Suruç (; ; ''Sruḡ'') 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 ...

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 744 km², and its population is 100,961 (2022). It is on a plain near the Syrian border southwest of the city of

Urfa Urfa, officially called Şanlıurfa (), is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Şanlıurfa Province. The city was known as Edessa from Hellenistic period, Hellenistic times and into Christian times. Urfa is situated on a plain abo ...

. Its inhabitants are

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

History

Suruç is situated in a fertile district that is well-suited to growing fruits and grapevines. It is centrally located between the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

on the west and Urfa and

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

on the east; it is about a day's journey from both cities (using pre-industrial transportation). This traffic brought it some degree of commercial prosperity as well. This was also helped by its historical status as a post station between

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

and Sumaysat. The town itself was primarily agricultural, and

Ibn Jubayr Ibn Jubayr (1 September 1145 – 29 November 1217; ), also written Ibn Jubair, Ibn Jobair, and Ibn Djubayr, was an Arab geographer, traveller and poet from al-Andalus. His travel chronicle describes the pilgrimage he made to Mecca from 1183 to 11 ...

in the 12th century described seeing orchards and irrigation channels within the area of the town itself. In antiquity the

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

ians built a settlement in the area. The city was a centre of silk-making. They were succeeded by a number of other Mesopotamian civilisations.

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

, Roman emperor who reigned from 306 to 337, brought the town under the control of the city of

Edessa Edessa (; ) was an ancient city (''polis'') in Upper Mesopotamia, in what is now Urfa or Şanlıurfa, Turkey. It was founded during the Hellenistic period by Macedonian general and self proclaimed king Seleucus I Nicator (), founder of the Sel ...

. One of the most famous residents of the district is its 6th-century Syriac

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and poet-

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

Jacob of Serugh Jacob of Serugh (, ; ; 452–521), also called Jacob of Sarug or Mar Jacob (), was one of the foremost poets and theologians of the Syriac Christian tradition, second only to Ephrem the Syrian and equal to Narsai. He lived most of his life as ...

. The

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

hold the

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

as a

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

of that church, though they had little presence in the area, while the Syriac church holds a separate Bishopric in the town. Tell-Batnan was visited

Emperor Julian Julian (; ; 331 – 26 June 363) was the Caesar (title), Caesar of the West from 355 to 360 and Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Ancient Greek, Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promoti ...

on his march from

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

to the

in 363. The town surrendered in 639 to

Iyad ibn Ghanm Iyad ibn Ghanm ibn Zuhayr al-Fihri (; died 641) was an Arab commander who played a leading role in the Muslim conquests of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) and northern Syria. He was among the handful of Qurayshi tribesmen to embrace Islam before ...

during the

Muslim conquest of the Levant The Muslim conquest of the Levant (; ), or Arab conquest of Syria, was a 634–638 CE invasion of Byzantine Syria by the Rashidun Caliphate. A part of the wider Arab–Byzantine wars, the Levant was brought under Arab Muslim rule and develope ...

. In the 900s it came under the

Hamdanid dynasty The Hamdanid dynasty () was a Shia Muslim Arab dynasty that ruled modern day Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib tribe of Mesopotamia and Arabia. History Origin The Hamdanids hailed ...

. Later, it was captured by the Byzantines during a period when they were relatively strong in the region. In the late 1090s, a civil war between the

Seljuk Seljuk (, ''Selcuk'') or Saljuq (, ''Saljūq'') may refer to: * Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia * Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities * S ...

princes of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

and

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

enabled the early

Artuqid The Artuqid dynasty (alternatively Artukid, Ortoqid, or Ortokid; Old Anatolian Turkish: , , pl. ; ; ) was established in 1102 as a Turkish Anatolian Beylik (Principality) of the Seljuk Empire. It formed a Turkoman dynasty rooted in the Oghuz ...

prince Sökmen to establish a principality based at Suruç. This only lasted briefly, though — in 1101, the crusader

Baldwin I of Jerusalem Baldwin I (1060s – 2 April 1118) was the first count of Edessa from 1098 to 1100 and king of Jerusalem from 1100 to his death in 1118. He was the youngest son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida of Lorraine and married a Norman noblew ...

captured Suruç. For almost half a century, Suruç then formed part of the crusader

County of Edessa The County of Edessa (Latin: ''Comitatus Edessanus'') was a 12th-century Crusader state in Upper Mesopotamia. Its seat was the city of Edessa (modern Şanlıurfa, Turkey). In the late Byzantine period, Edessa became the centre of intellec ...

