Adana Province

Coordinates: 37°22′06″N 35°42′22″E / 37.36833°N 35.70611°E / 37.36833; 35.70611
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Adana Province
Adana ili
Location of the province within Turkey
Location of the province within Turkey
CountryTurkey
SeatAdana
Government
 • MayorZeydan Karalar (CHP)
 • ValiYavuz Selim Köşger
Area
13,844 km2 (5,345 sq mi)
Population
 (2022)[1]
2,274,106
 • Density160/km2 (430/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+3 (TRT)
Area code0322
Websitewww.adana.bel.tr
www.adana.gov.tr

Adana Province (Turkish: Adana ili) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey located in central Cilicia. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 78.25 % of the residents of the province. Its area is 13,844 km2,[2] and its population is 2,274,106 (2022), making it the sixth most populous province in Turkey.[1] It is also closely associated with other Cilician provinces of Mersin, Osmaniye, and (northern) Hatay.[citation needed]

Geography[edit]

Köppen map of Adana Province and surrounding regions:[3]
  •   BSk
  •   Csa
  •   Csb
  •   Dsa
  •   Dsb
  •   Dsc
  •   ET

The southern and central portion of the province mostly falls within the Çukurova Plain (historically known as the Cilician Plain), to the north, the plains give way to the Taurus Mountains (Turkish: Toros Dağları). The provinces adjacent to it are Mersin to the west, Hatay to the southeast, Osmaniye to the east, Kahramanmaraş to the northeast, Kayseri to the north, and Niğde to the northwest.[citation needed]

Governance[edit]

Seyhan district in Adana

Two levels of government are involved in the administration of the Adana Province: the Central and the Provincial. Adana Governorship is the provincial branch of the Central government and Adana Province Special Administration is the provincial governing body. The province is divided into 15 districts and each district is divided into neighbourhoods (Turkish: Mahalle).[citation needed]

Adana governorship[edit]

The central government in Ankara has the majority of the power in the administration of the province through Adana Governorship.[citation needed] The governorship oversees the functioning of provincial and regional directorates of the ministries and other governmental agencies. Provincial directorates cover Adana Province only, whereas Regional directorates cover Çukurova and in some cases additional provinces.[citation needed] Provincial and regional directorates of the Central Government include, but are not limited to;

  • Provincial directorates: Education, Healthcare, Tourism and Culture, Youth and Sports, Environment and Forestry, Social Services, Agriculture, Industry and Trade, Police Services, Defense, Population and Citizenship, Employment Agency, Social Security Institution.[citation needed]
  • Regional directorates: Turkish State Railways, Statistics Institute, Foundations, Meteorology.[citation needed]

The Grand National Assembly (TBMM) is the only law-making authority in Turkey and Adana Province is represented in it with 14 members.[citation needed] The last TBMM elections were held on June 7th, 2015 and in the Adana Province, the conservative AKP took 5 seats, social-democratic Kemalist CHP took 4 seats, nationalist MHP took 3 seats and Democratic socialist HDP took 2 seats.[citation needed]

Province Special Administration[edit]

Adana park view

Adana Province Special Administration (Turkish: Adana İl Özel İdaresi) is a semi-democratic provincial governing body that has three organs; Provincial Parliament, Governor and the Encümen. Provincial Parliament members are elected democratically, the governor is appointed by the Central Government and 4 out of 8 members of the Encümen are appointed by the governor.

Province Special Administration is not a jurisdiction and has minor executive power in the administration of the province running with a budget of 55 million TL for 2010. The major executive duties of Special Administration are; building and maintenance of schools, residences and daycares, building and maintenance of other governmental buildings, roads, promoting arts and culture, protection and conservation of nature, social services and regional planning.[4]

Provincial Parliament[edit]

Adana Provincial Parliament (Turkish: Adana İl Genel Meclisi) is the decision making organ of the Province Special Administration. It is formed of 61 members who represent the 15 districts. Members of the Parliament are nominated by the district branches of the National Parties during the Local Elections and are elected by the d'Hondt method. Each district is an electoral district and there is a 10% threshold for a party to gain seat at the district. There is no threshold at the provincial level.[5] Parliament is administered by the president, two vice-presidents, and two secretary generals who are elected from the members. Current chair of the parliament is Abdullah Torun.

