İzmir

Alexander the Great re-founded the city at a new location beyond the Meles River around 340 BC. Alexander had defeated the Persians in several battles and finally the Emperor Darius III himself at Issus in 333 BC. Old Smyrna on a small hill by the sea was large enough only for a few thousand people. Therefore, the slopes of Mount Pagos (Kadifekale) were chosen for the foundation of the new city, for which Alexander is credited, and this act laid the ground for a resurgence in the city's population.

Agora of Smyrna, built during the Hellenistic era at the base of Pagos Hill and totally rebuilt under Marcus Aurelius after the destructive 178 AD earthquake in Smyrna

Head of the poet Sappho found in ancient Smyrna. Roman marble copy of an original statue from the Hellenistic period, at the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

In 133 BC, Eumenes III, the last king of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum, was about to die without an heir. In his will, he bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman Republic, and this included Smyrna. The city thus came under Roman rule as a civil diocese within the Province of Asia and enjoyed a new period of prosperity. Towards the close of the 1st century AD, Smyrna appeared as one of the seven churches of Asia (Revelation 2:9). Apostle John urged his followers to remain Christians: "Be faithful to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).

Given the importance of the city, Roman emperors who came to Anatolia also visited Smyrna. In early AD 124, Emperor Hadrian visited Smyrna on his journeys across the Empire[11] and possibly Caracalla came in 214–215. Smyrna was a fine city with stone-paved streets.

In AD 178, the city was devastated by an earthquake. Emperor Marcus Aurelius contributed greatly to the rebuilding of the city. During this period the agora was restored. Many of the works of architecture from the city's pre-Turkish period date from this period.

After the Roman Empire was divided into two distinct entities, Smyrna became a territory of the Eastern Roman Empire. The city kept its status as a notable religious center in the early Byzantine period, but never returned to the Roman levels of prosperity.

Beylik of Aydın in the 14th century

The Turkic peoples first captured Smyrna under the Seljuk commander Çaka Bey in 1076, along with Klazomenai, Foça and a number of the Aegean Islands. Çaka Bey (known as Tzachas among the Byzantines) used İzmir as a base for his naval operations.[12][13] In 1097, the Byzantine commander John Doukas recaptured the city and the neighboring region.[14][13] The port city was then captured by the Knights of St John when Constantinople was conquered by the Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, but the Nicaean Empire would reclaim possession of the city soon afterwards, albeit by according vast concessions to their Genoese allies who kept one of the city's castles and the lordship of the towns of Old Phocaea and New Phocaea (now part of the İzmir Province) from 1275 to 1340.[15][16]

Smyrna was captured again in the 14th century by Umur Bey, the son of the founder of the Beylik of Aydın who first took the upper fort of Mount Pagos (thereafter called Kadifekale), and then the lower port castle of Neon Kastron (called St. Peter by the Genoese and as "Ok Kalesi" by the Turks). As Tzachas had done two centuries before, Umur Bey used the city as a base for naval raids. In 1344, a coalition of forces coordinated by Pope Clement VI took back the lower castle in a surprise attack in the Smyrniote crusades. A sixty-year period of uneasy cohabitation between the two powers, the Beyliks holding the upper castle and the Knights the lower, followed by Umur Bey's death in 1348.

