Diyarbakır

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Diyarbakır, Turkey
Diyarbakır Ulu Cami (Great Mosque)
Map
Location in Turkey
Diyarbakır, Turkey briefly
Province	Diyarbakır
Total Population	1,039,000 est. www.diyarbakirtso.org.tr (2005)
Coordinates	NA
Postal code	21x xx
Licence plate code	21
Mayor	Osman Baydemir (Democratic Society Party)
Website	http://www.diyarbakir.bel-gov.tr/

Diyarbakır (Ottoman Diyar-i Bekr دیاربکر 'land of the Bekr' as derived from Arabic^[1]; Kurdish Amed; Syriac ܐܡܝܕ Āmîḏ; Greek Ἄμιδα Amida; Armenian Ամիդ Amid) is a major city in southeastern Turkey situated on the banks of the River Tigris, and the seat of Diyarbakır Province. In 2000 census, the city had a population of 546,000 and the metropolitan area, of 721,000 in 2005. It is the second-largest city in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia region, after Gaziantep.

Diyarbakır has a large Kurdish population^[2], prompting some Kurds and outside observers to often refer to it as the unofficial 'capital' of a Turkish Kurdistan^[3]. This term has no administrative basis and is open to controversy. Within Turkey, Diyarbakır is known for its culture, rich folklore and famed watermelons.

1 History
2 Features
3 Sights of interest
4 Famous people
5 Gallery
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

“Amid(a)” was the capital of the Aramean kingdom Bet-Zamani from the 13th century B.C. onwards. “Amid” is the name used in the Syriac sources, which also testifies to the fact that it once was the seat of the Church of the East Patriarch and thus a Assyrian or Syriac stronghold that produced many famous Syriac theologians and Patriarchs; some of them found their final resting place in the St. Mary Church. There are many relics in the Church, such as the bones of the apostle Thomas and St. Jacob of Sarug (d. 521).

The city was called Amida when the region was under the rule of the Roman and then the Byzantine Empires. From 189 BCE to 384 CE, the area to the east and south of present-day Diyarbakır, was ruled by a Kurdish kingdom^[4] known as Corduene. It later became a province of the Roman Empire in 66 BCE.^[5]

Coffee shop in Diyarbakır, 1909

In 359, Shapur II of Persia captured Amida after a siege of seventy-three days. The Roman soldiers and a large part of the population of the town were massacred by the Persians. The heroic siege is vividly described by Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus who was an eyewitness of the event and survived the massacre by escaping from the town.

The Kurdish dynasty of Marwanid ruled the area of Diyarbakır during the 10th and 11th centuries CE. After the Battle of Manzikert, the city has been under the rule of the Mardin branch of Oghuz Turkish beylik (principality) of Artuklu (circa 1100-1250 in effective terms, although almost a century longer nominally). It has been disputed between the Ilkhanate and Ayyubid dynasties along with its surrounding region for a century after which it was taken over by the rising Turkmen states of Kara Koyunlu (the Black Sheep) first and Ak Koyunlu (the White Sheep). Following the Ottoman ascendancy established by Selim I in the region, the city has become part of the Ottoman Empire since the reign of Sultan Süleyman I's campaign of Irakeyn (the two Iraqs, e.g. Arabian and Persian) in 1534, at the same time as Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.

The Ottoman eyalet of Diyarbekir covered the geography corresponding to Turkey's southeastern provinces today, a rectangular area between the Lake Urmia to Palu and from the southern shores of Lake Van to Cizre and the beginnings of the Syrian desert, although its borders saw some changes over time. In 1864, together with the passage into vilayet system, it became the seat of the Vilayet of Diyarbekir.

In the 19th century, Diyarbakır prison had gained infamy throughout the Ottoman Empire as a site where political prisoners from the enslaved Balkan ethnicities were sent to serve harsh sentences for speaking or fighting for national freedom.^{[citation needed]}

The 20th century was a turbulent one for Diyarbakır. During World War I most of the city's Syriac and Armenian population was driven from the city. After the surrender of the Ottoman Empire, French troops attempted to occupy the city.

