Diyarbakır

"Amid" redirects here. For other uses, see Amid (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Diyarbakır (disambiguation).
Diyarbakır
Kurdish: Amed
Metropolitan municipality

Clockwise from top: A park in Diyarbakir, Hasan Pasha Han, historic city walls, Gazi Pavillion, A pond park in Diyarbakir, Ongözlü Bridge (The Dicle Bridge), Great Mosque of Diyarbakır.

Emblem of Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality

Diyarbakır

Location of Diyarbakır within Turkey

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Coordinates: 37.91°N 40.24°ECountryTurkeyRegionSoutheastern AnatoliaProvinceDiyarbakırGovernment • Elected MayorAdnan Selçuk Mızraklı (deposed) (HDP) • MayorAli İhsan Su (trustee)Area • Metropolitan municipality15,058 km2 (5,814 sq mi) • Urban2,410 km2 (930 sq mi) • Metro2,410 km2 (930 sq mi)Elevation675 m (2,215 ft)Population (2021 estimation)[1] • Metropolitan municipality1,791,373 • Density120/km2 (310/sq mi) • Urban1,129,218 • Urban density470/km2 (1,200/sq mi) • Metro1,129,218 • Metro density470/km2 (1,200/sq mi)GDP[2] • Metropolitan municipalityTRY 62.494 billion
US$ 6.959 billion (2021) • Per capitaTRY 34,964
US$ 3,893 (2021)Time zoneUTC+3 (TRT)Postal code21x xx
Area code412Licence plate21Websitewww.diyarbakir.gov.tr
Diyarbakır (Turkish pronunciation: [diˈjaɾ.bakɯɾ]), formerly Diyarbekir, is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey.[3] 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.[4][5] 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.[6][7][8]
On 6 February 2023 Diyarbakır was affected by the twin Turkey-Syria earthquakes, which inflicted some damage on its city walls.[9]

Names and etymology[edit]

In ancient times the city was known as Amida, a name which could derive from an older Assyrian toponym Amedi.[10] The name Āmid was also used in Arabic.[11][12] The name Amit is found in official documents of the Empire of Trebizond from 1358.[13]
After the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, the city became known as Diyar Bakr (Arabic: ديار بكر, romanized: Diyār Bakr, lit. 'the abode of [the tribe of] Bakr'), in reference to the territory of the Banu Bakr tribe, the Diyar Bakr.[12][14][15] 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.[12] The city was later also known in Turkish as Kara-Amid ("Black Amid"), on account of its black basalt walls.[16]
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.[17] 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.[18][19]
The modern Armenian name of the city is Tigranakert (Տիգրանակերտ).[20] It is known as Amed in Kurdish[21] and in Syriac as ܐܡܝܕ (Āmīd).[22]

History[edit]

Main article: History of Diyarbakır

Antiquity[edit]

Kurkh stele of Shalmaneser III in the British Museum, 9th century BC
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.[23] The Roman Republic gained control of the city in 66 BC, by which stage it was named "Amida".[24] In 359, Shapur II of Persia captured Amida after a siege of 73 days.[25][26]
According to the Synecdemus of Hierocles, as Amida, Diyarbakır was the major city of the Roman province of Mesopotamia.[27] It was the episcopal see of the Christian diocese of Mesopotamia.[27] Ancient texts record that ancient Amida had an amphitheatre, thermae (public baths), warehouses, a tetrapylon monument, and Roman aqueducts supplying and distributing water.[28] The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus was serving in the late Roman army during the Siege of Amida by the Sasanian Empire under Shapur II (r. 309–379), and described the successful siege in detail.[28] Amida was then enlarged by refugees from ancient Nisibis (Nusaybin), which the emperor Jovian (r. 363–364) was forced to evacuate and cede to Shapur's Persians after the defeat of his predecessor Julian's Persian War, becoming the main Roman stronghold in the region.[28] The chronicle attributed to Joshua the Stylite describes the capture of Amida by the Persians under Kavad I (r. 488–531) in the second Siege of Amida in 502–503, part of the Anastasian War.[28]
Either the emperor Anastasius Dicorus (r. 491–518) or the emperor Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) rebuilt the walls of Amida, a feat of defensive architecture praised by the Greek historian Procopius.[28] As recorded by the works of John of Ephesus, Zacharias Rhetor, and Procopius, the Romans and Persians continued to contest the area, and in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 Amida was captured and held by the Persians for twenty-six years, being recovered in 628 for the Romans by the emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641), who also founded a church in the city on his return to Constantinople (Istanbul) from Persia the following year.[27][28]