. This is alluded to in the works of the contemporary poet al-Hariri: the hero of his '' maqāmāt'', Abū Zayd al-Sarūjī, is a native of Suruç who was driven out by the Christians. Crusader rule in Suruç came to an end in January 1145, when the town was captured by Imad ad-Din Zangi. In the 1300s,

Abu'l-Fida Ismāʿīl bin ʿAlī bin Maḥmūd bin Muḥammad bin ʿUmar bin Shāhanshāh bin Ayyūb bin Shādī bin Marwān (), better known as Abū al-Fidāʾ or Abulfeda (; November 127327 October 1331), was a Mamluk Sultanate, Mamluk-era Kurds, Kurdish ...

described the town as lying in ruins. In 1517 the area was brought into 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 ...

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

. In late Ottoman times, Suruç was the seat of a

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 ...

21st century

On 19 October 2014, journalist Serena Shim died in a car crash in Suruç. On 20 July 2015, at approximately 12:50 GMT, a

suicide bombing A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

occurred. It killed 34 people and injured over 100 others outside the Amara Cultural Center. Ahead of the

June 24 Events Pre-1600 * 1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa. * 109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, northwest of Rome. ...

th anticipated 2018 Turkish elections, four people were killed in Suruç while an AKP candidate toured the city's market. According to pro-Kurdish sources, AKP representative Ibrahim Halil Yıldız went to local shopkeeper Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar where a brawl started.What happened in Suruç? http://english.ajansfirat.com/anf-news-features/what-happened-in-suruc-2/ * Celal Şenyaşar, son of Haci Esvet Şenyaşar, during the initial brawl at the shop, was shot and killed there. * Mehmet Şenyaşar, son of Haci Esvet Şenyaşar, visiting the hospital following the brawl, was attacked and hit on the head repeatedly with an oxygen tank and killed. * Haci Esvet Şenyaşar, the shop keeper, was lynched at the Suruç hospital. * Mehmet Ali Yıldız, brother of MP Yıldız, died at the Mehmet Akif Inan Hospital in

. * One of his bodyguards of Mehmet Ali Yıldız, died at the Mehmet Akif Inan Hospital in

. The Suruç hospital camera were damaged. This events happened days after Erdogan was filmed encouraging identification and intimidation of opposition voters on sites.

Politics

In the

local elections Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

on 31 March 2019 Hatice Çevik was elected as Mayor. Kenan Aktaş was appointed

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 ...

, as representative of the state. On the 15 November 2019 Çevik was detained, and the next day she was dismissed and Kenan Aktaş appointed as a trustee.

Composition

There are 95

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Suruç District: * Ağırtaş * Akören * Alanyurt * Aligör * Aşağı Karıncalı * Aşağı Oylum * Aybastı * Aydın * Ayhan * Balaban * Barış * Bellik * Bilge * Binatlı * Boztepe * Bozyokuş * Büyük Sergen * Büyük Ziyaret * Büyükağacı * Çanakçı * Çaykara * Çengelli * Çomak * Cumhuriyet * Demokrasi * Dikili * Dinlence * Dumlukuyu * Ekili * Eskice * Eskiören * Ezgil * Fıstıklı * Göleç * Gölen * Günebakan * Hacılı * Harmanalan * Hürriyet * Hüyükyanı * İzci * Kalkanlı * Kapıcı * Karaca * Karadut * Karahüyük * Karaköy * Karakuyu * Karataş * Keberli * Kesmecik * Kırmıt * Kızılhüyük * Köseler * Köseveli * Küçük Sergen * Küçük Ziyaret * Küçükköprü * Küçükova * Kurutepe * Mertismail * Mollahamza * Mürşitpınar * Ölçektepe * Örgütlü * Ortabostancı * Oymaklı * Özlüce * Sarayaltı * Saygın * Taşlıkuyu * Tavşanköy * Tokçalı * Topçular * Üçpınar * Uludüz * Üveçli * Uysallı * Uzgören * Yağışlı * Yalınca * Yalpı * Yanaloba * Yatırtepe * Yaylatepe * Yazıköy * Yeğen * Yenişehir(Şaryanı) * Yıldırım * Yıldız * Yönlü * Yukarı Bostancı * Yumurtalık * Yurtçiçeği * Zeyrek

Demographics

In his seyahatname,

Evliya Çelebi Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...

mentioned that the plain of Suruj was initially inhabited by

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

and Turkomans in mid-medieval era, while upon his visit in the 17th century, he observed that the plain was mainly inhabited by

from the Dinayi, Barazi, Kuhbinik, and Jum tribes and Turkomans. According to

Agha Petros Petros Elia of Baz (; 1 April 1880 – 2 February 1932), better known as Agha Petros (), was an Assyrian military leader and statesman, best known for his role during World War I. He is considered a national hero for the Assyrians and other ...