Orhan Kemal Cultural Centre belongs to Çukurova Municipality Hall
District MPs
Seyhan 11
Yüreğir 8
Çukurova 7
Sarıçam 5
Karaisalı 2
Aladağ 2
Ceyhan 6
Feke 2
İmamoğlu 3
Karataş 2
Kozan 5
Pozantı 2
Saimbeyli 2
Tufanbeyli 2
Yumurtalik 2
Total 61

Current composition of the Parliament

Social housing buildings in Adana.

The last election for the Provincial Parliament was held on March 29, 2009. Voting turnout was a high of 84.1% and 5 parties gained seat at the parliament. The results of the election were[6]

Party Votes Seats
No % No %
AK Party 324,968 29.8 27 44.3
MHP 296,338 27.17 23 37.7
CHP 252,073 23.11 9 14.75
DTP 86,775 7.96 1 1.64
DP 34,543 3.167 1 1.64
Other 95,989 8.8 0 0
Province 1,090,686 61

After the election the sole DP member moved to MHP raising the seats of MHP to 24. Currently, DP does not hold a seat at the parliament.

Governorship[edit]

Governor[edit]

Provincial governor (Turkish: Vali) is the chief executive of the Adana Province. Besides chairing the Turkish: Encümen, the governor also acts as the chief of the Provincial Directorates of the Central Government. The governor is appointed by the advice of the National Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Cabinet with the approval of the president of the republic. Yavuz Selim Köşger has been governor of the province since 2023.[7]

District governors (Turkish: Kaymakam) are the chief executives of their districts. Districts are merely an administrative divisions of the province and the district governors work under the provincial governor.

Historic list of governors of Adana[edit]

Encümen[edit]

Encümen is the executive committee of the Adana Province Special Administration, consisting of 11 members. The governor is the chair of the Encümen. 5 members are chosen by the Provincial Parliament among their members annually and 5 members are the departmental directors of the APSA appointed by the governor annually.[8]

Municipalities[edit]

There are total of 15 municipalities in the Adana Province, which are coterminous with the 15 districts. Municipal councillors of the metropolitan municipality are chosen from the district municipal councillors by the respective municipal councils.[citation needed]

The municipalities have three organs; municipal council, mayor and the encümen, the executive committee. Municipal councillors and the mayors are elected at the local elections. Encümen is formed by members half chosen from the council and the other half appointed by the mayor.[citation needed]

Neighborhoods[edit]

Aladağlar National Park in Adana Province is a popular tourism destination.
Aladağlar National Park during winter.

Mahala (Turkish: Mahalle) is the smallest administrative unit within a municipality, administered by the Muhtar and the Neighborhood Seniors Council (Turkish: Mahalle İhtiyar Heyeti) consisting of 4 members.[citation needed] Mahala administration is not an incorporation therefore does not hold government status.[citation needed] Although elected by the neighborhood residents, Muhtars are not granted any power nor budget, thus merely act as an administrator of the district Governor. Muhtar also voices the neighborhood issues to the municipal governments together with the Seniors Council. The Muhtar and the council members are elected by plurality at the local elections.[citation needed] Neighborhood administrators are not affiliated with political parties.

Population[edit]

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1927227,718—    
1935383,645+6.74%
1940375,777−0.41%
1950508,518+3.07%
1960760,803+4.11%
19701,035,377+3.13%
19801,485,743+3.68%
19901,934,907+2.68%
20001,849,478−0.45%
20112,102,375+1.17%
20202,258,718+0.80%
20222,274,106+0.34%
Source:Turkstat[9][10]

The population of the Adana Province as at 31 December 2022 was 2,274,106.[11] 88% of the population lives in the urban areas making the province one of the most urbanized provinces in Turkey. Annual population growth of the province is 0.76%, below the average growth of the nation. 78.25 % of the province's residents (corresponding to a population of 1,779,463) live in the city of Adana, which is made up of the whole of Seyhan District and most of Yüreğir, Çukurova and Sarıçam districts.