Hisar Mosque (1592–1598) in the Kemeraltı neighbourhood of İzmir

Old Ottoman houses in Urla, İzmir

The port of İzmir, from an 1883 encyclopedia

The upper city of İzmir was captured from its Aydinid rulers by the Ottomans for the first time in 1389 during the reign of Bayezid I, who led his armies toward the five Western Anatolian Beyliks in the winter of the same year he had come to the throne. In 1402, however, Timur (Tamerlane) won the Battle of Ankara against the Ottomans, putting a serious check on the Ottoman state for the two following decades and handing back the territories of most of the Beyliks to their former ruling dynasties. Timur attacked and destroyed Smyrna and was responsible for the massacre of most of the Christian population, which constituted the vast majority in Smyrna.[17][18] In 1415, Mehmet I took back İzmir for the Ottomans for the second time. With the death of the last bey of Aydın, İzmiroğlu Cüneyd Bey, in 1426 the city passed fully under Ottoman control. İzmir's first Ottoman governor was Alexander, a converted son of the Bulgarian Shishman dynasty. During the campaigns against Cüneyd, the Ottomans were assisted by the forces of the Knights Hospitaller who pressed the Sultan to return the port castle to them. However, the sultan refused to make this concession, despite the resulting tensions between the two camps, and he gave the Hospitallers permission to build a castle (the present-day Bodrum Castle) in Petronium (Bodrum) instead.

In a landward-looking arrangement somewhat against its nature, the city and its present-day dependencies became an Ottoman sanjak (sub-province) either inside the larger vilayet (province) of Aydın part of the eyalet of Anatolia, with its capital in Kütahya or in "Cezayir" (i.e. "Islands" referring to "the Aegean Islands"). In the 15th century, two notable events for the city were a surprise Venetian raid in 1475 and the arrival of Sephardic Jews from Spain after 1492; they later made İzmir one of their principal urban centers in Ottoman lands. İzmir may have been a rather sparsely populated place in the 15th and 16th centuries, as indicated by the first extant Ottoman records describing the town dating from 1528. In 1530, 304 adult males, both tax-paying and tax-exempt were on record, 42 of them Christians. There were five urban wards, one of these situated in the immediate vicinity of the port, rather active despite the town's small size and where the non-Muslim population was concentrated. By 1576, İzmir had grown to house 492 taxpayers in eight urban wards and had a number of dependent villages.[19] This corresponded to a total population estimated between 3500 and 5000.

İzmir's remarkable growth began in the late 16th century when cotton and other products of the region brought French, English, Dutch and Venetian traders here. With the privileged trading conditions accorded to foreigners in 1620 (these were the infamous capitulations that were later to cause a serious threat and setback for the Ottoman state in its decline), İzmir began to be one of the foremost trade centers of the Empire. Foreign consulates moved from Chios to the city by the early 17th century (1619 for the French Consulate, 1621 for the British), serving as trade centers for their nations. Each consulate had its own quay, where the ships under their flag would anchor. The long campaign for the conquest of Crete (22 years between 1648 and 1669) also considerably enhanced İzmir's position within the Ottoman realm since the city served as a port of dispatch and supply for the troops.[20]

Despite facing a plague in 1676, an earthquake in 1688, and a great fire in 1743, the city continued to grow. By the end of the 17th century, the population was estimated at around ninety thousand, the Turks forming the majority (about 60,000); there were also 15,000 Greeks, 8,000 Armenians and 6,000 to 7,000 Jews, as well as a considerable section made up of French, English, Dutch and Italian merchants.[21] In the meantime, the Ottomans had allowed İzmir's inner bay dominated by the port castle to silt up progressively (the location of the present-day Kemeraltı bazaar zone) and the port castle ceased to be of use.

In 1770, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by Russian forces at the Battle of Çeşme, located near the city. This triggered fanatical Muslim groups to proceed to the massacre of c. 1,500 local Greeks.[22] Later, in 1797 a riot resulting from the indiscipline of janissaries corps led to massive destruction of the Frankish merchant community and the killing of 1,500 members of the city's Greek community.[23] In 1818, traveller William Jowett described the distribution of Smyrna (now Izmir)'s population: Turks 60,000, Greeks 40,000, Jews 10,000, Latins 3,000, Armenians 7,000.[24]

The St. Stepanos Armenian Church (1863) located in the Basmane district served the Armenian community of İzmir. It was burned during the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922.[25]

The first railway lines to be built within the present-day territory of Turkey went from İzmir. A 130 km (81 mi) İzmir-Aydın railway was started in 1856 and finished in 1867, a year later than the Smyrna-Cassaba Railway, itself started in 1863.[26] In 1865 the population was estimated by the British (Hyde Clarke) at 180,000 with minorities of 80,000 Greeks, 8,000 Armenians and 10,000 Jews.[27]The wide arc of the Smyrna-Cassaba line advancing in a wide arc to the north-west from İzmir, through the Karşıyaka suburb, contributed greatly to the development of the northern shores as urban areas. These new developments, typical of the industrial age and the way the city attracted merchants and middlemen gradually changed the demographic structure of the city, its culture and its Ottoman character. In 1867, İzmir finally became the center of its own vilayet, still called by neighboring Aydın's name but with its own administrative area covering a large part of Turkey's present-day Aegean Region.

