Gaziantep

The city is thought to be located on the site of ancient Antiochia ad Taurum and is near ancient Zeugma. Sometime after the Byzantine-ruled city came under the Seljuk Empire, the region was administered by Armenian warlords. In 1098, it became part of the County of Edessa, a Crusader state, though it continued to be administered by Armenians, such as Kogh Vasil.

Aintab rose to prominence in the 14th century as the fortress became a settlement, hotly contested by the Mamluk Sultanate, Dulkadirids, and the Ilkhanate. It was besieged by Timur in 1400 and the Aq Qoyunlu in 1420. The Dulkadirid-controlled city fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1516 sometime before the Battle of Marj Dabiq.

At the end of 2025, Gaziantep province was home to 2,222,415 inhabitants, of whom around 1.9 million lived in the urban area. It is the fifth-most populous city in Turkey. Gaziantep is a diverse city inhabited mostly by ethnic Turks and a significant minority of Kurds and Syrian refugees.