District Urban Rural Total Total
end 2022
Seyhan 723,277 0 723,277 795,012
Yüreğir 417,693 4,836 422,529 404,726
Çukurova 343,770 4,171 347,941 389,175
Sarıçam 99,313 21,012 120,325 221,733
Karaisalı 7,465 15,516 22,981 22,042
Aladağ 4,139 13,030 17,169 15,897
Ceyhan 105,879 52,850 158,729 158,922
Feke 4,603 14,393 18,996 15,833
İmamoğlu 20,593 9,959 30,552 27,037
Karataş 8.483 12,777 21,260 23,499
Kozan 76,864 50,236 127,100 132,703
Pozantı 9,864 10,415 20,279 19,852
Saimbeyli 3,984 13,371 17,355 13,621
Tufanbeyli 5,376 12,696 18,072 16,400
Yumurtalik 5,129 13,531 18,660 17,654
Province 1,836,432 248,793 2,085,225 2,274,106

Museums and heritage sites[edit]

Adana Province has 160 km. of coastline mostly free from human activities. Karataş and Yumurtalık are the two small settlements at the coast which host cottage dwellers and local tourism. Rest of the coast has conservation areas, farmlands and forests. With the ancient settlements, national parks, waterfalls, highlands and mountains, Adana Province has a mixture of different settings.[citation needed]

Museums[edit]

Historical sites[edit]

Kurtkulağı Kervansarayı
Yilankale (Snake Castle)
Süleyman's Tower
St Paul Church (Bebekli Kilise)

Ancient settlements[edit]

Ancient settlements in Adana Province
Name Period Distance to the city of Adana District
Şar (Comona) Hitite-Roman-Armenian 211 km. Tufanbeyli
Ayas Greek-Roman 78 km. Yumurtalık
Mallos Greek-Roman 50 km. Karataş
Misis Hitite-Roman-Arabic-Ottoman 27 km. Misis, Yakapınar
Magarsos Greek-Roman 50 km. Karataş
Tumlu Middle Age 50 km. Ceyhan
Mazırık Early Age 50 km. Karaisalı
Anavarza Ceyhan
Akören Aladağ
Sirkeli Tumulus

Parks and conservation areas[edit]

Akyatan Lagoon is a large wildlife refuge which acts as a stopover for migratory birds voyaging from Africa to Europe. Wildlife refuge has a 14700-hectare area made up of forests, lagoon, marsh, sandy and reedy lands. Akyatan lake is a nature wonder with endemic plants and endangered bird species living in it together with other species of plants and animals. 250 species of birds are observed during a study in 1990. The conservation area is located 30 km south of Adana, near Tuzla.[12]

Yumurtalık Nature Reserve covers an area of 16,430 hectares within the Seyhan-Ceyhan delta, with its lakes, lagoons and wide collection of plant and animal species. The area is an important location for many species of migrating birds, the number gets higher during the winters when the lakes become a shelter when other lakes further north freeze.[13]

Aladağlar National Park, located north of Adana, is a huge park of around 55,000 hectares, the summit of Demirkazik at 3756m is the highest point in the middle Taurus mountain range. There is a huge range of flora and fauna, and visitors may fish in the streams full of trout. Wildlife includes wild goats, bears, lynx and sable. The most common species of plant life is black pine and cluster pine trees, with some cedar dotted between, and fir trees in the northern areas with higher humidity. The Alpine region, from the upper borders of the forest, has pastures with rocky areas and little variety of plant life because of the high altitude and slope.[14]

Mountains and plateaus[edit]

Aladağlar National Park
Speedwell

The Taurus Mountains contain many plateaus:

Festivals[edit]

Gallery[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Address-based population registration system (ADNKS) results dated 31 December 2022, Favorite Reports" (XLS). TÜİK. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  2. ^ "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  3. ^ "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution". Nature Scientific Data. DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214.
  4. ^ "5302 sayılı İl Özel İdaresi Kanunu". Ministry of Justice. Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  5. ^ "İl özel idaresinin görev ve sorumlulukları (in Turkish)". Adana Province Special Administration. Archived from the original on 2007-03-03. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  6. ^ "2009 Provincial Parliament Election results". IHA News Agency. Retrieved 2010-07-21.
  7. ^ "Vali Yavuz Selim Köşger" (in Turkish). Adana Valiliği. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  8. ^ "Encümen (in Turkish)". Adana Province Special Administration. Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
  9. ^ "Census Results". Turkstat. Archived from the original on 2016-08-02. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  10. ^ "Online library of Turkstat". Turkstat. Archived from the original on 2014-06-02. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  11. ^ National Statistical Institute (TurkStats) - web.
  12. ^ "Akyatan Bird Sanctuary". Çukurova Touristic Hoteliers Association. Archived from the original on 9 October 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  13. ^ "Yumurtalık Nature Reserve". Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  14. ^ "Aladağlar National Park". Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Retrieved 14 October 2016.

External links[edit]

37°22′06″N 35°42′22″E / 37.36833°N 35.70611°E / 37.36833; 35.70611