Toroslar is a municipality and district governorate in Greater

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 ...

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 ...

. Mersin is one of 30

metropolitan centers in Turkey There are 81 provinces in Turkey ( tr, il). Among the 81 provinces, 30 provinces are designated metropolitan municipalities ( tr, büyükşehir belediyeleri). Metropolitan municipalities are subdivided into districts ( tr, ilçe), where each dist ...

with more than one municipality within city borders. Now in Mersin there are four second-level municipalities in addition to Greater Mersin (''büyükşehir'') municipality. The mayor of Toroslar is Atsız Afşin Yılmaz (member of MHP, elected in 2019)).

Geography

Toroslar composes the northern quarters of Mersin at about . The sister municipality of

Akdeniz Akdeniz is a municipality and district governorate in Greater Mersin, Turkey. Mersin is one of the 30 Metropolitan centers in Turkey with more than one municipality within city borders. Now in Mersin there are four second-level municipalities ...

lies in the southeast.

Müftü River Efrenk River (also called Suntras or Arslanlöy River in the upper reaches and Müftü River in the lower reaches) is a short river in Mersin Province, Turkey. It was originally called Efrenk River. After a mosque named Müftü Mosque was built by ...

and the sister municipality of Yenişehir lie in the south west. Southern slopes of

Toros mountains The Taurus Mountains ( Turkish: ''Toros Dağları'' or ''Toroslar'') are a mountain complex in southern Turkey, separating the Mediterranean coastal region from the central Anatolian Plateau. The system extends along a curve from Lake Eğirdir ...

lie in the north. Mersin intrafaith cemetery is in Toroslar.

History

Yumuktepe Yumuktepe (or Yümüktepe) is a tell (ruin mound) at within the city borders of Mersin, Turkey. In 1936, the mound was on the outskirts of Mersin, but after a rapid increase of population, the mound was surrounded by the Toroslar municipality o ...

, the ruins of one of the earliest human settlements in

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

is in Toroslar. Excavations by

John Garstang John Garstang (5 May 1876 – 12 September 1956) was a British archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt, Sudan, Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the younger brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS, a marine biol ...

and

Seton Lloyd Seton Howard Frederick Lloyd, CBE (30 May 1902, Birmingham, England – 7 January 1996, Faringdon, England), was an English archaeologist. He was President of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, Director of the British Institute of Archaeol ...

both of which were directors of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, revealed 23 levels of occupation, the earliest dating from c. 6300 BC. The site however was abandoned during

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

period. Modern settlement began in the 19th century. Originally a part of Mersin municipality, the municipality of Toroslar was established in 1993 as a secondary level municipality and the corresponding district governorate was established in 2008.

Population

According to 2020 figures the population of Toroslar is 310,606 (155,881 male and 154.725 female citizens), which makes it the most populous intracity municipality of Mersin.Population page
/ref> Approximately 30% of Mersin citizens live in Toroslar. The majority of residents are blue-collar workers who work at factories or in the fields. Toroslar, Mersin

Politics

Different ethnic groups live together in Toroslar. Among these groups are the

Yörüks The Yörüks, also Yuruks or Yorouks ( tr, Yörükler; , ''Youroúkoi''; bg, юруци; mk, Јуруци, ''Juruci''), are a Turkish ethnic subgroup of Oghuz descent, some of whom are nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia ...

living in the higher parts of the district, the

Alevis Alevism or Anatolian Alevism (; tr, Alevilik, ''Anadolu Aleviliği'' or ''Kızılbaşlık''; ; az, Ələvilik) is a local Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Alevi Islamic ( ''bāṭenī'') teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, ...

who came from all over Turkey, the

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...

who immigrated from the eastern provinces and the

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

who are native to Mersin. The diversity of ethnicities in the district means that all of the country's major political parties receive more than a certain percentage of votes. While the Yörüks generally support the ultranationalist MHP and the conservative AKP, it is observed that most of them are moving to the

Good Party The Good Party ( Turkish: ''İyi Parti'') is a nationalist, national conservative, Kemalist, and liberal democrat political party in Turkey, established on 25 October 2017 by its current leader Meral Akşener. Their fraternal party is the liber ...

. There is an intense Alevi

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

population supporting the CHP. The dense Kurdish population ensures that HDP's vote is quite high.

Rural area

There are 32 villages and five towns in the rural area of Toroslar. These are situated to the north of Toroslar.

Sport

Sports venues in the district are the 325-seat multi-sport venue,

Mersin District 7 Sports Hall The Mersin District 7 Sports Hall ( tr, 7. Bölge Spor Salonu) is a multi-sport indoor arena located at Toroslar district of Mersin Province, Turkey. Owned by the Mersin National Education Directoriate, the sports hall was leased free of charge to ...

, and new-built

Toroslar Bocce Facility The Toroslar Bocce Facility ( tr, Toroslar Bocce Tesisi) is a 16-court indoor arena, indoor sports venue for bocce events at Toroslar district in Mersin, Turkey. Built for use by the Bocce at the 2013 Mediterranean Games, 2013 Mediterranean Games ...

, both used during the

2013 Mediterranean Games The 2013 Mediterranean Games ( tr, 2013 Akdeniz Oyunları), officially known as the XVII Mediterranean Games ( tr, XVII Akdeniz Oyunları) and commonly known as Mersin 2013, was an international multi-sport event held from 20 to 30 June 2013 i ...

International relations

Toroslar is twinned with: * Uzgen,

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...

References

{{Mersin Province Populated places in Mersin Province Toroslar District Districts of Mersin Province