Gaziantep

Gaziantep (ɡaːˈziantep), historically Aintab and still informally called Antep (ˈantep), is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region. It is located approximately east of Adana and north of Aleppo, Syria and situated on the Sajur River. The city is thought to be located on the site of ancient Antiochia ad Taurum and is near ancient Zeugma. As of the 2021 census, the Gaziantep province (Metropolitan municipality) was home to 2,130,432 inhabitants, of whom 1,775,904 lived in the metropolitan area made of two (out of three) urban districts of Şahinbey and Şehitkamil, as Oğuzeli is not conurbated. It is the sixth-most populous city in Turkey. Gaziantep is a diverse city inhabited mostly by ethnic Turks and a significant minority of Kurds and Syrian refugees. It was historically populated by Turkmens, Armenians, Jews, and a plethora of other ethnic groups. In February 2023, the city was heavily damaged by the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake. Due to the city's contact with various ethnic groups and cultures throughout its history, the name of the city has many variants and alternatives, such as: Hantab, Hamtab, or Hatab as known by the Crusaders. Antab and its variants in vulgar Turkish and Armenian since 17th century the latest, Aīntāb (عين تاب) in Ottoman Turkish, Gazi Ayıntap in official Turkish after February 1921, when the Turkish parliament honored the city as غازى عينتاب Ghazi Aīntāb to commemorate its resistance to the French Siege of Aintab during the Franco-Turkish War, Gaziantep in official Turkish after 1928, Aīntāb (عينتاب) in Arabic, Êntab or Dîlok in Kurdish, Aïntab or Verdun Turc in French. The several theories for the origin of the current name include: Aïntap may be derived from khantap, meaning "king's land" in the Hittite language. Aïn, an Arabic and Aramaic word meaning "spring", and tab as a word of praise. Antep could be a corruption of the Arabic '''aīn ṭayyib meaning "good spring".