Hatay Province - Demography

Demography

Before the annexation of the province (known to the Arabs as Alexandretta) to Turkey, Arabs then constituted about two-thirds of the population of Hatay, and the province has remained predominantly Arab. The 1.5 million population of Hatay province is divided almost equally between Sunni Muslims and Alawi Muslims with an Arab Orthodox Christian minority. Hatay is home to Sunni Muslims, Alawi Muslims, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Maronites, Arab (Greek-Orthodox) and Armenian communities. The village of Vakıflı in the district of Samandağ is Turkey's last remaining rural Armenian community while Arabs form the majority in three districts out of the twelve: Samandağ (Suwaidiyyah) (Alawi), Altınözü (Qusair) and Reyhanlı (Rihaniyyah) (Sunni). Unlike most Mediterranean provinces Hatay has not experienced mass immigration from other parts of Turkey in recent decades and has therefore preserved much of its traditional culture, for example Arabic is still widely spoken in the province. To celebrate this cultural mix, in 2005 "Hatay Meeting of Civilisations" congress was organised by Dr Aydın Bozkurt of Mustafa Kemal University and his "Hatay Association for the Protection of Universal Values". Hatay is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.