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Home , Aleppo Vilayet, Araban, Gaziantep, Gaziantep Province, Islahiye, Nizip

Gaziantep’s Description

Gaziantep is a province in south-central . Its capital is the city of Gaziantep which had a population of 853,513 as of 2000. Its neighbours are Adıyaman at north, Şanlıurfa at east, and at south, Hatay at southwest, at west and Kahramanmaraş at nortwest.

An important trading center since ancient times, the province is also one of Turkey’s major manufacturing zones, and its agriculture is dominated by the growing of pistachio nuts.

In ancient times, first the and later the Assyrians controlled the region. It saw much fighting during the , and won a key battle there in 1183. After and ’s disintegration, it was invaded by the forces of the French Third Republic during the Turkish War of Independence. It was returned to Turkish control after the was signed, formally ending hostilities between Turkey and the Allies of World War I.

Originally known as Antep, the title gazi (meaning veteran in Turkish) was added to the province’s and the provincial capital’s name in 1921, due to its population’s extraordinary courage during the Turkish War of Independence.

Kilis Province was formerly part of .

Geology

Two major active geological faults meet in western Gaziantep near the border with adjoining Province: the Dead Sea Transform and the East Anatolian Fault. These represent the tectonic boundary between the northward-moving to the east, and the converging African and Eurasian Plates to the west.

Districts Gaziantep province is divided into 9 districts (capital district in bold):

* * Gaziantep * * Karkamış * * Nurdağı * Oğuzeli * Şahinbey * Şehitkamil *

Politics

Gaziantep Province is traditionally said to reflect in advance the rising political trends in Turkey, according preference to ANAP in 1984, DYP in 1989, ’s (then named as) in 1994, and AKP in 2004 local elections. One exception was in 1999 when, boosted by the successful image of Gaziantep city Mr. Celal Doğan, CHP came first with 17.02 % of the votes for the Provincial General Assembly (with four parties scoring over 15 %, and the rightist MHP’s rise at that time (campaigning on Turkish-identity consciousness arguments) still being reflected by its second position after CHP for the province. DEHAP, campaigning on Kurdish-identity consciousness arguments, after having touched a modest 5 % ceiling in 1999, seems to have ebbed down, its score under SHP’s cover in 2004 local elections remaining at a still more modest 1.81 % (with MHP at 5.36 %). Although Kurdish sources seem to show an interest in and put forth categorizations concerning the province’s ethnic structure, in the light of the voter’s trends, it is doubtful whether Gaziantep Province fits in the viewpoint. It is to be noted that there are people of Kurdish stock living all over Turkey. In any case, in 2004, AKP obtained 55.11 % and CHP 21.57 %, and all other parties below 6 % at the Provincial General Assembly elections. Prime Minister Erdoğan is known to have deemed the local elections in Gaziantep as particularly important and to have mobilized considerable governmental weight beforehand. Current mayor is Mr. Dr. Asım Güzelbey, who successfully continued his career after serving 30 years in Gaziantep as an orthopaedic surgeon till the elections in 2004.

Gaziantep

Gaziantep ( Ayintap) informally, Antep, is the capital city of Gaziantep Province in Turkey. The city has two districts under its administration, Şahinbey and Şehitkamil, with a total population of 1,237,874[1] (2007) and an area of 2,138 km²[2]. The urban population is 1,175,042[1]. This makes it the sixth largest city of Turkey and it is the largest city in Turkey’s Southeastern Region. The city was known by the Arabs, Sel****, and Ottomans as Aintab or Aïntab, in Turkish Ayintap. The Turkish Parliament gave the city the title Gazi (”victorious warrior”) on February 8, 1921 (the day before the city surrendered to the French) in recognition of the valor of its inhabitants during the Turkish War of Independence, [3] and the city officially took the name Gaziantep (”Antep the Veteran”) in 1921

History

Antiquity

Gaziantep is probably the site of the Hellenistic city of Antiochia ad Taurum (”Antiochia in the Taurus Mountains”). A few km to the north are the ruins of Greek and Roman Doliche (Turkish: Dülük).