Ecclesiastical history[edit]

Page from abridged Bible created in Diyarbakır in 1601 by the Serapion of Edessa for the future Co-Catholicos of All Armenians, now at the Chester Beatty Library
Syriac Christianity took hold in the region between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, particularly amongst the Assyrians of the city. The Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II (408–450) divided the Roman province of Mesopotamia into two, and made Amida the capital of Mesopotamia Prima, and thereby also the metropolitan see for all the province's bishoprics.[29]
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.[30][31][32][33][34] The diocese had some 5,000 Armenian Catholics in 1903,[35] 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.[30][31][32][33]
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.[30][31][36][37]

Middle Ages[edit]

See also: Diyar Bakr
Fragment of an unglazed jar from Diyarbakir, 13th century AD
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.[27][28][26] There were as many as five Christian monasteries in the city, including the Zuqnin Monastery and several ancient churches mentioned by John of Ephesus.[28] One of these, the Church of the Virgin Mary, remains the city's cathedral and the see of the bishop of Diyarbakır in the Syriac Orthodox Church.[28] Another ancient church, the Church of Mar Cosmas, was seen by the British explorer Gertrude Bell in 1911 but was destroyed in 1930, while the former Church of Saint George, in the walled citadel, may originally have been built for Muslim use or for the Church of the East.[28]
The city was part of the Umayyad Caliphate and then the Abbasid Caliphate, but then came under more local rule until its recovery in 899 by forces loyal to the caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) before falling under the sway of first the Hamdanid dynasty and then the Buyid dynasty, followed by a period of control by the Marwanids. The city was taken by the Seljuks in 1085 and by the Ayyubids in 1183. Ayyubid control lasted until the Mongol invasions of Anatolia, and the Mongol capture of the city in 1260. 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 (r. 1512–1520). Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the following Battle of Chaldiran in 1514.[38][39]

Safavids and Ottomans[edit]

See also: Diyarbekir Eyalet and Diyarbekir Vilayet
16th-century plan of Diyarbakır by Matrakci Nasuh
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.[38] 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.[38]
Following their victory, the Ottomans established the Diyarbekir Eyalet with its administrative centre in Diyarbakır. The Eyalet of Diyarbakır corresponded to today's Turkish Kurdistan, 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. The city was an important military base for controlling the region and at the same time a thriving city noted for its craftsmen, producing glass and metalwork. For example, the doors of Rumi's tomb in Konya were made in Diyarbakır, as were the gold and silver decorated doors of the tomb of Ebu Hanife in Baghdad. Ottoman rule was confirmed by the 1555 Peace of Amasya which followed the Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555).
Depiction of Diyarbakır in a 17th-century Ottoman map, possibly created by Evliya Çelebi
Concerned with independent-mindedness of the Kurdish principalities, the Ottomans sought to curb their influence and bring them under the control of the central government in Constantinople. However, removal from power of these hereditary principalities led to more instability in the region from the 1840s onwards. In their place, sufi sheiks and religious orders rose to prominence and spread their influence throughout the region. One of the prominent Sufi leaders was Shaikh Ubaidalla Nahri, who began a revolt in the region between Lakes Van and Urmia. The area under his control covered both Ottoman and Qajar territories. Shaikh Ubaidalla is regarded as one of the earliest proponents of Kurdish nationalism. In a letter to a British Vice-Consul, he declared: "The Kurdish nation is a people apart... we want our affairs to be in our hands."
Diyarbakır, c. 1900
In 1895 an estimated 25,000 Armenians and Assyrians were massacred in Diyarbekir Vilayet, including in the city.[40] At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of Armenians and Syriac Orthodox Christians.[41] 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.[42]

