Sivas

Sivas (sĭväs`), city (1990 pop. 219,122), capital of Sivas prov., central Turkey, on the Kizil Irmak. An important trade and manufacturing center, it has cement, textile, and rug factories. Iron ore is mined nearby. Known as Sebaste, Sebastia, or Cabira in ancient times, it was an important city of Asia Minor under the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Seljuk Turks. Part of the Seljuk empire of Rum in the late 12th cent., Sivas fell to the Mongols and later (15th cent.) to the Ottoman Turks. In 1919, Kemal Atatürk held an important nationalist congress there.

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Sivas

a city in central Turkey, at an altitude of 1347 m (4420 ft.): one of the chief cities in Asia Minor in ancient times; scene of the national congress (1919) leading to the revolution that established modern Turkey. Pop.: 266 000 (2005 est.)

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Sivas 

a city in central Turkey; capital of Sivas Vilayet. Population, 133,000 (1970). Sivas has a railroad station and is a high-wayjunction. The city has enterprises for the production of machinery, metal products, cement, wood products, foodstuffs, and textiles. It is the trade center of an agricultural region that specializes in grains, livestock, and wool.

The ancient name for Sivas was Sebasteia. From the late fourth to the late 11th century the city was part of Byzantium. From the late 11th to the early 14th century it was ruled by the Seljuks, including the Sultanate of Konya, which ruled from the late 12th to the early 14th century. In the 14th century Sivas became part of the Ottoman Empire. In September 1919, during the Kemalist Revolution, the Sivas Congress of National Bourgeois Organizations (Associations for the Defense of Rights) was convened in the city. The congress elected the Representative Committee, the de facto provisional government of revolutionary Turkey until April 1920.