Izmir

İzmir, a metropolitan city located on the western coast of Anatolia, serves as the capital of İzmir Province and is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. With 4,367,251 in the province as of 2019 and 2,965,900 in the city proper, İzmir boasts the biggest urban agglomeration on the Aegean Sea. With 3,209,179 people living in the city’s built-up area, which stretches along the Gulf of İzmir and inland across varied terrain including the Gediz River Delta to the north, an alluvial plain produced by small streams to the east, and somewhat more rugged landscape to the south.

With human habitation traces going back as far as 8,500 years to the Neolithic era, this coastal city boasts an outstanding urban history spanning over 3,000 years. Called Smyrna in classical antiquity, the city kept this name in English and several other languages until about 1930. Then, on the international scene, government efforts progressively replaced the original Greek name with its Turkish counterpart, İzmir.

The strategic location of İzmir at the head of a deep gulf along the western Anatolian coast has been crucial in determining its fate as one of the main mercantile cities in the Mediterranean Sea over history. This favorable location has let İzmir grow as a hub of trade and industry, bridging the rich Anatolia region with the larger Mediterranean world.

After the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the demographic scene of the city changed dramatically. İzmir had a sizable Greek population before this event, which added to its cosmopolitan quality and varied cultural legacy. This interaction changed the social fabric of the city and set a turning point in its history, so guiding its later growth.

İzmir has shown its ability to host international events in recent years, so strengthening its reputation as a worldwide recognized city. İzmir effectively hosted the Mediterranean Games in 1971 and the World University Games (Universiade) in 2005, so highlighting the city’s capacity for planning major athletic events. Furthermore, İzmir’s involvement in the Climathon in 2019 highlights its dedication to tackling world issues, especially with relation to sustainability and climate change.

With regard to goods handled, the Port of İzmir is Turkey’s main port for exports, thus it is quite important for the national economy. The city’s free zone ranks among the twenty such zones in Turkey, so augmenting its economic importance. Particularly with its growing class of young professionals, İzmir’s workforce is concentrated in the city and its environs, including adjacent Manisa and Turgutlu. Based in the region, both big businesses and SMEs are leaving their mark on a worldwide level, which fuels the local economic dynamism.

One cannot stress the historical significance of İzmir’s port for the Ottoman Empire’s economy at the dawn of the 19th century. Moreover, the İzmir Economic Congress greatly influenced the economic bases of the early Turkish Republic, so underscoring the city’s central importance in the national economic planning and growth.

İzmir’s economy nowadays shows a varied picture: industry accounts for 30.5% of economic activities, trade and related services for 22.9%, transportation and communication for 13.5%, and agriculture for 7.8%. The city’s economic importance is underlined even more by its participation in trade and national budgets. While its exports and imports accounted for 6% and 4% respectively, İzmir gave 10.5% of all tax receipts collected by Turkey in 2008.

İzmir province ranks nationally as Turkey’s third-largest exporter, behind only Istanbul and Bursa; it also ranks fifth among all the provinces. Serving almost one-fifth of all Turkish exports and handling 85–90% of the region’s exports, the Port of Alsancak boasts an outstanding annual container loading capacity of almost a million, so acting as a vital gateway for the country’s foreign trade.