Manisa (Turkish pronunciation: [maˈnisa]) is a large city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province.
Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port city and the regional metropolitan center of İzmir and by its fertile hinterland rich in quantity and variety of agricultural production. In fact, İzmir's proximity also adds a particular dimension to all aspects of life's pace in Manisa in the form of a dense traffic of daily commuters between the two cities, separated as they are by a half-hour drive served by a fine six-lane highway nevertheless requiring attention at all times due to its curves and the rapid ascent (sea-level to more than 500 meters at Sabuncubeli Pass) across Mount Sipylus's mythic scenery.
The historic part of Manisa spreads out from a forested valley in the immediate slopes of Sipylus mountainside, along Çaybaşı Stream which flows next to Niobe's "Weeping Rock" ("Ağlayan Kaya"), an ancient bridge called the "Red Bridge" ("Kırmızı Köprü") as well as to several tombs-shrines in the Turkish style dating back to the Saruhan period (14th century). Under Ottoman rule in the centuries that followed, the city had already extended into the undulated terrain at the start of the plain. In the last couple of decades, Manisa's width more than tripled in size across its vast plain formed by the alluvial deposits of the River Gediz, a development in which the construction of new block apartments, industrial zones and of Celal Bayar University campus played a key role.
Devlet Bahçeli (born 1 January 1948 in Bahçe, Osmaniye) is a Turkish politician and has been the second chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) since 6 July 1997.
An academic in economics at the Gazi University in Ankara until 1987, he has been during three years a Deputy prime minister in the coalition government of Bülent Ecevit (1999–2002). Elected in the province of Osmaniye, he has been a MP in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey since 22 July 2007.
Born in the rural district of Bahçe in the province of Osmaniye, he attended primary school there. He moved to Istanbul for his secondary education. Bahçeli received his higher education from the scientific academy in Ankara and his doctorate from the Gazi University in Ankara. Bahçeli served as a lecturer for economics at the Gazi University before entering the political life in 1987.
In 1987, Devlet Bahçeli became a member of the board of the Nationalist Task Party (MÇP), which was officially renamed the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) during a congress on 24 January 1993. Following the death on 5 April 1997 of the founder and leader, Alparslan Türkeş, he became on 6 July 1997 the second chairman of the MHP. From 1999 to 2002, Bahçeli served as a Deputy prime minister in the coalition government (DSP-ANAP-MHP) of Bülent Ecevit.