In the late 19th century, the port was threatened by a build-up of silt in the gulf and an initiative, unique in the history of the Ottoman Empire, was undertaken in 1886. In order to redirect the silt, the bed of the Gediz River was redirected to its present-day northern course, so that it no longer flowed into the gulf. The beginning of the 20th century saw İzmir take on the look of a global metropolis with a cosmopolitan city center. According to the 1893 Ottoman census, more than half of the population was Turkish, with 133,800 Greeks, 9,200 Armenians, 17,200 Jews, and 54,600 foreign nationals.[28] According to author Katherine Flemming, by 1919, Smyrna's 150,000 Greeks made up just under half of the population, outnumbering the Turks in the city two to one,[29] while the American Consul General, George Horton, records 165,000 Turks, 150,000 Greeks, 25,000 Jews, 25,000 Armenians, and 20,000 foreigners (Italians, French, British, Americans).[30] According to Henry Morgenthau and Trudy Ring, before World War I, the Greeks alone numbered 130,000, out of a total population of 250,000.[31][32] Moreover, according to various scholars, prior to the war, the city hosted more Greeks than Athens, the capital of Greece.[33][34] The Ottoman ruling class of that era referred to the city as Infidel Smyrna (Gavur İzmir) due to its strong Greek presence.[31][32]

MaviBahçe

Hilltown Karşıyaka

Shopping malls in the Mavişehir quarter of Karşıyaka

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the victors had, for a time, intended to carve up large parts of Anatolia into respective zones of influence and offered the western regions of Turkey to Greece under the Treaty of Sèvres. On 15 May 1919, the Greek Army landed in Smyrna, but the Greek expedition towards central Anatolia was disastrous for both that country and for the local Greeks of Anatolia. By September 1922 the Greek army had been defeated and the last Greek soldiers left Smyrna on 8 September 1922.

İzmir Chamber of Commerce in Konak

The Turkish Army retook possession of the city on 9 September 1922, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). Four days later, on 13 September 1922, a great fire broke out in the city, lasting until 22 September. The fire completely destroyed the Greek and Armenian quarters, while the Muslim and Jewish quarters escaped damage.[35] Estimated Greek and Armenians deaths resulting from the fire range from 10,000[36][37] to 100,000[38][39] Approximately 50,000[40] to 400,000[41] Greek and Armenian refugees crammed the waterfront to escape from the fire and were forced to remain there under harsh conditions for nearly two weeks. The systematic evacuation of Greeks on the quay started on 24 September when the first Greek ships entered the harbor under the supervision of Allied destroyers.[42] Some 150,000 to 200,000 Greeks were evacuated in total.[37] The remaining Greeks left for Greece in 1923, as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, a stipulation of the Treaty of Lausanne, which formally ended the Greco-Turkish War.

Mistral Office Tower (left) and Folkart Towers (right) in the Bayraklı district, where the city's tallest skyscrapers are located

The war, and especially the events that took place in İzmir, such as the fire, probably the greatest disaster the city has ever experienced, continue to influence the psyches of the two nations to this day. The Turks have claimed that the Greek army landing was marked from the very first day by the "first bullet" fired on Greek detachments by the journalist Hasan Tahsin and the bayonetting to death of Colonel Fethi Bey and his unarmed soldiers in the city's historic barracks (Sarı Kışla — the Yellow Barracks), for refusing to shout "Zito o Venizelos" ("Long Live Venizelos"). The Greeks, on the other hand, have cited the numerous atrocities committed by the Turkish soldiers against the Greeks and Armenians (locals or hinterland refugees) in İzmir. These include the lynching of the Orthodox Metropolitan Chrysostomos following the recapture of the city on 9 September 1922 and the slaughter of Armenian and Greek males, who were then sent to the so-called labour battalions.[43] The city was, once again, gradually rebuilt after the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

