Yayladağı (), formerly Ordu, ( ar, اوردو, translit=ʾŪrdū; ) is a town and district of

Hatay Province Hatay Province ( tr, Hatay ili, ) is the southernmost province of Turkey. It is situated almost entirely outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province borders Syria to its south and east, the Turkish province of A ...

in southern Turkey, on the border between Turkey and Syria, south of the city of

Antakya Antakya (), historically known as Antioch ( el, Ἀντιόχεια; hy, Անտիոք, Andiok), is the capital of Hatay Province, the southernmost province of Turkey. The city is located in a well-watered and fertile valley on the Orontes River, ...

History

The district has a long history dating back to the Hittites. Islam was brought here by the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...

s, and from 1075 onwards the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

. During the Crusades, the mountains were part of the principality of

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ� ...

, then they returned to Muslim control, and in 1518 were brought into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Selim I during his campaign into Egypt.

Demographics

19th-century German traveler

Martin Hartmann Martin Hartmann (9 December 1851, Breslau – 5 December 1918, Berlin) was a German orientalist, who specialized in Islamic studies. In 1875, he received his doctorate at the University of Leipzig as a student of Heinrich Leberecht Fleis ...

noted that the town was made up of 150 Muslim and 30 Greek households. He further listed 29 additional settlements in the Ottoman nahiyah of Urdu: 18 settlements were Sunni Muslim (totaling to 495 houses), 14 of which were Turkish (400 houses). 1 settlement was Alawite (20 houses). 2 settlements were Armenian, one being

Kessab Kessab, Kesab, or Kasab ( ar, كسب ; hy, Քեսապ, Kesab) is a mostly Armenian-populated town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Latakia Governorate, located 59 kilometers north of Latakia. It is situated near the border wit ...

(200 houses) and the other a village (15 houses). Hartmann didn't include any information on the remaining 7 settlements. After the Syrian Civil War broke out, nearly 2,000 Syrian Turkmen moved here from Turkmen Mountain.
Bayırbucak Türkmenleri Yayladağı'ndaki kampa alınıyor

Geography

Today, Yayladağı itself is a small town of 5,717 people as of 2000 census, providing the district with a health centre, high schools and other basics. This is a mountainous district with a typical Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and warm, wet winters, but being inland and high up, Yayladağı is cooler than most of Hatay, even seeing snow on the mountain peaks in winter. The main source of income is agriculture, of the land (small valleys and plateau in the mountains) is cultivated with olives,

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus ''Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the chie ...

, vegetables, grains and other crops, the remainder is forest and mountain. The mountainsides are covered with pine, sandalwood and rough oak, or else shrubs including bay, thyme and

oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), most commonly known as oleander or nerium, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the ge ...

. Animals, especially goats, are grazed on the hillsides. Yayladağı has a border crossing into Syria, and the village of Topraktutan, Turkey's southernmost point. The state road (European route ) connects the border checkpoint with

References

External links

District governorate's official website
Syria–Turkey border crossings Populated places in Hatay Province Districts of Hatay Province Towns in Turkey {{Hatay-geo-stub