İzmit


İzmit is a municipality and the capital district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056. The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea of Marmara, about east of Istanbul, on the northwestern part of Anatolia. Kocaeli Province had a population of 2,079,072 inhabitants in 2022, of whom approximately 1.2 million lived in the largely urban İzmit City metro area made up of Kartepe, Başiskele, Körfez, Gölcük, Derince and Sapanca. Similar to Istanbul, the area of İzmit is coterminous with its province. It is also the most populated of any city or town in Turkey whose name isn't shared with the province it is located in.
İzmit was known as Nicomedia and Ólbia in antiquity, and was the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire between 286 and 324, during the Tetrarchy introduced by Diocletian. Following Constantine the Great's victory over co-emperor Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in 324, Nicomedia served as an interim capital city for Constantine between 324 and 330. During the Ottoman Empire, İzmit was the capital of the Sanjak of Kocaeli. In the present day, Istanbul-İzmit area is one of the main industrial regions in Turkey.

Name

İzmit was known as Nicomedia and Ólbia in antiquity. İzmit derives from Nicomedia, prefixed with εἰς 'to' or 'into'
. Names used in English prior to official Turkish Latinization include Ismid, Iskimid, and Isnikmid.

Geography

The geographical location of İzmit is between 40°-41° N and 29°-31° E, surrounded by the Gulf of İzmit at south, Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara at west, the Black Sea at north, and Sakarya at east.
The city is mostly built on hill slopes because of the cramped area, while flat plains surround the gulf, near the sea. This topographic structure divided the city into two parts. The first was created on flat plains, where the city center is located. The railway and highway networks pass from this area which is close to the Sea of Marmara. The second part was built on hills, with many historic houses from the Ottoman period in the old quarters.

History

In Antiquity, the city in Greek was called Astacus or Olbia. After being destroyed, it was rebuilt and founded by Nicomedes I of Bithynia in 264 BC under the name of Nicomedia. It remained one of the most important cities in northwestern Asia Minor.
Carthaginian general and statesman Hannibal came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in nearby Libyssa, in a date between 183 and 181 BC.
The historian Arrian was born in Nicomedia, which was the metropolis of Bithynia under the Roman Empire.
In 286 AD, Roman emperor Diocletian made Nicomedia the eastern capital city of the Roman Empire, when he introduced the Tetrarchy system. Nicomedia remained as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire until Licinius was defeated by Constantine the Great in 324. Constantine mainly resided in Nicomedia as his interim capital city for the next six years; until in 330 he declared the nearby Byzantium as Nova Roma, which eventually became known as Constantinople. Constantine died at an imperial villa in the vicinity of Nicomedia on 22 May 337. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads leading to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople.
In 451, the local bishopric was promoted to a Metropolitan see under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Nicomedia remained under Byzantine rule until the late 11th century, when it was captured by Seljuk Turks. However, the city soon returned to Byzantine sovereignty as a consequence of the successes of the First Crusade. After the sack of Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, the city of Nicomedia, with most of the Bithynia province, became a part of the Latin Empire. It was recaptured by the Byzantines around 1235 and stayed within Byzantine borders until the first half of the 14th century. The city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1337.
In the early 20th century, it remained the seat of a pasha, a Greek metropolitan, and an Armenian archbishop.
İzmit was occupied by the United Kingdom on 6 July 1920, during the Turkish War of Independence. The British left it to Greece on 27 October 1920. İzmit was re-taken by the Turks on 28 June 1921. As of 1920, the British reported that the city had a population of about 13,000. In 1920–1921 atrocities were committed in the city and its surroundings during the Greco-Turkish War against the Greek civilian population. An Allied report stated that a large number of excesses were committed by both sides during the last year, while the Turkish atrocities in the Izmit peninsula "have been more considerable and ferocious than those on the part of the Greeks".
The 7.6 earthquake of 17 August 1999 devastated the region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX. The shock killed more than 17,000 people and left half a million homeless. It took several years for the city to recover from this disaster, and traces of the earthquake remain visible.