Gaziantep is one of the most developed provinces of the region and is also one of the oldest, its history reaching as far back as the Hittites. Being the center of pistachio nut cultivation in Turkey and with its extensive olive groves and vineyards, Gaziantep is one of the important agricultural and industrial centres of Turkey.

In the center of the city stands the Gaziantep Fortress and the Ravanda citadel as the reminders of past. The Archaeological Museum, with its important collections from and the Hittite ages as well as the Roman and Commagene times, attracts many visitors. The surroundings of the city are also full of valuable Hittite remains. The Hasan Süzer House, which has been restored to its original beauty, now houses the Ethnographical Museum. The Yesemek Sculpture Workshop, 30 kilometers south of the town of Islahiye, is one of the world’s first of this kind. Some of the other historical remains are the Belkis (), and Kargamış Ruins by the town of Nizip. Dülük, which is close to the city center, has camping facilities in a natural setting.

Ottoman period

In the Ottoman period, Aintab was in the of ( after 1864).

Demographics

According to the Ottoman census of 1543, the Aintab subdivision of the governorate-general of Aleppo contained fifteen tribes, all Turkmen. Much of the Aintab elite was also of Turkmen origin. There is no cadastral evidence of with administrative ties to Aintab officialdom. According to a recent study of the Aintab courts, this could partially be explained by the tributary status of the broader region had negotiated with the Ottomans.[5] In the same period, Aintab’s demographic makeup stood out from the rest of Aleppo province or other surrounding provinces, since its non-Muslim population was relatively small and uniformly Armenian Christian, while the neighboring governorate-general of Dulkadir (Maraş) was approximately 4,5% non-Muslim and that of Diyarbakır was approximately 15 per cent. Aintab appears to have had no Jewish community, although a Jewish financier, most probably based in Aleppo, figured prominently in the city’s economic and administrative life.

By the end of the 19th century, it had a population of about 45,000, 2/3 of which was Muslim, largely Yörük Turkmen of the Çapanoğlu clan.[6]

Of the Christians, the majority were Armenian. The Gregorian suffered from the massacres of 1895, but the Armenian Protestants thrived, drawn by the American Mission Board’s .[7] There was a sizable Armenian population in the city before World War I, but after the , there were almost no Armenians left. The remains of old Armenian churches may still be found, but they are mostly unmarked.

Economy

Gaziantep is famous for its regional specialties: the copper-ware products and “yemeni” slippers, specific to the region, are two examples. The city is an economical center of South Eastern and Eastern Turkey. The number of large industry businesses established in Gaziantep comprise four percent of the Turkish industry in general, and small industries comprise six percent. Also Gaziantep has the largest organized industrial area in Turkey and holds first position export and import goods.[8] Gaziantep also has a developing tourist industry. Development around the base of the castle upgrades the beauty and accessibility to the castle and to the surrounding copper workshops. New restaurants and tourist friendly businesses are moving into the area. Tourists are still a novelty in Gaziantep and the locals make them very welcome. Many of the students studying English language are willing to be guides for tourists.

Gaziantep is one of the leading producers of machined carpets in the world. It exported approximately $700 million USD of machine-made carpets in 2006. There are over 100 carpet facilities in the Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone.

Gaziantep also produced 60,000 MT of pistachios in 2007. Turkey is third in pistachio production in the world, after and USA.

Culture

Gaziantep is well-known for its culinary specialties, which show and Assyrian in addition to Turkish, influences. The festive food yuvalama (rice and meat rolled into pea-sized balls), the delicious (also known as Turkish pizza) and are some examples.

Education

Gaziantep Anatolian High School (founded in 1976) is a public school focusing on English language education.

Gaziantep Science High School is a public boarding high school in Gaziantep, Turkey with a curriculum concentrating on natural sciences and mathematics, and with teaching in Turkish and English.

The main campus of is located 10 kilometers away from the city center. The institution acquired state university status in 1987, but had already offered higher education since 1973 as an extension campus of the Middle East Technical University