Çorlu

Çorlu is an administrative anomaly: with 306,939 inhabitants in 2025 it is more populous than many Turkish provincial capitals, yet it remains a district of the province of Tekirdağ, in eastern Thrace, on the historic axis linking Istanbul with Edirne. That size is explained by industry. Çorlu is one of Turkey's great leather centres: its Organised Leather Industrial Zone alone covers 130 hectares, brings together 118 factories, employs close to 10,000 people and concentrates around 37% of national leather production, with a contribution of close to 1 billion dollars a year to the country's economy. The migration that industry attracts has pushed the city past 300,000 inhabitants.

The municipal sporting muscle is broad for a district. The Municipal Stadium, opened in 2013, covers 20,193 square metres and has a stand for 2,256 spectators; the semi-Olympic indoor Mustafa Kemal Atatürk pool (2016) adds a 25-by-16-metre basin and 540 seats; the Ziya Berhan Kılıç indoor arena (2011), FIBA-approved, hosts basketball, handball, volleyball and combat sports; and the tennis complex (2017) has four courts. Football is represented by Çorlu Spor 1947, which competes in the Turkish 2. Lig.

Çorlu was distinguished by ACES Europe as European City of Sport 2020. The recognition places the city in the Turkish trail of the ACES network, opened by Istanbul as European Capital of Sport 2012 — the country's first — and which in 2023 took the global World Capital of Sport title to Konya. For an industrial city in Thrace, the title certifies a network of public facilities built over the last decade.