The first mention in Ottoman records dates from 1530 and the settlement was named Seydiköy in honor of a Yörük chief, Seydi Ahmed, whose tomb still stands.

The town's evolution can be traced fairly smoothly through the centuries by means of regular references in Ottoman sources.

In a diary entry dated November 26, 1670, John Covel, the Levant Company chaplain at İzmir (then known in English by its Greek name of Smyrna), notes that the town of Seydoköy (rendered Sedjagui in the diary) was the site of several country houses owned by European diplomats, including the Dutch Consul Jacques van Dam and the English Consul and writer Paul Rycaut, whose house Covel visited.

[5] After the 17th century, in line with the general pace of development in fertile western Anatolian valleys based on olive/figs/raisin/cotton exports and the ensuing population movements from the Aegean Islands, Seydiköy was largely settled by Greeks who came to constitute a large majority as of the second half of the 19th century.

Companies established within the Aegean Free Zone generally focus on export processing, while the presence of such Turkish or international outlets as Migros Türk, Kipa (a Tesco joint-venture) and Metro AG Optimum Outlet subsidiaries makes Gaziemir one the important retail centers of İzmir.