Erzin, also known as Yeşilkent, is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Hatay Province Hatay Province (, ) is the southernmost province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is , and its population is 1,686,043 (2022). It is situated mostly outside Anatolia, along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea. The province ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its area is 258 km², and its population is 41,558 (2022). It is on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast. The mayor is Ökkeş Elmasoğlu ( CHP).

Geography

Erzin is on the west-facing flanks of the

Nur Mountains The Nur Mountains (, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Mount Amanus (), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of south-central Turkey. It begins sou ...

and runs down to the

Gulf of İskenderun The Gulf of Alexandretta or İskenderun () is a gulf of the eastern Mediterranean or Levantine Sea. It lies beside the southern Turkish provinces of Adana and Hatay. Names The gulf is named for the nearby Turkish city of İskenderun, the cl ...

on the Mediterranean coast. The climate is warm and wet in winter, hot and extremely humid in summer, when most people retreat further up into the pine-covered hills, or to the beach. Erzin is an attractive district well known for its high-quality

citrus fruit ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Mandarin orange, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, ...

s, the major economic activity of the district. Grains and vegetables are also grown, especially since irrigation works were built in the 1960s. Today 65,000 m² are planted with grains and another 65,000 m² with all kind of citrus fruits including Navel orange,

grapefruit The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The flesh of the fruit is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark red. Grapefru ...

and tangerines. Other income is generated by holidaymakers on the coast. The main road and the railway line between the cities of Osmaniye and

İskenderun İskenderun (), historically known as Alexandretta (, ) and Scanderoon, is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is 247 km2, and its population is 251,682 (2022). It is on the Mediterranean coas ...

run through here, and Iskenderun with its large steel plant has an effect on the economy of the whole region. Erzin itself is a quiet market town providing government services to the district.

Composition

There are 20

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Erzin District: * Aşağıburnaz * Bahçelievler * Başlamış * Cumhuriyet * Gökdere * Gökgöl * Hürriyet * İsalı * İstiklal * Karamustafalı * Kızlarçayı * Kuyuluk * Mahmutlu * Mustafalı * Şükrü Paşa * Turunçlu * Yeni * Yeşiltepe * Yoncadüzü * Yukarıburnaz

History

The area was settled by

Anatolian beyliks Anatolian beyliks (, Ottoman Turkish: ''Tavâif-i mülûk'', ''Beylik''; ) were Turkish principalities (or petty kingdoms) in Anatolia governed by ''beys'', the first of which were founded at the end of the 11th century. A second and more exte ...

, and was brought into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

after the defeat of the Beyliks at the Battle of Otlukbeli in 1473.

2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake

Erzin was the sole district of

to have none of its buildings collapse in the aftermath of the

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

, despite being closer to the epicenter than other cities such as Iskenderun and

Antakya Antakya (), Turkish form of Antioch, is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is . Prior to the devastating 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, 2023 earthquakes, its population was recorded ...

which suffered greater damage. The mayor, Ökkeş Elmasoğlu claimed it was due to strict construction of housing; the district mostly consists of single houses, local authorities prohibited unsafe and substandard construction to a much greater degree than nearby areas, and apartment blocks do not have many floors. Even older structures such as houses from 60 years ago survived the earthquake. Additionally, the city had fared relatively well during previous earthquakes. However, engineers and scientists (such as Omer Emre) attributed the town escaping unscathed to geological factors, such as Erzin's relatively higher sea level compared to surrounding towns, and it being built upon harder ground, consisting of

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

and coarser grains than sand, compared to softer, water-laden

sediments Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

like that of cities to the south. A municipal worker estimated that about 20,000 people had come to the town in the aftermath of the earthquake.

International relations

Erzin is twinned with the following cities: * Freiberg am Neckar, Germany *

Quba Quba () is a city and the administrative centre of the Quba District (Azerbaijan), Quba District of Azerbaijan. The city lies on the north-eastern slopes of Mount Shahdagh, Shahdag mountain, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level, on the ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

, since 2011

References

External links

* -
info and photos
{{Districts of Turkey, provname=Hatay Populated places in Hatay Province Districts of Hatay Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey