Sincan, Ankara


Sincan is a metropolitan district of Ankara Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, a large town 27 km from the city of Ankara. According to 2010 census, the population of Sincan is 456,420 The district covers an area of, and the average elevation is.
Sincan has friendly relations with the municipality of Doboj Jug from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sincan District hosts ASO 1. Organize Sanayi Bölgesi, the biggest Organized Industrial Zone in Ankara, operated by Ankara Chamber of Industry.

Demographics

Geography

Sincan stands on a plain surrounded by hills and watered by the Ankara River, a tributary of the Sakarya River. There is some agriculture and light industry in Sincan, but the majority of people commute to Ankara by rail.
The symbol of the municipality is the tulip. The central square is called Lale Meydanı, and every year a tulip festival is held where plastic tulips are handed out in the streets.

History

Even prior to the period of the Ottoman Empire, a village stood in this location, which subsequently grew to when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk commissioned a housing project here for Turkish refugees from Romania and Bulgaria.
In recent years, Sincan has grown enormously with rapid immigration from many rural areas of Turkey. The town has especially attracted those with an aggressive conservative and religious outlook, thus Sincan is a stronghold for right-wing clubs, Islamic sects, and Islamist political parties. This was brought to light most famously in the political crisis of February 1997, when tanks rolled through the district, after the local district council, dominated by Islamists after recent elections, organized an event to express solidarity with Palestine. More recent incidents include the pouring of green paint over the statue of Atatürk in the central square.

Well-known residents