Diyarbakır has a large Kurds|Kurdish population — GlobalSecurity.org, prompting some Kurds and outside observers to often refer to it as the unofficial 'capital' of a Turkish Kurdistan
. This term has no administrative basis and is open to controversy.

According to a November 2006 survey by the Sur, Turkey|Sur Municipality, one of Diyarbakır's metropolitan municipalities, 72 % of the inhabitants of the municipality use Kurdish language|Kurdish the most in their daily speech, followed by Turkish language|Turkish, and 69 % is illiterate in their most widely used vernacular .

History

The city was called Amida when the region was under the rule of the Roman Empire|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 people|Kurdish kingdom known as Corduene. It later became a province of the Roman Empire in 66 BCE.

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 Turks|Oghuz Turkic peoples|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 people|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.

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

Features

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 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, 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.

Sights of interest

Famous people

Abdülkadir Aksu: Current Republic of Turkey|Turkish minister of interior affairs (of Kurdish background)
: Early 16th century Turkish people|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 Chaghatai language|Chaghatay Poet
Cihan Haspolatlı: Galatasaray SK footballer
Halis Toprak: Prominent businessman
Hamit Aytaç: 20th century master-artist of Turkish calligraphy
Hesenê Metê: Kurdish writer
Hikmet Çetin: Former Turkey|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
Pir Ibrahim Gulshani Sufi saint and founder of the Gulshani Sufi order.
Rojen Barnas: Kurdish writer
Süleyman Nazif: Prominent Young Turk
Ziya Gökalp: Prominent ideologue of Pan-Turkism and Turanism

Gallery

See also