Bolu

Bolu is a city in Turkey, and administrative center of the Bolu Province. The population is 131,264 (2012 census). The mayor is Alaaddin Yılmaz (AK Party) since local elections in 2004.

Bolu is on the old highway from Istanbul to Ankara, which climbs over Mount Bolu, while the new motorway passes through Mount Bolu Tunnel below the town.

History

Antiquity

Bolu was part of one of the Hittite kingdoms around 2000 BC and later 500 BC became one of the leading cities of the Kingdom of Bithynia (279 BC - 79 BC) . Bebryces,Mariandynes, Koukones, Thyns and Paphlagons are native people of the area in antique era.Strabo (XII, 4, 7) mentions a Hellenistic town, Bithynium (Greek: Βιθύνιον), celebrated for its pastures and cheese, which according to Pausanias (VIII, 9) was founded by Arcadians from Mantinea.

In the Ancient Roman era, as is shown by its coins, the town was commonly called Claudiopolis after Emperor Claudius. It was the birthplace of Antinous, the posthumously deified favourite of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was very generous to the city, and his name was later added to that of Claudius on the coins of the city. Emperor Theodosius II (408-50) made it the capital of a new province, formed out of Bithynia and Paphlagonia, and called by him Honorias in honour of his younger son Honorius.

Bolu (electoral district)

Bolu is an electoral district of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. It elects three members of parliament (deputies) to represent the province of the same name for a four-year term by the D'Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation system.

Members

Population reviews of each electoral district are conducted before each general election, which can lead to certain districts being granted a smaller or greater number of parliamentary seats. With one of the smallest electorates of any province, Gümüşhane has consistently returned two MPs since the 1999 general election.

In 1999, Düzce in northern Bolu became a province in its own right, thereby receiving its own electoral district for the 2002 general election and electing its Members of Parliament in its own right. The number of MPs elected in Bolu therefore fell from five to three in 2002, while the newly created Düzce electoral district elects three MPs. Both Düzce and Bolu combined therefore gained one extra seat in 2002.