[edit] Features

Diyarbakır city walls, built by Constantius II and extended by Valentinian I between 367-375, stretch unbroken for almost 6 kilometres.

The city is surrounded by a dramatic and intact set of black basalt walls extending in a 5.5 km circle around the old city. The dramatic warren of alleyways and old-fashioned tenement blocks which makes up the old city contrast dramatically with the sprawling suburbs of modern apartment blocks and gecekondu slums to the west. Diyarbakır boasts numerous medieval mosques and madrassahs, crowned by the 11th century Ulu Cami ("Great Mosque") constructed by alternating bands of black basalt and limestone. The same patterning was used in the 16th century Deliler Han Madrassah, which is now a hotel, and the 12th century Castle Mosque (Kale Camii).

The Syriac Orthodox church of Our Lady (Syriac ܥܕܬܐ ܕܝܠܕܬ ܐܠܗܐ `Idto d-Yoldat Aloho, Turkish Meryemana kilisesi), was first constructed as a pagan temple in the 1st century BC, and is still in use as a place of worship today.

Diyarbakır also has one of the region's most lively and dramatic street markets.

Always a centre of Kurdish nationalism^{[citation needed]}, Diyarbakır became a stronghold of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after the beginning of the guerilla war in southeastern Turkey in 1984. During this conflict, the population of the city grew dramatically as villagers from remote areas where fighting was serious left or were forced to leave for the relative security of the city. Diyarbakır was also one of the areas where the Kurdish Hezbollah was most active in the early to mid 1990s, with this group often targeting PKK activists and the city's tiny Christian community of Armenians and Syriacs.

After the PKK's cessation of hostilities, a large degree of normality returned to the city, with the Turkish government declaring a 15 year period of emergency rule over on 30 November 2002. The local economy is slowly improving and now Diyarbakır is safe to visit.

[edit] Sights of interest

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

[edit] Famous people

A mosque in Diyarbakır

Abdülkadir Aksu: Current Turkish minister of interior affairs (of Kurdish background)
Abdüssamed Diyarbekrî: Early 16th century Turkish historian based in Egypt.
Ağa Ceylan: Founder of Ceylan Holding
Ahmed Arif: Poet
Aziz Yıldırım: President of Fenerbahçe sports club
Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı: Poet
Cemili: 15th century Chaghatay Poet
Halis Toprak: Prominent businessman
Hamit Aytaç: 20th century master-artist of Turkish calligraphy
Hesenê Metê: Kurdish writer
Hikmet Çetin: Former Turkish foreign minister, currently NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan
İzzet Altınmeşe: Folk singer
Leyla Zana: Kurdish politician
Lokman Polat: Kurdish writer
Mehmed Emin Bozarslan: Kurdish writer
Orhan Asena: Turkish playwright
Rojen Barnas: Kurdish writer
Süleyman Nazif: Prominent Young Turk
Ziya Gökalp: Prominent ideologue of Pan-Turkism and Turanism
Cihan Haspolatli: Galatasaray SK footballer

[edit] Gallery

Diyarbakır's city walls

The 12th century Ulu Cami dominates the city skyline

Part of Diyarbakır's old city wall

Diyarbakır is famous for its oversize watermelons, grown in a limited area (Hevsel Gardens) along the Tigris, using pigeon droppings(koğa) as fertilizer.

[edit] See also

Dicle University
Corduene
Ka-Mer

[edit] Notes

^ The general view is that the name refers to the Arab Bekr tribe who settled in the region following the Islamic conquest in the 7th century [1]. The Kurdish scholar Professor Mehrdad Izady, of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, suggests an alternative argument in his book The Kurds: A Concise Handbook according to which the name of Amid would have been changed by the Kurdish dynasty the Bagirawand (Bagratids) who would have renamed their capital after themselves.
^ Distribution of Kurdish People — GlobalSecurity.org
^ Administrative Units of Contemporary Kurdistan
^ The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7
^ Theodor Mommsen History of Rome, The Establishment of the Military Monarchy