Yeşiltepe (former ''Çatalkeli'') is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Tarsus, Mersin Province,

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 ...

. Its population is 2,137 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town ('' belde'').

Geography

Yeşiltepe is located between Tarsus (8 kilometres to the south) and the coast of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

(8 kilometres to the north) in the plains of

Çukurova Çukurova () or the Cilician Plain (''Cilicia Pedias'' in antiquity), is a large fertile plain in the Cilicia region of southern Turkey. The plain covers the easternmost areas of Mersin Province, southern and central Adana Province, western Osman ...

Karabucak Forest Karabucak Forest is a forest plantation in Turkey Geography The forest is at the south of Tarsus city in Mersin Province. The center of the forest is at about . The distance to Tarsus is and to Mersin is . There are two sections in the forest. ...

is slightly to the north of Yeşiltepe.

History

No document exists about the deep history of the settlement. But probably before the project of Karabucak forest during the republican era, it was only a small village because of the marshes around the village which made the otherwise fertile plains unarable. After the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the village (then known as Çatalkeli) was occupied by the

French army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

. After the treaty of Ankara (1921) and the project of Karabucak forest, the population of the village began to increase. The name of the village was changed to Çataltepe in 1965 and to Çatalkuyu after a merger with another settlement. In 1989, the village was declared a township and renamed as Yeşiltepe.Town page
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Economy

The town enjoys triple cropping income. The main agricultural products are vegetables such as leek, cabbage and tomato. Water melon is another important crop.

References

{{Mersin-geo-stub Neighbourhoods in Tarsus District