İzmir Province

İzmir Province
İzmir Province
Location of İzmir Province in Turkey
Overview
Region:	Aegean Region, Turkey
Area:	11,973 km2 (4,623 sq mi)
Total population	3.868.308 TurkStat 2009
Licence plate code:	35
Area code:	0232
Governor	M. Cahit Kıraç
Governor Website	http://www.izmir.gov.tr

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İzmir is a province of Turkey in western Anatolia on the Aegean coast, whose capital is the city of İzmir (ancient Smyrna). On the west it is surrounded by the Aegean sea, and it encloses the Gulf of İzmir. Its area is 11,973 km.², population 3.868.308 (2009 tüik census). The population was 3,370,866 in 2000. Neighbouring provinces are Balıkesir on the north, Manisa on the east, and Aydın on the south. The traffic code of the province is 35.

The main rivers of the province are Küçük Menderes river, Koca Çay (with Güzelhisar dam), and Bakır Çay.

[edit] Districts

İzmir Province is divided into 30 districts (capital district in bold):

Of these, Balçova, Bayraklı, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak, and Narlıdere are metropolitan districts, making up the city of İzmir.

[edit] History

The area was first settled by local Anatolians, milleninum later Ionian Greeks in about the 11th century BCE who established the League of Ionia. It was later conquered by the Persians, retaken by the Greeks, before being subsumed into the Roman Empire. After the split of the Roman Empire, the area became part of the Byzantine Empire until conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century. Following the First World War the province was ceded to Greece, but was retaken by the forces of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the Turkish War of Independence. As a result of the Treaty of Lausanne all Greek Orthodox inhabitants of the province had to leave, and İzmir Province was incorporated into the modern republic of Turkey.