Түркиядағы Диярбақыр қаласы

City in Turkey

Diyarbakır (; , local pronunciation: Dikranagerd; ; ), formerly Diyarbekir, is the largest Kurdish majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is the administrative capital of the Diyarbakır Province of southeastern Turkey. It is the second largest city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. As of December 2021, the Metropolitan Province population was 1,791,373 of whom 1,129,218 lived in the built up (or metro) area made of the 4 urban districts (Bağlar, Kayapınar, Sur and Yenişehir). Diyarbakır has been a main focal point of the conflict between the Turkish state and various Kurdish separatist groups, and is seen by many Kurds as the de facto capital of Kurdistan. The city was intended to become the capital of an independent Kurdistan following the Treaty of Sèvres, but this was disregarded following subsequent political developments. On 6 February 2023 Diyarbakır was affected by the twin Turkey Syria earthquakes, which inflicted some damage on its city walls.

In ancient times the city was known as Amida, a name which could derive from an older Assyrian toponym Amedi. The name Āmid was also used in Arabic. After the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the city became known as Diyar Bakr (ديار بكر), in reference to the territory of the Banu Bakr tribe, the Diyar Bakr. That tribe had already settled in northern Mesopotomia during the pre Islamic period. In the 7th century, during the caliphate of Uthman and under the regional governorship of Mu'awiya, a portion of the tribe was ordered to settle further north in the lands near the city. The city was later also known in Turkish as Kara Amid ("Black Amid"), on account of its black basalt walls. In November 1937, Turkish President Atatürk visited the city and after expressing uncertainty on the exact etymology of the city's name, "Diyarbekir", in December of the same year ordered that it be renamed "Diyarbakır", which means "land of copper" in Turkish after the abundant resources of copper around the city. This was one of the early examples of the Turkification process of non Turkish place names, in which non Turkish (Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic and other) geographical names were changed to Turkish alternatives. The modern Armenian name of the city is Tigranakert (Տիգրանակերտ). It is known as Amed in Kurdish and in Syriac as ܐܡܝܕ (Āmīd).

People have inhabited the area around Diyarbakır since the Stone Age. The first major civilization to establish itself in the region of Diyarbakır was the Hurrian kingdom of the Mitanni. It was then ruled by a succession of nearly every polity that controlled Upper Mesopotamia, including the Arameans, Assyrians, Urartu, Armenians, Achaemenid Persians, Medes, Seleucids, and Parthians. The Roman Republic gained control of the city in 66 BC, by which stage it was named "Amida". In 359, Shapur II of Persia captured Amida after a siege of 73 days. According to the Synecdemus of Hierocles, as Amida, Diyarbakır was the major city of the Roman province of Mesopotamia. It was the episcopal see of the Christian diocese of Mesopotamia. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus was serving in the late Roman army during the Siege of Amida by the Sasanian Empire under Shapur II , and described the successful siege in detail. At some stage, Amida became a see of the Armenian Church. The bishops who held the see in 1650 and 1681 were in full communion with the Holy See, and in 1727 Peter Derboghossian sent his profession of faith to Rome. He was succeeded by two more bishops of the Armenian Catholic Church, Eugenius and Ioannes of Smyrna, the latter of whom died in Constantinople in 1785. After a long vacancy, three more bishops followed. The diocese had some 5,000 Armenian Catholics in 1903, but it lost most of its population in the 1915 Armenian genocide. The last diocesan bishop of the see, Andreas Elias Celebian, was killed with some 600 of his flock in the summer of 1915. An eparchy for the local members of the Syriac Catholic Church was established in 1862. Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War brought an end to the existence of both these Syrian residential sees.

In 639, as part of the Muslim conquest of the Levant during the early Arab–Byzantine wars, Amida fell to the armies of the Rashidun Caliphate led by Iyad ibn Ghanm, and the Great Mosque of Amida was constructed afterwards in the city's centre, possibly on the site of the Heraclian Church of Saint Thomas. Between the Mongol occupation and conquest by the Safavid dynasty of Iran, the Kara Koyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu – two Turkoman confederations – were in control of the city in succession. Diyarbakır was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1514 by Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, in the reign of the sultan Selim I Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.

The Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire saw it expand into Western Armenia and all but the eastern regions of Kurdistan at the expense of the Safavids. From the early 16th century, the city and the wider region was the source of intrigue between the Safavids and the Ottoman Empire, both of whom sought the support of the Kurdish chieftains around Idris Bitlisi. It was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1514 in the campaigns of Bıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, under the rule of Sultan Selim I. Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid Governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of Armenians and Syriac Orthodox Christians. The city was also a site of ethnic cleansing during the 1915 Armenian and Assyrian genocide; nearly 150,000 were expelled from the city to the death marches in the Syrian Desert.

