Akçakale ( ar, أقجة قلعة) is an ethnic Arab town and a district of

Şanlıurfa Province Şanlıurfa Province ( tr, Şanlıurfa ili; ku, Parêzgeha Rihayê) or simply Urfa Province is a province in southeastern Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which bears its name. The population is 1,845,667 (2014). The ...

, in southeastern

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

. Akçakale forms a

divided city A divided city is one which, as a consequence of political changes or border shifts, currently constitutes (or once constituted) two separate entities, or an urban area with a border running through it. Listed below are the localities and the stat ...

with

Tell Abyad Tell Abyad; ku, گرێ سپی, Girê Spî; hy, Թել Աբյադ; syr, ܬܠ ܐܒܝܕ. is a town in northern Syria. It is the administrative center of the Tell Abyad District within the Raqqa Governorate. Located along the Balikh River, it cons ...

in Syria, maintaining a

border crossing Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...

. The Mayor is Mehmet Yalçınkaya ( AKP). The current District Governor is Hamza Özer. Map of Akcakale and Tell Abyad

Syrian Civil War

On October 3, 2012, Akçakale was hit by shells from across the Syrian border in

, killing five civilians.La Turquie riposte après des tirs d'obus syriens sur son sol
''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...

'', 04/10/2012 In October 2014, there was an

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

presence in the town, due to the porous nature of the border at that time between Akçakale and Tell Abyad, which was then part of the Islamic State. When Tell Abyad was taken by the Kurdish-majority

People's Protection Units The People's Defense Units (YPG), (YPG) ; ar, وحدات حماية الشعب, Waḥdāt Ḥimāyat aš-Šaʽb) also called People's Protection Units, is a mainly- Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Syrian Democra ...

in June 2015, the Turkish government then closed the border.

Transportation

Akçakale is at the southern end of the TUR-D-885 highway.

Sport

The Akçakale Belediyespor plays in the Akçakale Ilçe Stadium and competes currently in the Turkish amateur league.

Climate

Akçakale has a

hot-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: ''Csa'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akcakale Populated places in Şanlıurfa Province Districts of Şanlıurfa Province Divided cities on the Turkish-Syrian border Syria–Turkey border crossings Arab settlements in Turkey