisian, Richard G., ed. (2004). Armenian Sebastia/Sivas and Lesser Armenia. Mazda Publishers. p. 46. ISBN9781568591520. ...Kelkit in Turkish pronunciation, or Gayl Get (Wolf River) in Classical Armenian, and its equivalent in Greek (Lycus).