Main sights

There are numerous tourist attractions in the city center and its adjacent region, such as:
İzmit has a history as a port city. As of 1913, the Turkish government had been working to privatize the port. At that time, Vickers built a temporary dock, bringing a small export business to the area. The British described the port as having little business as of 1920.
During the sanjak period of İzmit, the forested regions of the area were devastated by deforestation. The wood in the region of İzmit was used to produce charcoal, primarily. During the 1920s, the area was also known for manufacturing linen. Factories were rare during that time, so most linen was handmade. It was described as being "coarse" and as being in high demand in Turkey as of 1920. İzmit was the home of two Turkish Army and Navy uniform factories. One made fez hats and the other made cloth. The area made carpet and embroidery, made by mainly Christian women.
İzmit has a large oil refinery and major paper and cement factories. Ford Motor Company has a plant here in a joint venture with Otosan, assembling the Transit/Tourneo and Transit/Tourneo Connect vans. After Ford's Southampton Assembly Plant's closure scheduled for July 2013 was completed, and the launch of the new Otosan only V363 Transit in 2014, İzmit became the sole producer of Ford Transit vans for Europe. It is also a transportation hub, being on the main highway and railway lines between Istanbul and Ankara and having a major port.
In the past few years the province has developed into a growth point for the Turkish automotive industry, receiving investments from Ford, Hyundai, Honda and Isuzu. Tyre and rubber products are produced to world-class standard. As of today, Kocaeli province has attracted more than 1200 industrial investments, 108 of which have been established with international capital. Turkey's largest enterprise, the Tüpraş Petroleum Refinery Plant, is in Kocaeli, containing altogether 27% of the national chemical products industry, including petrochemical products. Eighteen of the 100 largest enterprises of Turkey are in Kocaeli and contribute to around 17%-18% of the national tax revenues.
Financial Times affiliated Foreign Direct Investment magazine nominated Kocaeli among the 25 European Regions of the Future for 2006–2007. The city was chosen along with Adana for Turkey, which scored the highest points for cost effectiveness against Kocaeli's wider infrastructure, while Adana and Kocaeli tied on points for human resources and quality of life.
The famous Turkish traditional sweet Pişmaniye is a product of İzmit and the Kocaeli Province.

Composition

There are 102 neighbourhoods in İzmit District:
  • 28 Haziran
  • Akarca
  • Akçakoca
  • Akmeşe Atatürk
  • Akmeşe Cumhuriyet
  • Akpınar
  • Alikahya Atatürk
  • Alikahya Cumhuriyet
  • Alikahya Fatih
  • Ambarcı
  • Arızlı
  • Arpalıkihsaniye
  • Ayazma
  • Bağlıca
  • Balören
  • Bayraktar
  • Bekirdere
  • Biberoglu
  • Böğürgen
  • Bulduk
  • Çağırğan
  • Çavuşoğlu
  • Çayırköy
  • Cedid
  • Çubuklubala
  • Çubukluosmaniye
  • Çukurbağ
  • Dağköy
  • Doğan
  • Düğmeciler
  • Durhasan
  • Emirhan
  • Erenler
  • Eseler
  • Fethiye
  • Fevziçakmak
  • Gedikli
  • Gökçeören
  • Gülbahçe Kadriye
  • Gültepe
  • Gündoğdu
  • Güvercinlik
  • Hacı Hasan
  • Hacıhızır
  • Hakaniye
  • Hasancıklar
  • Hatip
  • İzmit Cumhuriyet
  • İzmit Fatih
  • Kabaoğlu
  • Kadıköy
  • Karaabdülbaki
  • Karabaş
  • Karadenizliler
  • Kaynarca
  • Kemalpaşa
  • Kısalar
  • Kocatepe
  • Körfez
  • Kozluca
  • Kozluk
  • Kulfallı
  • Kulmahmut
  • Kurtdere
  • Kuruçeşme Fatih
  • Malta
  • Mecidiye
  • Mehmet Ali Paşa
  • Merkez
  • Nebihoca
  • Ömerağa
  • Orhan
  • Orhaniye
  • Ortaburun
  • Şahinler
  • Sanayi
  • Sapakpınar
  • Sarışeyh
  • Sekbanlı
  • Sepetçi
  • Serdar
  • Şirintepe
  • Süleymaniye
  • Sultaniye
  • Süverler
  • Tavşantepe
  • Tepecik
  • Tepeköy
  • Terzibayırı
  • Topçular
  • Turgut
  • Tüysüzler
  • Veliahmet
  • Yahyakaptan
  • Yassıbağ
  • Yenice
  • Yenidoğan
  • Yenimahalle
  • Yenişehir
  • Yeşilova
  • Zabıtan
  • Zeytinburnu