Atayurt is a town in

Mersin Province Mersin Province ( tr, ), formerly İçel Province ( tr, ), is a province in southern Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast between Antalya and Adana. The provincial capital and the biggest city in the province is Mersin, which is composed of fo ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Geography

Atayurt is in the fertile alluvial plain of

Silifke Silifke ( grc-gre, Σελεύκεια, ''Seleukeia'', la, Seleucia ad Calycadnum) is a town and district in south-central Mersin Province, Turkey, west of the city of Mersin, on the west end of Çukurova. Silifke is near the Mediterranean coast ...

district which itself is a part of Mersin Province. The town is on the

D 400 highway D.400 is an east–west state road in southern Turkey. The road starts at Datça in the southwest corner of the Anatolian peninsula. The road ends at the Iranian border at Esendere. D.400 runs through the cities of Marmaris, Fethiye, Ant ...

. The distance to

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

is and to Silifke is . The coordinates are about . The population is 7154 as of 2012.

History

The rural population density of the vicinity has always been high and there were two villages (Olukbaşı and Esenbel) next to each other. In 1989, the two villages have been merged to form Atayurt town. In 2005, Karadedeli and Sıtmasuyu villages have been merged. The name of the town refers to Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish republic.

Economy

Like other parts of Silifke plain, the main economic activity of Atayurt is agriculture, especially green house and forced crop agriculture. Almost all fruits especially strawberries are produced. Since the sea side is only to town center, the services to summer houses at the sea side also play a part of town economy.

Concerns about blue tunnel project

The

Göksu River The Göksu ( Turkish for "sky water" also called ''Geuk Su'', ''Goksu Nehri''; la, Saleph, grc, Καλύκαδνος, translit=Calycadnus) is a river on the Taşeli plateau (Turkey). Both its sources arise in the Taurus Mountains—the northern ...

is very important to the economy of the town. The government is planning to use a part of the river to water

Central Anatolia The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray. Located in Central Turkey, it is bordered ...

with the

Blue Tunnel Project Blue Tunnel Project, is an effort to provide large-scale irrigation to arid lands of Konya Plain, in the Turkish heartland, where agriculture and wildlife are under threat. Blue Tunnel, the most important part of the Konya Plain Project, is the ...

( tr, Mavi Tünel) referring to a tunnel with a capacity of 36 m³/s which will drain water to Bağbaşı in

Konya Province Konya Province ( tr, ), in southwest Central Anatolia, is the largest province of Turkey. The Province, provincial Capital (political), capital is the city of Konya. Its traffic code is 42. The Kızılören solar power plant in Konya will be ...

. Atayurt residents are afraid that this project may cause a partial drought around Atayurt and decrease agricultural production.Mayor's page

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Mersin Province Towns in Turkey Populated places in Silifke District