In January 1928, Diyarbakır became the center of the First Inspectorate General, a regional subdivision for an area containing the provinces of Hakkari, Van, Şırnak, Mardin, Siirt, Bitlis and Şanlıurfa. In a reorganization of the provinces in 1952, Diyarbakır city was made the administrative capital of the Diyarbakır Province. In 1993, Diyarbakir was established as a Metropolitan Municipality. Its districts are Bağlar, Bismil, Ergani, Hazro, Kayapinar, Çermik, Çinar, Eğil, Dicle, Kulp, Kocaköy, Lice, Silvan, Sur, Yenişehir, Hani and Çüngüş. The American Turkish Pirinçlik Air Force Base near Diyarbakır was operational from 1956 to 1997. Diyarbakır has seen much violence in recent years, involving Turkish security forces, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Between 8 November 2015 and 15 May 2016 large parts of Sur were destroyed in fighting between the Turkish military and the PKK. In early November 2015, Kurdish lawyer and human rights activist Tahir Elçi was killed in the Sur district during a press statement in which he had been calling for a de escalation in violence between the PKK and the Turkish state. A 2018 report by Arkeologlar Derneği İstanbul found that, since 2015, 72% of the city's historic Sur district had been destroyed through demolition and redevelopment, and that laws designed to protect historic monuments had been ignored. They found that the city's "urban regeneration" policy was one of demolition and redevelopment rather than one of repairing cultural assets damaged during the recent civil conflict, and because of that many registered historic buildings had been completely destroyed. The extent of the loss of non registered historic structures is unknown because any historic building fragments revealed during the demolition of modern structures were also demolished. As of 2021, large parts of the city and district were restored and government officials were looking towards tourism again. A Turkish professor and former journalist from the country commented, "It is like having an epicenter of an earthquake in Harrisburg and buildings in New York City are collapsing."

The most notable football clubs of the city are Diyarbakırspor (established 1968) and Amed S. F. K. (established 1990), with Deniz Naki being one of the most notable footballers from the city. The women's football team Amed S. K. were promoted at the end of the 2016–17 Turkish Women's Second Football League season to the Women's First League. The Turkish government ordered a general internet blackout after the arrest. Nevertheless, on 26 October, several thousand demonstrators at Diyarbakir city hall demanded the mayors' release. In November, public prosecutors demanded a 230 year prison sentence for Kışanak. In January 2017, the un elected state trustee appointed by the Turkish government ordered the removal of the Assyrian sculpture of a mythological winged bull from the town hall, which had been erected by the BDP mayors to commemorate the Assyrian history of the town and its still resident Assyrian minority. All Kurdish language street signs were also removed, alongside the shutting down of organisations concerned with Kurdish language and culture, removal of Kurdish names from public parks, and removal of Kurdish cultural monuments and linguistic symbols. In the 2019 municipal elections, Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı of the HDP party was elected mayor of Diyarbakir. In August 2019 he was dismissed and subsequently sentenced to 9 years and 4 months imprisonment accused of supporting terrorism as part of a government crackdown against politicians of the Kurdish HDP party; the Turkish state appointed Münir Karaloğlu in his place. Other Kurdish mayors in Kurdish cities across the region also suffered a similar fate, with Turkish President Erdoğan vowing to remove any future Kurdish mayors too. Protests against the decision arose which were suppressed by the Turkish police with the use of water cannons; some protestors were killed. Diyarbakır's prison has become home to many political prisoners, mainly Kurdish activists and politicians accused of terrorism charges by the Turkish state. Inmates have been subject to torture, rape, humiliation, beating, murder and other abuses.

Historically, Diyarbakır produced wheat and sesame. Angora goats were raised, and wool and mohair was exported from Diyarbakır. Merchants would also come from Egypt, Istanbul, and Syria, to purchase goats and sheep. Honey was also produced, but not so much exported, but used by locals. Sericulture was observed in the area, too. Prior to World War I, Diyarbakır had an active copper industry, with six mines. Three were active, with two being owned by locals and the third being owned by the Turkish government. Tenorite was the primary type of copper mined. It was mined by hand by Kurds. A large portion of the ore was exported to England. The region also produced iron, gypsum, coal, chalk, lime, jet, and quartz, but primarily for local use. The city is served by Diyarbakır Airport and Diyarbakır railway station. In 1935 the railway between Elazığ and Diyarbakır was inaugurated.

