Usak
Encyclopedia
Uşak (ˈuʃak) is a city in the interior part of the Aegean Region of 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...

. The city has a population of 180,414 (2010 census) and is the capital of Uşak Province
Usak Province
Uşak is a province in western Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Manisa to the west, Denizli to the south, Afyon to the east, and Kütahya to the north. The provincial capital is Uşak, and its traffic code is 64. The province covers an area of 5,341 km² and has a population of 335,860...

. The mayor is Ali Erdoğan (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...

).

Uşak city is situated at a distance of 210 km (130 mi) from İzmir
Izmir
Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

, the region's principal metropolitan center and port city. Benefiting from its location at the crossroads of the Central Anatolian plateau and the coastal Aegean Region, and from a climate and agricultural production incorporating elements of both of these zones, Uşak has also traditionally had a strong industrial base. Uşak was the first city in Turkey to have an urban electricity network, and the first city where a collective labor relations
Labor relations
Industrial relations is a multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship. Industrial relations is increasingly being called employment relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Many outsiders also equate industrial relations to labour relations...

 agreement was signed, during the Ottoman
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...

 era, between leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

 industry employees and workers. It was here that the first factory of Republican Turkey, a sugar refinery
Sugar refinery
A sugar refinery is a factory which refines raw sugar.Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, i.e. sugar with more colour and therefore more impurities than the white sugar which is normally consumed in households and used as an ingredient in soft drinks, cookies and so forth...

, was set up through a private sector initiative among local businessmen. The tradition of industriousness continues today around two industrial zones.

Uşak carpets

In pre-industrial times, Uşak was already a major center of production and export, particularly of Ushak carpets. Ushak carpets are also called Holbein carpets in reference to the 16th century painter Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...

 who depicted them in minute detail in his paintings, reflecting their popularity in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an markets. The level of international popularity attained by Uşak's carpets became such that the word "Ushak" is considered an English word of Turkic origin.

Although Uşak's carpet patterns have evolved since then, large-scale weaving still continues and the name of the city still has an important presence in the market for carpets, both hand-woven and industrial. On the other hand, the district of Eşme
ESME
External Short Messaging Entity is a term originally coined by Aldiscon to describe an external application that connects to an SMSC to engage in the sending and/or receiving of SMS messages....

, which is also in Uşak Province
Usak Province
Uşak is a province in western Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Manisa to the west, Denizli to the south, Afyon to the east, and Kütahya to the north. The provincial capital is Uşak, and its traffic code is 64. The province covers an area of 5,341 km² and has a population of 335,860...

, is famous for its kilim
Kilim
Kilims are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs produced from the Balkans to Pakistan. Kilims can be purely decorative or can function as prayer rugs. Recently-made kilims are popular floor-coverings in Western households.-Etymology:...

s
.

Among other district centers in Uşak Province, Banaz
Banaz
Banaz is a town and district of Uşak Province in the inner Aegean region of Turkey. The mayor is Tahsin Erdem . Banaz district area neighbors those of two other districts of the same province, namely Sivaslı and Uşak central district from its south to its west, ranges three districts of Kütahya...

 is the largest and is notable for its varied agricultural production as well as for its forests, while Ulubey
Ulubey
Ulubey may refer to;*Ulubey, Ordu, a district of Ordu Province, Turkey*Ulubey , Uşak, a district of Uşak Province, Turkey...

's canyon
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...

 is a natural site attracting many visitors.

History

The first known organized states to have ruled over the region of Uşak were the Phrygians in the eastern portion and the Lydians
Lydians
The Lydians were the inhabitants of Lydia, a region in western Anatolia, who spoke the distinctive Lydian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian group....

 in the west during the 7th century BC. The Karun Treasure, discovered by clandestine treasure hunter
Treasure hunter
Treasure hunters are people who search for treasure.Treasure hunters may also refer to:* Treasure Hunters , a graphic novel* Treasure Hunters , a Hong Kong kung fu film...

s in Uşak in 1965, and whose smuggling outside Turkey and subsequent retrieval decades later from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 made international headlines, gives an indication of the high degree of civilization attained by these Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

n states. The region of Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....

 was later taken over by the Persian Empire in the 6th century BC and by Alexander the Great and his successors as of the 4th century. Thereafter, Uşak was ruled successively by the 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....

, the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

, the Germiyanids and finally the Ottoman Empire (as of 1429).

In Ottoman times, the city's name was Uşşak, which could mean "lovers" and "minstrel
Minstrel
A minstrel was a medieval European bard who performed songs whose lyrics told stories of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events. Although minstrels created their own tales, often they would memorize and embellish the works of others. Frequently they were retained by royalty...

s" at the same time. Tradition privileges the second derivation, which could be a reference to the region's rich folk literature.
Uşak was occupied by the Greek army between 28 August 1920 and 1 September 1922. The city was set on fire by the rapidly retreating Greek troops, causing the city significant damage, which has been documented and calculated. The day after, the Greek general Nikolaos Trikoupis
Nikolaos Trikoupis
Nikolaos Trikoupis was a Greek general and politician.Born in Mesolongi in 1869 to Themistoklis Trikoupis, he entered the Greek Army Academy, which he graduated in 1888 as an Artillery Second Lieutenant. He furthered his studies in France, where he remained from 1889 to 1895. He competed at the...

 was captured near Uşak at the village of Göğem, today buried under a dam reservoir.

Uşak was a district center within Kütahya Province
Kütahya Province
Kütahya Province is a province in the Aegean region of Turkey. It is 11,889 km² in size, and the population is 590,496 . In 1990, Kütahya had a population of 578,020.-Districts:...

 until 1953, when Uşak Province was constituted and Uşak became its provincial capital.

Climate

Uşak has a continental Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

 with cold, wet and regularly snowy winters and hot, long and dry summers.

See also

  • Ushak carpets
  • Karun Treasure
  • Uşak Museum of Archaeology
    Uşak Museum of Archaeology
    The Uşak Museum of Archaeology is an archaeological museum in Uşak in western Turkey. Founded on May 23, 1970, the museum is best known for its exhibitions of Karun treasure....

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