Çorlu (Turkish: [ˈtʃoɾɫu] ) is a municipality and district of Tekirdağ Province, northwestern Turkey.[4] Its area is 531 km2,[5] and its population is 350,000 (2022).[3] It is a rapidly growing industrial center built on flatland located on the motorway Otoyol 3 and off the highway D.100 between Istanbul and Turkey's border with Greece and Bulgaria. The nearest airport is Tekirdağ-Çorlu Airport (TEQ). It is the most populated city in Turkey entirely in Europe.
Çorlu | |
|---|---|
District and municipality | |
 Emlak Konutları towerblocks – a prominent site of the city | |
 Map showing Çorlu District in Tekirdağ Province | |
  Çorlu Location in Turkey  Çorlu Çorlu (Marmara) | |
| Coordinates: 41°09′N 27°48′E / 41.150°N 27.800°E | |
| Country | Turkey |
| Province | Tekirdağ |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ahmet Sarıkurt[1] (CHP) |
Area | 531 km2 (205 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 193 m (633 ft) |
| Population (2022)[3] | 290,155 |
| • Density | 550/km2 (1,400/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC 3 (TRT) |
| Area code | 0282 |
| Website | www |
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History
editBronze Age relics have been found in various areas of Thrace including Çorlu and by 1000 BC the area was a Phrygian-Greek colony. The area was subsequently controlled by the Greeks, Persians, Romans and Byzantines.
During Roman and Byzantine times, the town was referred to as Tzouroulos,[6] or Syrallo, and later became Tiroloi (Τυρολόη).[7] The spelling "Zorolus" is used for the Latinised form of the name of the episcopal see identified with present-day Çorlu in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees.[8] Some writers have identified the Roman town of Caenophrurium (the stronghold of the Caeni and the place where Emperor Aurelian was murdered in 275) with Çorlu, but this seems unlikely as the Antonine Itinerary lists Cenofrurium as two stages and 36 Roman miles (53 kilometre) closer to Byzantium than Tzirallum, and the Tabula Peutingeriana shows the locations separately.[7][9] There were important Roman and Byzantine fortifications at Caenophrurium, which was a base for controlling large areas of Thrace.
Ottoman era onwards
editFollowing a tumultuous early history, Çorlu was brought under Ottoman control by Sultan Murad I, who immediately ordered the destruction of the Roman walls as part of a policy of opening up the town under the Pax Ottomana. In the Ottoman period, the town remained an important staging post on the road from Constantinople to Greece.
The nearby village of Uğraşdere was the site of the battle in which Sultan Beyazid II defeated his son Selim I in August 1511; a year later Beyazid II was defeated by Selim, becoming the first Ottoman father to be overthrown by his son. Beyazid II died in Çorlu on his way to exile in Dimetoka. Coincidentally, Selim himself died in Çorlu nine years into his reign. Both father and son are buried in Istanbul.
In the late 18th century, when the Ottoman Empire began to decline in both military and economic power, the city found itself at the crossroads of numerous conflicts. Turkish refugees were settled in the city when the Ottomans lost control of Crimea to the Russians. The grandchildren of these refugees met the Russians themselves when Çorlu was briefly occupied by Russian troops during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. During the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Çorlu served as the command post for the Ottoman army, but was taken by Bulgarian troops in December 1912.; it was recaptured by Turkish forces during the Second Balkan War in July 1913. Çorlu was then occupied by Greek troops from 1920 to 1922 during the Turkish War of Independence, but was eventually ceded by Britain in accordance with the armistice of Mudanya. The Greeks of Çorlu (Tiroloi) then resettled in Ptolemaida after the population exchange.
The city became a part of the Republic of Turkey following its foundation in 1923. It continues to be an important garrison for the Turkish army as the home of the 189th Infantry Regiment. At the 2013 Turkish local government reorganisation part of the district of Çorlu was detached to form the new district Ergene.[10][11]
Çorlu today
edit
The city today is more populous than the provincial capital of Tekirdağ, owing to a population spurt initially caused by the exodus of Turks from Bulgaria in 1989 who complemented the traditional left-leaning, industrial working-class of Çorlu; a second wave of migrants from rural Anatolia came to work in the factories in the 1990s and they now make up much of the conservative populace of the city. There are also small Romani and Jewish communities.[12] For a while the city also had a population of ethnic Albanians and Bosnians flown in during the Kosovo conflict[13] as part of Turkey and North Macedonia's efforts to aid the populations of former Yugoslavia by offering them temporary asylum.
The town centre consists of a mixture of traditional structures and modern concrete apartment blocks providing public housing, as well as amenities such as basic shopping and fast-food restaurants, and essential infrastructure. However, there is little in the way of culture beyond cinemas and wedding-party venues. The road through the city center is often congested, as it isn't adequate for the needs of a city of a quarter million people. Local shopping facilities have recently been enhanced by the 25 km2 Orion Mall. There is little to no nightlife but, since Çorlu is close to Istanbul, locals can and often do easily go to "the city" for the weekend.
Çorlu today is a typical Turkish boomtown. The population grew rapidly without proper infrastructure being developed to cope. The city center has remained almost the same size since the early 1990s when the population started to rise. The prison, the 5th Army Corps, a gas station etc. used to be outside the town before the "boom" but are not part of the city center. Since around year 2000, the eastern side of the city has been filling up with tower blocks which constitute a satellite area. Alongside Omurtak Boulevard on the east side, many facilities appeared (banks, restaurants, malls, police station etc.), creating a second "center" and reducing the need to travel to the actual center.
