İzmir, naval and trade capital of the region, has a long and storied history dating back to its first settlement approximately nine thousand years ago. The pearl of the Aegean Sea, it was also the place where the Greeks were thrown to the sea at the end of Atatürk's Grand Campaign.

The gulf that surrounds İzmir is host to many ports, a heritage from antiquity when the then-Smyrna was the gate of Asia Minor whereby Romans, Greeks, and countless other peoples entered to trade, invade, and settle. Today, on the other hand, İzmir looks to the future: having embraced the reforms promulgated by Atatürk in their fullness, it is a shining beacon of Turkish laicism and Kemalist reformism.