In 2020, the city was damaged by the Aegean Sea earthquake and tsunami, which was the deadliest seismic event of that year. 117 people died and 1,034 more were injured in Turkey, all but one of whom were from the city of İzmir.[44]

The city of İzmir is composed of several metropolitan districts. Of these, the district of Konak corresponds to historical İzmir, with this district's area having constituted the city's central "İzmir Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Belediyesi) until 1984. With the formation of the "İzmir Metropolitan Municipality" (Turkish: İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi), the city of İzmir at first grouped together its eleven (initially nine) urban districts – namely Balçova, Bayraklı, Bornova, Buca, Çiğli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karabağlar, Karşıyaka, Konak, and Narlıdere – and later consolidated them with an additional nine of the province's districts outside the city proper.[45][46] In 2013, the passing of Act 6360 established all thirty of İzmir Province's districts as part of İzmir's metropolitan area.[47]

İzmir prides itself with its busy schedule of trade fairs, exhibitions and congresses. The fair and the festival are held in the compound of İzmir's vast inner city park named Kültürpark in the first days of September, and organized by İZFAŞ, a depending company of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.

Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center

The annual International İzmir Festival, which begins in mid-June and continues until mid-July, has been organized every year since 1987. During the festival, many world-class performers such as soloists and virtuosi, orchestras, dance companies, rock and jazz groups have given recitals and performances at various venues in the city and its surrounding areas; including the ancient theatres at Ephesus (near Selçuk) and Metropolis (an ancient Ionian city situated near the town of Torbalı.) The festival is a member of the European Festivals Association since 2003.

The İzmir European Jazz Festival is among the numerous events organized every year by the İKSEV (İzmir Foundation for Culture, Arts and Education) since 1994. The festival aims to bring together masters and lovers of jazz with the aim to generate feelings of love, friendship and peace.

The International İzmir Short Film Festival is organized since 1999 and is a member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals.

İzmir Metropolitan Municipality has built the Ahmet Adnan Saygun Art Center on a 21,000 m² land plot in the Güzelyalı district, in order to contribute to the city's culture and art life. The acoustics of the center have been prepared by ARUP which is a noted company in this field.[57]

In 2015 the Barış Youth Symphony Orchestra was founded, incorporating children with limited opportunities in low-income regions of the city, with the purpose to keep them away from crime on the street. The orchestra, grown up to nearly one hundred members, gives concerts accompanied by notable classic music artists.[58]

İzmir's cuisine has largely been affected by its multicultural history, hence the large variety of food originating from the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. Population movement from Eastern and South East Anatolia regions has enriched the local cuisine. Another factor is the large and fertile area of land surrounding the region which grows a rich selection of vegetables. There is considerable culinary usage of green leaf vegetables and wild plants amongst the residents, especially those with insular heritage, such as the immigrants from Crete. Some of the common dishes found here are the tarhana soup (made from dried yoghurt and tomatoes), "İzmir" köfte, sulu köfte, keşkek (boiled wheat with meat), zerde (sweetened rice with saffron) and mücver (made from zucchine and eggs). A Sephardic contribution to the Turkish cuisine, boyoz and lokma are pastries associated with İzmir. Kumru is a special kind of sandwich that is associated particularly with the Çeşme district and features cheese and tomato in its basics, with sucuk also added sometimes.[59]

▪Ege TV |Local TV ▪Kanal 35 |Local TV ▪Sky TV | Local TV ▪Kordon TV | Local TV ▪FRM TV | Online TV ▪Ege Üniversitesi TV |Local TV ▪Ben TV | Online TV Ben TV - Ege ve İzmir Haberleri, Güncel Haberler▪Yenigün TV | Online TV ▪TRT Belgesel | National TV

