formerly Aintab
City (pop., 1997: 712,800), south-central Turkey.
Located north of Aleppo , it was strategically situated near ancient trade routes and has been inhabited since the early 4th millennium BC. Known as Hamtap, it was an important stronghold guarding the Syrian-Byzantine border. Captured by Turks in 1183, it later changed hands among various invaders until its absorption into the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century. Called Aintab under the Ottomans, it was occupied by the British and French after World War I (1914–18). By then it was a centre of Turkish nationalist resistance to European occupation, and upon its return to Turkey in 1922 it was renamed in honour of its heroic stand (Turkish gazi , "champion").