Yozgat

Yozgat exists because the Anatolian plateau required administrative centers, not because geography conferred advantage. No major river, no strategic pass, no mineral deposits—just fertile steppe suitable for grain farming and animal husbandry. The province's most distinctive feature is what it established: Turkey's first national park, the Yozgat Pine Grove (Çamlık), designated on February 5, 1958. The 264-hectare forest contains pines 350-500 years old—a forest island preserved on hills within wide steppes because someone decided preservation mattered.

The demographic trajectory shows what happens to interior provinces without competitive advantage. Population has declined to 413,161 (2024) at 29.9 people per square kilometer; the city loses approximately 589 residents annually. Young workers migrate to Istanbul, Ankara, and western cities; Turkey's 2024 fertility rate of 1.48 (below 2.1 replacement) means natural growth cannot compensate. Yozgat exemplifies the arithmetic facing dozens of Anatolian provinces: limited jobs → emigration → fewer jobs → accelerating emigration.

Agriculture employs more than half the workforce in a cycle that cannot sustain population. The land produces grain; grain requires fewer workers as mechanization advances; surplus labor departs; remaining farmers age without successors. Government infrastructure investment (2 billion+ TL in 2024) aims to reverse the flow, but structural forces favor concentration in coastal cities with ports, airports, and universities.

By 2026, Yozgat tests whether interior Anatolia can develop economic models beyond extraction and agriculture. The national park that pioneered Turkish conservation might anchor eco-tourism; wind and solar potential exists on the plateau. But first-mover advantage lies elsewhere, and the population capable of building alternatives continues departing.