Republic of Turkey[edit]

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.[43] Its districts are Bağlar, Bismil, Ergani, Hazro, Kayapinar, Çermik, Çinar, Eğil, Dicle, Kulp, Kocaköy, Lice, Silvan, Sur, Yenişehir, Hani and Çüngüş.[44]
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).[45][46][47] Between 8 November 2015 and 15 May 2016 large parts of Sur were destroyed in fighting between the Turkish military and the PKK.[48] 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.[49]
Diyarbakır's city walls in the Sur district (2010 photo)
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.[50] As of 2021, large parts of the city and district were restored and government officials were looking towards tourism again.[51][52][53][26]
Many residences and buildings collapsed or suffered substantial damage in the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes around 200 miles (300 km) from the epicentre.[54][55][56] 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."[57]

Sports[edit]

The most notable football clubs of the city are Diyarbakırspor (established 1968) and Amed S.F.K. (established 1990),[58] 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.[59]

Politics[edit]

In the 2014 local elections, Gültan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) were elected co-mayors of Diyarbakır. However, on 25 October 2016, both were detained by Turkish authorities "on thinly supported charges of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)".[60] The Turkish government ordered a general internet blackout after the arrest.[61] Nevertheless, on 26 October, several thousand demonstrators at Diyarbakir city hall demanded the mayors' release.[60] Some days later, the Turkish government appointed an unelected state trustee as the mayor.[62] In November, public prosecutors demanded a 230-year prison sentence for Kışanak.[63]
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.[64][65]
In the 2019 municipal elections, Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı of the HDP party was elected mayor of Diyarbakir.[66] 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.[67] 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.[68][69] Protests against the decision arose which were suppressed by the Turkish police with the use of water cannons; some protestors were killed.[70][71][72] 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.[73]

Economy[edit]

Historically, Diyarbakır produced wheat and sesame.[74][75] They would preserve the wheat in warehouses, with coverings of straw and twigs from licorice trees. This system would allow the wheat to be preserved for up to ten years.[74][26] In the late 19th and early 20th century, Diyarbakır exported raisins, almonds, and apricots to Europe.[75] 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.[76] Honey was also produced, but not so much exported, but used by locals. Sericulture was observed in the area, too.[77]
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.[78]
The city is served by Diyarbakır Airport and Diyarbakır railway station. In 1935 the railway between Elazığ and Diyarbakır was inaugurated.[79]

Demographics[edit]

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At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of Armenians and Assyrians.[41] The Assyrian and Armenian presence dates to antiquity.[80] There was also a small Jewish community in the city.[81] All Christians spoke Armenian and Kurdish. Notables spoke Turkish. In the streets, the language was Kurdish.[82] 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.[83] During the Governorship of Mehmed Reshid in the Vilayet of Diyarbakır, the Armenian population of Diyarbakir was resettled and exterminated.[84]
After World War II, as the Kurdish population moved from the villages and mountains to urban centres, Diyarbakir's Kurdish population continued to grow.[85] 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,[86] and eventually swelled to about 1.5 million by 1997.[87] 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.[88]
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.[89]
There are some Alevi Turkmen villages around Diyarbakır's old city, but there are no official reports about their population numbers.[81][90]
There have been attempts by Turkish lawmakers to deny Diyarbakır's Kurdish majority identity,[91] 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.[92][89][93][94] Critics link this to a general trend towards anti-Kurdish sentiment in Turkey.[91]

Culture[edit]

There is local jewelry making and other craftwork in the area. Folk dancing to the drum and zurna (pipe) are a part of weddings and celebrations in the area. The Diyarbakir Municipality Theatre was founded in 1990, and had to close its doors in 1995.[95] It was re-opened in 1999,[95] under Mayor Osman Baydemir. It was closed down in 2016 after the dismissal of the mayor in 2016.[96][97] The Municipality City Theatre also performed plays in the Kurdish language.[96][98]
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.[26][99][100][101][102]