Circle of Life Memorial

▪Radyo İzmir ▪Romantik Radyo ▪Romantik Türk ▪Radyo 35 ▪Kordon FM ▪İmbat FM ▪Radyo Kordelya ▪Radyo Efe ▪Oynak FM ▪Duygusal FM ▪Sky Radyo ▪Radyo Pause ▪Radyo Ege ▪Ege FM ▪Ege'nin Sesi Radyosu ▪Herkül FM ▪Can Radyo ▪Batı Radyo ▪Radyo Gökkuşağı ▪Yıldız FM ▪Buca FM ▪Radyo Ege Kampüs 100.8 ▪Rock City FM ▪öRT FM ▪Y.Tire FM ▪DEÜ FM[68]

▪Ege Telgraf ▪Ekonomik Çözüm ▪Gözlem ▪Haber Ekspres ▪Ticaret ▪ Gazete Yenigün ▪Yeni Asır ▪Yeni Ekonomi ▪Yenigün Gazetesi ▪9 Eylül Gazetesi ▪Küçük Menderes Gazetesi ▪Büyük Tire ▪Ege Gazetesi[69] Tüm adresleri tek adreste[70]

Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Education in Buca, Izmir

• Ionian University, the first university of the city, established in 1920. It was organized by the Greek mathematician and close friend of Albert Einstein, Constantin Carathéodory, on the instructions of the Greek government. However, it never operated due to the developments of the Greco-Turkish War.[81][82]
• Ege University – Founded in 1955.
• Dokuz Eylül University – Founded in 1982.
• İzmir University of Economics – Founded as a private sector initiative in 2002 by the İzmir Chamber of Commerce, İzmir University of Economics is a specialized university with a campus in the metropolitan district of Balçova.
• Yaşar University – Founded in 2001 by Yaşar Holding, the School of Foreign Languages is located in the central Alsancak neighborhood, while the main Selcuk Yasar campus is located in Bornova.
• University of İzmir – Founded in 2007, closed in 2016. Former campus now used by İzmir Democracy University.
• İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University – Founded in 2010.
• Şifa University – Founded in 2010, closed in 2016. Former campuses now used by AK Party and Ministry of Health (Turkey).
• İzmir Democracy University – Founded in 2016.
• İzmir Tınaztepe University – Founded in 2018.

Key Museum in Izmir has a collection of 130 automobiles and 40 motorcycles. It is the largest car museum in Turkey.

• İzmir Institute of Technology – Founded in 1992, İzmir Institute of Technology is the city's first institute of technology, while the campus, is located in the nearby district of Urla.
• University of Gediz – Founded in 2009, it was located in the nearby district of Menemen. The university had another campus in Çankaya district. There was a medical campus project in Çiğli district. It was closed in 2016. Former campus now used by İzmir Bakırçay University.
• İzmir Bakırçay University – Founded in 2016.

• Deutsche Schule Izmir (German school)[83]
• Scuola Primaria e dell'Infanzia Italiana di Smirne (Italian school)[84][85]

The Adnan Menderes International Airport (ADB) is well served with connections to Turkish and international destinations. It is located in the Gaziemir district of İzmir.

A large bus terminal, the Otogar in the Pınarbaşı neighborhood of the city, has intercity buses to destinations across Turkey. Bus companies' shuttle services pick up customers from each of their branch offices scattered across the city at regular intervals, often free of charge. To facilitate easier access, a Halkapınar—Otogar metro line has long been deliberated but construction has never begun – though throughout his campaign and upon his election as mayor of İzmir in 2019, Tunç Soyer has outlined it as one of his priorities.[88]

Alsancak railway station (1858) in İzmir was opened as the terminus of the İzmir–Aydın line, the oldest railway line in Turkey and the second-oldest railway line in the Ottoman Empire after the Cairo–Alexandria line (1856) in the Ottoman Eyalet of Egypt.

