Yayladağı (), formerly Ordu (; ), 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 445 km², and its population is 36,803 (2022). It is on the border with

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, south of the city of

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 ...

. Yayladağı was heavily damaged by powerful earthquakes in February 2023 and subsequent aftershocks.

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 Fleisch ...

noted that the town was made up of 150 Muslim and 30 Greek households. He further listed 29 additional settlements in the Ottoman

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

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 ( ; ), also spelled Kesab or Kasab, is a town in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Latakia Governorate, located 59 kilometers north of Latakia. It is situated near the border with Turkey on the slope of Mount Aqraa, 800 me ...

(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 Syrian Turkmen, also called Syrian Turks or Syrian Turkish people (; ) are Syrian citizens of Turkish origin who mainly trace their roots to Anatolia (i.e. modern Turkey). Turkish-speaking Syrian Turkmen make up the third largest ethnic group ...

moved here from

Turkmen Mountain Turkmen Mountain (; ''Jabal Turkman'', ) is a mountain range in the north of the Latakia region of Syria, in the area called Bayırbucak locally in Turkish, neighboring the Turkish border. The name is not historically attested in written sourc ...

Geography

Today, Yayladağı itself is a small town, providing the district with a health centre, high schools and other basics. This is a mountainous district with a typical

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 ...

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

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

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 ...

, vegetables, grains and other crops, the remainder is forest and mountain. The mountainsides are covered with

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods. Sanda ...

and rough

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

, or else shrubs including bay,

thyme Thyme () is a culinary herb consisting of the dried aerial parts of some members of the genus ''Thymus (plant), Thymus'' of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are native to Eurasia and north Africa. Thymes have culinary, medici ...

and

oleander ''Nerium oleander'' ( ), commonly known as oleander or rosebay, 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 genus ...

. 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 D.825 ( European route E91) connects the border checkpoint with

Composition

There are 47

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 Yayladağı District:Mahalle
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023. * Arslanyazı * Aşağıpulluyazı * Aydınbahçe * Ayışığı * Bezge * Bozlu * Çabala * Çakıköy * Çaksına * Çamaltı * Çandır * Çatbaşı * Çayır * Denizgören * Dusduru * Eğerci * Görentaş * Gözlüce * Gürışık * Güveççi * Güzelyurt * Hisarcık * Karacurun * Karaköse * Kışlak * Kızılçat * Kösrelik * Kulaç * Kurtuluş * Leylekli * Olgunlar * Şakşak * Sebenoba * Şenköy * Sungur * Sürütme * Turfanda * Tutlubahçe * Üçırmak * Uluyol * Yalaz * Yayıkdamlar * Yeniceköy * Yeşiltepe * Yoncakaya * Yukarıokçular * Yukarıpulluyazı

References

External links

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