Siverek (; ; ) is a municipality and
district
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
of
Şanlıurfa Province
Şanlıurfa Province (; ), also known as Urfa Province, is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in southeastern Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which be ...
,
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. Its area is 3,936 km
2, and its population is 267,942 (2022).
Siverek is in the Şanlıurfa province but is geographically closer to the large city of
Diyarbakır
Diyarbakır 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 ...
(approx. 83 km). A majority of the population of the province is
Zaza Kurds.
History
Siverek was historically known in medieval Arabic as Hisn ar-Ran (), which was corrupted into Greek as Chasanara (), as found in the
Escorial Taktikon.
The town came under
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
control sometime after 956 and had become the seat of a ''
strategos
''Strategos'' (), also known by its Linguistic Latinisation, Latinized form ''strategus'', is a Greek language, Greek term to mean 'military General officer, general'. In the Hellenistic world and in the Byzantine Empire, the term was also use ...
'' by the early 970s.
Together with
Edessa,
Gargar,
Samosata and
Hisn Mansur formed part of the Byzantine defence system up to the 1060s when 200 Frankish horsemen were stationed there.
In the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
period, Siverek was within the
Diyarbekir vilayet, and it had several Christian settlements.
Demographics
9,275 Armenians lived in the
kaza
A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...
on the eve of the First World War according to the
Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. They had eight churches and three schools. 5,450 Armenians and 1,200
Assyrians lived in the town of Siverek. 6,550 Assyrians lived in 32 surrounding villages.
Armenian men were massacred in May 1915, followed by the deportation of the women and children, as part of the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...
.
[ Faiz El-Ghusein reported that the road between Urfa and Severek was littered with corpses.][
]
Politics
In common with other districts of Şanlıurfa, business and politics in Siverek are strongly influenced, even controlled, by a powerful clan. Siverek is the home town of Sedat Bucak, the former DYP member of parliament who survived the car crash in the Susurluk scandal
The Susurluk scandal () or Susurluk accident (), was a 1996 political scandal in Turkey that exposed a close relationship between the Turkish government, the ultra-nationalistic paramilitary Grey Wolves (organization), Grey Wolves organization an ...
. He is the leader of the Bucak tribe, one of whom has represented the area in the Turkish Parliament since its foundation. Sedat Bucak remains a friend of former DYP leader Mehmet Ağar. In the local elections in March 2019, Şehmus Aydın was elected mayor. He resigned due to health problems in 2020, and was succeeded by Ayşe Çakmak (AKP). The current kaymakam
Kaymakam, also known by #Names, many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been reta ...
is Musa Aydemir.
Composition
There are 180 neighbourhoods in Siverek District:Mahalle
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
* AbdalaÄŸa
* Alagün
* Alanyurt
* Altaylı
* Altınahır
* Altınlı
* Altınpınar
* Anacak
* Armağanlı
* Aşağı Alınca
* Aşağı Karabahçe
* Aşağı Karacaören
* Aşağıyalankoz
* Aşlıca
* Atmaca
* Avurtepe
* Ayrancı
* Ayvanat
* Azıklı
* Bağcı
* BaÄŸlar
* Bahçe
* Bahçelievler
* Bakı Takoran
* Bakırca
* Bakmaç
* Bardakçı
* Başbük
* BaÅŸdeÄŸirmen
* Batı
* Bayırözü
* BeÄŸdeÅŸ
* Benek
* Beyali
* Beybaba
* Beyçeri
* Böğürtlen
* Bozkuyu
* Bozlak
* Bürüncek
* Büyük Kazanlı
* Büyük Oba
* Büyük Tepe
* Büyük Yakıtlı
* Büyükgöl
* Çağa
* Çağdaş
* Camiikebir
* Çanakçı
* Canpolat
* Çatlı
* Çavuşlu
* Çaylarbaşı
* Çeltik
* Çepni
* Çevirme
* Çiftçibaşı
* Çinhisar
* Çubuklu
* Dağbaşı
* Damlıca
* DardaÄŸan
* Darıcalı
* DeliktaÅŸ
* Dicle
* Dilekli
* Direkli
* Divan
* DoÄŸukent
* Dönemeç
* Düğerin
* Ediz
* Eğriçay
* Endarlı
* Erbey
* Ergen
* Erkonağı
* Ertem
* Eskihan
* Esmerçayı
* Fırat
* Fırın
* Gaziköy
* Gedik
* Gerçek
* Gözcek
* Gözelek
* Gözeli
* Gülabibey
* Güllice
* Gülpınar
* Güney
* Güney Karabahçe
* Gürakar
* Güvenli
* Güvercin
* Güzelpınar
* Hacıömer
* Haliliye
* Hamamören
* Hamidiye
* Hasançelebi
* Hasırlı
* Hayriye
* Ä°leri
* İnanlı
* Kale
* Kalemli
* Kalınağaç
* Kamışlı
* Kapıkaya
* Karabahçe
* KaracadaÄŸ
* Karadibek
* Karahisar
* Karakeçi
* Karakoyun
* Kargalı
* Karkaşı
* Karpuzcu
* Kavaklıdere
* Kavalık
* Kayalı
* Kayseri
* Keçiburcu
* Keçikıran
* KeÅŸ
* Kesmekaya
* Kıvançlı
* Konurtepe
* Küçükgöl
* Kulaksız
* Küptepe
* Kurbağalı
* Kuşlugöl
* Mezraa
* Narlıkaya
* Nohut
* Ofis
* Oluklu
* Onar
* Önder
* Örgülü
* Ortanca
* Oyman
* OyuktaÅŸ
* Peynirci
* Sabancı
* Åžairibrahimrafet
* Salur
* Sarıdam
* Sarıkaya
* Sarıören
* Savucak
* Åžekerli
* Selimpınar
* Åžirinkuyu
* Sislice
* Soydan
* Söylemez
* Sumaklı
* Tanrıverdi
* Taşağıl
* TaÅŸhan
* Taşıkara
* Taşlı
* Turna
* Ülkülü
* Üstüntaş
* Uzunpınar
* Uzunziyaret
* Yeleken
* Yeniceli
* YeniÅŸehir
* YoÄŸunca
* Yoğurtçu
* Yücelen
* Yumrutepe
* Yuvar
* Zincirliçay
Climate
Siverek has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...
(Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
: ''Csa'').
Notable people
* Osman Efendîyo Babij (1852-1929), Kurdish religious figure
* Yılmaz Güney (1937–1984), Kurdish film director, scenarist, novelist and actor
* Necmettin Büyükkaya, (1943-1984), Kurdish activist
* Mehmed Uzun (1953–2007), Kurdish writer
* Sedat Bucak (b. 1960), politician
* Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı (b. 1963), politician
* Ä°brahim Ayhan (1968-2018), politician
* Filiz İşikırık (b. 1993), footballer
* Remziye Bakır (b. 1997), footballer
References
Sources
*
External links
District governor's office
Siverek
Siverek Son Haber
{{Authority control
Populated places in Şanlıurfa Province
Districts of Şanlıurfa Province
Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey
Kurdish settlements in Turkey
Assyrian communities in Turkey
Former Armenian communities in Şanlıurfa Province