[3] The town was formerly named Atina (Αθήνα του Πόντου) and was renamed Pazar, meaning 'market', in 1928.

This coast has a mild climate with warm summers (22 °C in August) and cool winters (7 °C in January, it rarely snows on the coast), but very wet and humid, apart from the early summer (April–May–June) it rains heavily year round, with an average of 50 sunny days per year.

Before tea was planted, citrus fruits and apples were grown here but this has mostly ceased now, apart from trees in family gardens, where people grow vegetables and keep poultry.

At even higher altitudes efforts are being made to plant trees but it is hard to put roads through and manage a forest in these steep, high mountains.

Fishing was once a major activity and Pazar still has a fleet of small fishing boats although this is in decline as the Black Sea becomes polluted and the traditional anchovies, flathead mullet, red mullet and other species are all in decline.

The first recorded occupation is the trading colony Αθήνα established here by the Ancient Greeks of Miletos in the 8th century BC.