Sultanbeyli () is a
district of
Istanbul,
Turkey, located inland on the
Asian side (
Anadolu Yakasi)
of the
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
. It has a population of 298,143 as of 2011, more than triple the 1990 figure of 82,298. The mayor is Hüseyin Keskin of the
Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being:
* Justice and Development Party (Morocco)
* Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
Justice and Development Party may also refer to:
* Justice and Dev ...
. Sultanbeyli is a
landlocked
A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked de facto states. Kazakhstan is the world's largest ...
district, bordered by
Sancaktepe
Sancaktepe is a district in the suburbs of Istanbul, Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located ma ...
to the west,
Pendik
Pendik is a district of Istanbul, Turkey on the Asian side between Kartal and Tuzla, on the Marmara Sea. Home to Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. Population is 711,894. It also neighbours Sultanbeyli, Sancaktepe and Çekmeköy from nort ...
to the east and
Kartal to the south-west.
History
Historically the Sultanbeyli area was farmland on the far outskirts of Istanbul until 1945 when the large land holdings of the
Ottoman period were broken up, and 7,500
acres of land around the old
Ankara-Istanbul road was paralyzed for the settlement of Turkish migrants from
Bulgaria. In 1957, Sultanbeyli was formally organized as a
village; after its establishment, some shareholders began to sell their plots of land. The handover of the title deed for these sales could not be carried out because the forestry administration put restrictions on Sultanbeyli, but the sales continued.
Sultanbeyli became a large settlement center in the late 1980s following the connection of the
O-4 Motorway to the newly constructed
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge
The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge ("Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror Bridge"), also known as the Second Bosphorus Bridge (in Turkish: ''Fatih Sultan Mehmet Köprüsü'', ''F.S.M. Köprüsü'' or ''2. Köprü''), is a bridge in Istanbul, Turkey spannin ...
in 1988. The new transport links made the village an attractive
location for settlement, and between 1985 and 1990, Sultanbeyli's population skyrocketed from 3741 to 82 298. On December 31, 1987, the decision was made to establish Sultanbeyli as a
municipality in the
Kartal district of Istanbul, however, the administrative problems caused by the excessive population increase led to the first municipal elections only being held on 26 March 1989, and to the municipality being separated from
Kartal into its own district in 1992. This caused Sultanbeyli to develop a reputation as a
slum
A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...
, but it has since transitioned into a
working class suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
.
See also
the local municipality website
References
Populated places in Istanbul Province
Districts of Istanbul Province
{{Istanbul-geo-stub