İzmir has two historical rail terminals in the city center. Alsancak Terminal, built in 1858, and Basmane Terminal, built in 1866, are the two main railway stations of the city. The Turkish State Railways operates regional service to Ödemiş, Tire, Selçuk, Aydın, Söke, Nazilli, Denizli and Uşak, as well as longer-distance intercity service to Ankara, Afyon and Bandırma (and from there to Istanbul via İDO connection).

Basmane railway station (1866)

Coordinated public transportation was introduced to İzmir in 1999. A body known as UKOME gives strategic direction to the Metro, the ESHOT bus division, ferry operations, utilities and road developments. İzmir has an electronic, integrated pre-pay ticket known as the İzmirim Kart ('My Izmir' Card). The card is valid on all metro and commuter rail lines, buses, ferries, trams, and in certain other municipal facilities. The İzmirim Kart allows for the use of multiple forms of transport within a 120-minute window, combining for a single fare price.[89]

All of İzmir's major districts are serviced by a dense, comprehensive municipal bus network under the name ESHOT. The acronym stands for "E elektrik (electricity); S su (water); H havagazı (gas); O otobüs (bus) and T troleybüs (trolleybus)." Electricity, water and gas are now supplied by separate undertakings, and İzmir's trolleybus system ceased to operate in 1992. However, the bus operations, the O of the acronym ESHOT, has retained the original name. ESHOT operates 322 lines with about 1,500 buses and a staff of 2,700. It has five garages at Çakalburnu, Çiğli, Adatepe, Aktepe, and Mersinli. A privately owned company, İzulaş, operates 400 buses from two garages, running services under contract for ESHOT. These scheduled services are supplemented by the privately owned minibus or dolmuş services.[89]

İzmir Municipality's urban ferry services in the Gulf of İzmir

Taken over by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality since 2000 and operated within the structure of their private subsidiary company (İzdeniz), İzmir's urban ferry services for passengers and vehicles are very much a part of the life of the city's inhabitants. 24 ferries shuttle between 9 quays (clockwise: Bostanlı, Karşıyaka, Bayraklı, Alsancak, Pasaport, Konak, Karantina, Göztepe and Üçkuyular.) Special lines to points further out in the gulf are also put in service during summer, transporting excursion or holiday makers. These services are cheap and it is not unusual to see natives or visitors taking a ferry ride simply as a pastime.[89]

İzmir Metro has around 173,000 daily passengers.

İzmir has a metro network that is constantly being extended with new stations being put in service. The "İzmir Metro" network, currently consisting of one main line, starts from the Fahrettin Altay station in Balçova in the western portion of the metropolitan area and runs northeast through the city to Bornova. The line is 20 km (12.4 mi) long.[89]

İZBAN commuter train

İZBAN, formerly known as Egeray, is a commuter rail system connecting metropolitan and suburban area of İzmir. It is the busiest commuter railway in Turkey, serving about 150,000 passengers daily.[90] İZBAN is a portmanteau of the words "İzmir" and "Banliyö".

Established in 2006, İZBAN was formed to revive commuter rail in İzmir. İZBAN began operations in 2010 and currently operates a 136 km (85 mi) long system with 40 stations, consisting of two lines: the Southern Line and the Northern Line.[91]

İZBAN A.Ş. operates the railway and is owned 50% by the Turkish State Railways and 50% by the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.

İzmir's latest tram system is owned by the metropolitan municipality and operated by İzmir Metro A.Ş. in two independent lines – one in Karşıyaka, opened in 2017, and the other in Konak, opened in 2018.[89]

A Karşıyaka Tram at Alaybey

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in İzmir, for example to and from work on a weekday is 62 minutes, and 13% of public transit riders ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 15 minutes, while 27% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 10.4 km, while 22% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.[92]

• 1984-1989 Burhan Özfatura ANAP
• 1989-1991 Yüksel Çakmur SHP
• 1991-1994 Yüksel Çakmur DSP
• 1994-1999 Burhan Özfatura DYP
• 1999-2002 Ahmet Piriştina DSP
• 2002-2004 Ahmet Piriştina CHP
• 2004-2019 Aziz Kocaoğlu CHP
• 2019-since Tunç Soyer CHP