şanlıurfa

Related Category: Turkey Political Geography

(shän´´lər´fä), formerly Urfa(r´fä), city (1990 pop. 278,516), capital of Şanlıurfa prov., SE Turkey. It is the trade center for a productive agricultural region and one of the most rapidly growing cities in Turkey due to its position in the midst of a large-scale irrigation development, with significant textile-related industries. The city was called Edessa until its incorporation in the Ottoman Empire in 1637. Its once large Christian population—mostly Armenian—suffered severe massacres in the late 19th cent.