Pazarcik

Pazarcik is a town of Kahramanmaraş Province in Turkey. These are called an "ilce" in the Turkish language. They are simply towns in the province "il". Pazarcik is 25 km away from Marash the capital of the province Kahraman Maras. It contains a number of crossroads going across from East to West.

Features

Pazarcik is primarily a farming town and contains a large number of scattered fields. The majority of the population are of the alevi religion or philosophy. Education is given a high value in Pazarcik and an overwhelming amount of the younger population frequently migrate to European and North American countries. One of the towns specialties is "white cheese" (halumi). Around 90% of the region are of Kurdish origin. Few members of the female population are covered. Most of the income of the inhabitants of the ares is through agriculture (especially cotton and wheat) though the size of the region has meant that number of service jobs have increased.

Settlements from the Palaeolithic Age near the mountains of "Saril" and "Ganidag" have been found as a result of archaeological excavations. The area was at the border with the Hittites and Assyrians between 2000-700 BC, and it remained part of the Persian Empire. Remains found suggest that Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine cultures were active in the area. The town became part of the Seljuk Empire in XII century, followed by the Ottoman Empire. The town province is 1710 km². The highest mountains are "Kandil Tepesi" (1704m) and "Ganidag" (1230m). The landscape consists of 50% forest and 40% arable land. The climate is hot and dry in summer; cold and rainy in winter. The population in the Pazarcik province mainly consists of Turks and Kurds, and a large percentage of the population are believers of the Alevi religion.