İlkadım is a municipality and district governorate in Greater Samsun

Samsun

Samsun is a city of about half a million people on the north coast of Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Samsun Province and a major Black Sea port.-Name:...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. Samsun is one of 16 Metropolitan centers in Turkey

Metropolitan centers in Turkey

This is a list of Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey. There are 81 provinces in Turkey . Among the 81 provincial centers 16 of them are called metropolitan municipalities . Within city borders of the metropolitan municipalities, there are more than one district governorate. where each...

 with more than one municipality within city borders. Now in Samsun there are four intracity municipalities in addition of Greater Samsun (büyükşehir) municipality.
The mayor is Necattin Demirtaş (MHP

Nationalist Movement Party

The Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...

).

Geography

İlkadım is within the city of Samsun at 41°17′N 36°20′E. It includes the port of the Samsun and the name İlkadım refers to Atatürks's arrival in Samsun (via sea) in order to start the Turkish War of Independence

Turkish War of Independence

The Turkish War of Independence was a war of independence waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I...

 in 19 May 1919. (İlkadım means first step)

The population is 307,746 as of 2009 It constitutes % 59 of the population of Greater Samsun which is 519,611 .

History

The excavations carried on the höyük

Tell

A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...

 of Dündartepe revealed a settlement of Chalcolithic age. During early Hellenistic age there was a colony named Amisos founded by the colonialists from Miletus

Miletus

Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...

 . It was captured by Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

 of Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 in 43 BC . After 1071, it was captured by Danishmends and Seljuks. In 1413 was incorporated into Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 by Mehmet I.

İlkadım is actually a part of the city of Greater Samsun. In 1994 it was decleared a municipality within the city borders of greater Samsun and the corresponding district governorate is established in 2008.