Attractions
editÇorlu has very little to show for its past although the simple Fatih Mosque does date back to 1453 and the Süleymaniye Mosque to 1521.[14] In 1970,[15] the town's one synagogue was converted into the Yeni Camii (New Mosque). It was restored in accordance with the original design and without changing the ceiling decorations or column capitals.
Climate
editÇorlu experiences a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa),[16] with very warm, moderately dry summers, and cool, rainy, occasionally snowy winters.[17]
| Climate data for Çorlu (1991–2020) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.2 (45.0) |
8.7 (47.7) |
12.1 (53.8) |
17.2 (63.0) |
22.6 (72.7) |
27.4 (81.3) |
29.7 (85.5) |
29.7 (85.5) |
25.4 (77.7) |
19.8 (67.6) |
14.1 (57.4) |
9.0 (48.2) |
18.6 (65.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 3.8 (38.8) |
4.6 (40.3) |
7.3 (45.1) |
11.6 (52.9) |
16.7 (62.1) |
21.3 (70.3) |
23.5 (74.3) |
23.5 (74.3) |
19.5 (67.1) |
14.8 (58.6) |
10.0 (50.0) |
5.5 (41.9) |
13.6 (56.5) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 0.8 (33.4) |
1.4 (34.5) |
3.4 (38.1) |
6.9 (44.4) |
11.6 (52.9) |
15.7 (60.3) |
17.7 (63.9) |
18.0 (64.4) |
14.5 (58.1) |
10.8 (51.4) |
6.5 (43.7) |
2.6 (36.7) |
9.2 (48.6) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 53.88 (2.12) |
55.57 (2.19) |
51.0 (2.01) |
44.87 (1.77) |
48.68 (1.92) |
46.41 (1.83) |
29.76 (1.17) |
18.1 (0.71) |
41.9 (1.65) |
69.62 (2.74) |
62.77 (2.47) |
69.62 (2.74) |
592.18 (23.31) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 8.1 | 7.1 | 7.2 | 6.2 | 5.9 | 5.4 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 6.3 | 8.8 | 70.9 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 86.0 | 83.2 | 79.2 | 74.6 | 73.1 | 70.8 | 68.8 | 71.4 | 73.7 | 79.8 | 83.6 | 85.7 | 77.5 |
| Source: NOAA[18] | |||||||||||||
Economy
editWith more than 300 factories[citation needed], Çorlu is a major textile-producing town, with Levi's and Mavi Jeans being among the companies that have factories here as well as large outlet centers intended to attract consumers from all over Thrace and Istanbul (Levi's closed its Çorlu factory in August 2014).
Çorlu also produces foodstuffs and soft drinks like Coca-Cola, and Unilever products like Algida ice-cream and Calvé condiments. As of 2009, Hewlett-Packard and Foxconn Group have formed a joint venture to build a large factory and production complex that will enable the two companies to use Çorlu, and Turkey in general, as the hub of their production activities for Eastern Europe and the Middle East.[19]
Composition
editThere are 26 neighbourhoods in Çorlu District:[20]
- Alipaşa
- Cemaliye
- Çobançeşme
- Cumhuriyet
- Deregündüzlü
- Esentepe
- Hatip
- Havuzlar
- Hıdırağa
- Hürriyet
- Kazımiye
- Kemalettin
- Maksutlu
- Muhittin
- Nusratiye
- Önerler
- Reşadiye
- Rumeli
- Şahpaz
- Sarılar
- Şeyhsinan
- Seymen
- Silahtarağa
- Türkgücü
- Yenice
- Zafer
International relations
edit
Notes
edit- ^ "Başkanımız Ahmet SARIKURT".
- ^ "İlçemiz".
- ^ a b "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports" (XLS). TÜİK. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ Comnena c. 1148, p. 242
- ^ a b Tabula Peutingeriana
- ^ Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 1013
- ^ Otto Cuntz, ed. (1990), Itineraria Antonini Augusti et Burdigalense, Vieweg Teubner Verlag, p. 33, ISBN 9783519042730
- ^ "İl İdaresi ve Mülki Bölümler Şube Müdürlüğü İstatistikleri - İl ve İlçe Kuruluş Tarihleri" (PDF) (in Turkish). p. 78. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
- ^ "Law No. 6360". Official Gazette (in Turkish). 6 December 2012.
- ^ Avotaynu: the international review of Jewish genealogy, Volume 14, G. Mokotoff, 1998, p. 40.
- ^ "More Kosovo refugees flown out of Macedonia". Cnn.com. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
- ^ "ÇORLU". www.turkeyfromtheinside.com. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
- ^ "Çorlu camileri" (in Turkish). T.C. Çorlu Müftülüğü. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
- ^ "Table 1 Overview of the Köppen-Geiger climate classes including the defining criteria". Nature: Scientific Data.
- ^ "Kar Örtülü Gün Sayısı" (PDF). MGM.
- ^ "World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991-2020 — Çorlu". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
- ^ "STAR - Haberler, Son Dakika, Haber, Son Dakika Haberleri". www.stargazete.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2009.
- ^ Mahalle, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
- ^ "Yurtdışı Kardeş Şehirlerimiz". www.corlu.bel.tr. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
References
edit- Comnena, Anna (c. 1148). The Alexiad of Anna Comnena. Translated by E.R.A. Sewter. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140449587.
External links
edit
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 270.