User:Seyhan668/Neighborhoods in Cukurova District

Governance
Çukurova district is administered by three levels of government; central government, provincial administration and the municipalities.

Çukurova Governorship is the district branch of the central government operating under the Adana Governorship. The chief executive of the Çukurova district is the District Governor who is appointed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Çukurova Governorship overseas the functioning of the district directorates of the ministries.

Çukurova directorate of the Adana Province Special Administration is the district branch of the provincial administration. Çukurova district is represented with 7 members at the 61-member Adana Provincial Parliament.

Çukurova district is divided into municipalities and villages. Municipalities are further divided into neighborhoods.

Municipalities
There is only one municipality incorporated in the Çukurova district. Çukurova Municipality is a lower tier municipality of City of Adana and serves most of the district and it is further divided into neighborhoods.

Çukurova Municipality
Çukurova Municipality was incorporated in 2008 as a lower-tier municipality of the city of Adana, after the split of the northern section from Seyhan district. The organs of the Çukurova Municipality are the mayor, encümen (the executive committee) and the municipal council.

Mayor is the chief executive of the municipality, presides municipal departments and chairs the municipal council. Mayoral candidates are either nominated by National Parties or run independently. The mayor is elected by first past the post voting for a 5-year term. Yıldıray Arıkan is the mayor of Çukurova since 2009. In the local elections in March 29, 2009, he was elected with %40.7 of the popular votes. The turnout was a high of %80.4, where the total number of registered voters were 219,019.


 * 1
 * CHP
 * align="right"|Yıldıray Arıkan
 * align="right"|69,782
 * align="right"|40.67
 * 2
 * MHP
 * align="right"|Abdülkadir Üçkardeşler
 * align="right"|52,269
 * align="right"|30.46
 * 3
 * AKP
 * align="right"|Nevzat Ardıç
 * align="right"|38,771
 * align="right"|22.59
 * 4
 * DTP
 * align="right"|Aysel Kılıç
 * align="right"|3,017
 * align="right"|1.76
 * 5
 * SP
 * align="right"|Yunus Topçu
 * align="right"|2,153
 * align="right"|1.26
 * }
 * SP
 * align="right"|Yunus Topçu
 * align="right"|2,153
 * align="right"|1.26
 * }

Encümen is the executive committee of the Çukurova Municipality.The mayor presides the encümen and the committee consists of 7 members, 3 councilors elected from the municipal council, 3 department directors appointed by the mayor and the treasurer.

Municipal Council is the decision making organ of the Çukurova Municipality. It is responsible for approving by-laws, founding, splitting or amalgamating neighborhoods, strategic planning, urban development planning and zoning, making investments, budgeting, loaning and controlling the mayor's activities. The chair of the council is the mayor. The council consists of 37 members. The candidates for the councilor positions are either nominated by National Parties or run independently. The councilors are elected by the d'Hondt method, where the whole municipality is one electoral district and there is 10% threshold for a party to gain seat at the council. As with mayor, councilors are elected for a 5-year term. Left leaning CHP leads the council with 18 members, Turkish nationalist MHP has 10, conservative AKP has 7 members at the council and two members are independent.

Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods (Mahalle) are administered by the Muhtar and the Neighborhood Seniors Council consisting of 4 members. Muhtar and the Senior Council are elected for 5 years at the local elections and are not affiliated with political parties. Neighborhoods are not an incorporation therefore do not hold government status. Muhtar although being elected by the residents, acts merely as an administrator of the district governor. Muhtar also voices the neighborhood issues to the municipal hall together with the Seniors Council.

Çukurova has total of 16 neighborhoods, 12 of them in the urban area, 4 are outside the urban area. The neighborhoods outside the urban area are the former villages and the municipalities that annexed to the city of Adana as city borders are expanded in 2008.

Neighborhoods in the urban area
The urban neighborhoods of Çukurova are spread into 3 distinctive zones. The major separators of these zones are the Adana Metro and the Turgut Özal boulevard.

North of Turgut Özal Boulevard: The most scenic section of Adana, the zone is all residential, villas on the hills overlooking to the Seyhan Reservoir and high rise building along Turgut Özal and Süleyman Demirel Boulevards. This zone is bounded with Özal Boulevard on the south, Sadık Ahmet Boulevard on the west and Seyhan Reservoir on the north. The 4 neighborhoods of this zone are, Beyazevler, Güzelyalı, Karslılar and Kurttepe.

East of the Adana Metro: Bounded with Turgut Özal Boulevard on the east and north, Adana Metro on the west and Seyhan district on the south, this zone is heavily residential. The 3 neighborhoods of this zone are, Yurt, Mahfesığmaz and Toros.

West of the Adana Metro: Bounded by Adana Metro on the west, Turgut Özal Boulevard on the north, Tapantepe Road on the west and Seyhan district on the south, this zone is rapidly developing area of the city. Western section is zoned for low-rise and eastern section is heavily residential with high-rise buildings. The 5 neighborhoods of the zone are, Huzurevleri, Belediye Evleri, Yüzüncüyıl, Esentepe, Şambayadı.

Neighborhoods outside the urban area
As the city borders expanded the municipalities and villages in the new limits of the city are annexed to the city. Neighborhoods of the former municipalities and former villages then became part of the Çukurova district as neighborhoods. There are total of 4 non-urban neighborhoods, all used to be part of the former Salbaş Municipality; Esentepe, Kocatepe, Yeni Mahalle and Gökkuyu. .