At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of Armenians and Assyrians. There was also a small Jewish community in the city. All Christians spoke Armenian and Kurdish. Notables spoke Turkish. In the streets, the language was Kurdish. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1911, the population numbered 38 thousand, almost half being Christian and consisting of Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Armenians, Chaldeans, Jacobites, and a few Greeks. During the Governorship of Mehmed Reshid in the Vilayet of Diyarbakır, the Armenian population of Diyarbakir was resettled and exterminated. After World War II, as the Kurdish population moved from the villages and mountains to urban centres, Diyarbakir's Kurdish population continued to grow. Diyarbakır grew from a population of 30,000 in the 1930s to 65,000 by 1956, to 140,000 by 1970, to 400,000 by 1990, and eventually swelled to about 1.5 million by 1997. During the 1990s, the city grew dramatically due to the immigrant population from thousands of Kurdish villages depopulated by Turkey during the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. According to a November 2006 survey by the Sûr Municipality, 72% of the inhabitants of the municipality use Kurdish most often in their daily speech due to the overwhelming Kurdish majority in the city, followed by minorities of Assyrian, Armenian and Turkish. There are some Alevi Turkmen villages around Diyarbakır's old city, but there are no official reports about their population numbers. There have been attempts by Turkish lawmakers to deny Diyarbakır's Kurdish majority identity, with Turkey's Education Ministry releasing a school book named "Our City, Diyarbakir" ("Şehrimiz Diyarbakır" in Turkish) on Diyarbakir Province in which it claims that a Turkish similar to that spoken in Baku is spoken in the city along with regional languages like Arabic, Persian, Kurdish, Turkmen and Caucasian languages. Critics link this to a general trend towards anti Kurdish sentiment in Turkey. It was re opened in 1999, The Municipality City Theatre also performed plays in the Kurdish language. One of the other common celebrations in Turkey is Nowruz. This celebration is done on the pretext of the beginning of spring and the beginning of the new year. The establishment of Nowruz has a long history, so much so that it has been celebrated in different parts of Asia for the past three thousand years, especially in the Middle East. In different parts of Turkey, especially the Kurdish regions of this country, Nowruz is considered one of the most important cultural and historical traditions of these regions. Lighting a fire, wearing new clothes, holding a dance ceremony, and giving gifts to each other are some of the activities that are done in this celebration.

Diyarbakır's cuisine includes lamb dishes which use spices such as black pepper, sumac and coriander; rice, bulgur and butter. Local dishes include Meftune, lamb meat and vegetables with garlic and sumac, and Kaburga Dolması, baked lamb's ribs stuffed with rice, almonds and spices. Watermelons are grown locally and there is an annual Watermelon Festival.

The core of Diyarbakır is surrounded by an almost intact set of high walls of black basalt forming a circle around the old city. There are four gates into the old city and 82 watch towers on the walls, which were built in antiquity and restored and extended by the Roman emperor Constantius II in 349. The area inside the walls is known as the Sur district; before its recent demolition and redevelopment this district had 599 registered historical buildings. and restored in Ottoman time in 1532.

St. Giragos Armenian Church – first built in 1519, the current structure is from 1883, and was recently restored after a long period of disuse. The Syriac Orthodox Church of Our Lady ( `Idto d Yoldat Aloho, Meryemana kilisesi), was first constructed as a pagan temple in the 1st century BC. The current construction dates back to the 3rd century, has been restored many times, and is still in use as a place of worship today. Mar Petyun (St. Anthony) Chaldean Catholic Church, built in 1681. St. Marys Cathedral
St. George's Church

The Diyarbakır Fortress and Hevsel Gardens Cultural Landscape, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015. Hasan Pasha Han, a large 16th century Ottoman caravanserai, now hosting shops and cafés. Delliler Han, a caravanserai built in 1527, now used as a five star hotel.

Diyarbakır has a Mediterranean (Köppen climate classification: Csa) or an anomalously warm, hot summer oceanic climate (Trewartha climate classification: Doa). Summers are very hot and very dry, due to its location on the Mesopotamian plain which is subject to hot air masses from the deserts of Syria and Iraq to the south. The highest recorded temperature was 46.2 °C (112.64 °F) on 21 July 1937. Winters are chilly with moderate precipitation and frosty nights. Snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two. The lowest recorded temperature was −24.2 °C (−10.12 °F) on 11 January 1933. Highest recorded snow depth was 65 cm (25.6 inches) on 16 January 1971.