, before the

Assyrian genocide The Sayfo (, ), also known as the Seyfo or the Assyrian genocide, was the mass murder and deportation of Assyrian/Syriac Christians in southeastern Anatolia and Persia's Azerbaijan province by Ottoman forces and some Kurdish tribes during ...

, Suruç (Serudj) had close to 2,000 Assyrian residents. Today, Suruç is inhabited mostly by ethnic

and Turks.

Ecclesiastical history of Batnae

Batnae was important enough in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (, pl. ) were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as Roman g ...

Osroene Osroene or Osrhoene (; ) was an ancient kingdom and region in Upper Mesopotamia. The ''Kingdom of Osroene'', also known as the "Kingdom of Edessa" ( / "Kingdom of Urhay"), according to the name of its capital city (now Urfa, Şanlıurfa, Turkey), ...

to become a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

bishopric of its capital Edessa's Metropolitan, yet was to fade. The most famous Bishop of the city was

, the great Syriac Christian

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

ographer born around 451 at Kurtam on the

and educated at

becoming a priest at Hawra in the Serugh district, as a wandering pastor of several villages. At the age of 67 he was made bishop of Batnan, where he died around 521. Jacob avoided the theological controversies of his age, and is claimed with equal eagerness by

Chalcedonian Chalcedonian Christianity is the branches of Christianity that accept and uphold theological resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council, held in AD 451. Chalcedonian Christianity accepts the Christological Definitio ...

and non-Chalcedonian Christians as one of their own. He wrote several Hymns, 760 homilies and the Syriac translation of Evagrius. Another Bishop was Abraham of Batnae, a contemporary of

Basil of Caesarea Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great (330 – 1 or 2 January 379) was an early Roman Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia from 370 until his death in 379. He was an influential theologian who suppor ...

. The bishopric would be nominally restored in two different

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

rics, for different Catholic rite-specific particular churches.

Syriac titular see

Established in the early 20th century, under repeatedly changed names: Bathna(-Jarug), Bathnan(Sarugh), Bathnae. Suppressed in 1933, restored under its present name in 1965. It has had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank : * Teofilo Gabriele Tappouni (Dionisio) (1913.01.19 – 1921.02.24), as Auxiliary Eparch of Mardin and Amida of the Syriacs (Turkey) (1912.09.14 – 1921.02.24); previously titular bishop of Danaba-orum (1912.09.14 – 1913.01.19); later Archeparch of Aleppo of the Syriacs (Syria) (1921.02.24 – 1929.06.24), Eparch of Mardin and Amida of the Syriacs (1929.06.24 – 1962), Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriacs (Lebanon) ( 929.06.241929.07.15 – 1968.01.29), created

Cardinal-Priest A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. ...

Ss. XII Apostoli Santi Dodici Apostoli (Church of the Twelve Holy Apostles; ), commonly known as Santi Apostoli, is a 6th-century Catholic parish and titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, the mother church of the Conventual Franciscan Order whose Ge ...

(1935.12.19 – 1965.02.11), promoted Cardinal-Patriarch (1965.02.11 – 1968.01.29) * Atanasio Behnam Kalian (1921.02.26 – 1929.08.06) as Auxiliary Bishop of Antioch of the Syriacs (Lebanon) (1921.02.26 – 1929.08.06), Auxiliary Bishop of Mardin and Amida of the Syriacs (Turkey) (1921.02.26 – 1929.08.06), later Archeparch of Baghdad of the Syriacs (Iraq) (1929.08.06 – death 1949.02.17) *'' Bishop-elect'' Basile Pierre Habra (1963.05.01 – 1963.07.06) * Gregorios Elias Tabé (1995.06.24 – 1996.05.25) as Auxiliary Bishop of Antioch of the Syriacs (Lebanon) (1995.06.24 – 1997), later titular bishop of Mardin of the Syriacs (1996.05.25 – 1999.05.08), Bishop of Curia of the Syriacs (1997 – 1999.05.08), Coadjutor Archeparch of Damascus of the Syriacs (Syria) (1999.05.08 – 2001.06.24), succeeding as Metropolitan Archbishop of Damascus of the Syriacs (2001.06.24 – ...) *

Grégoire Pierre Abdel-Ahad Grégoire is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname / Family name * Alexandre Grégoire (1922–2001), Haitian painter * Antonina Grégoire (1914-1952), Belgian commercial engineer, feminist and communist, ...

(1996.06.29 – 2001.02.16) while Patriarchal Vicar of Jerusalem of the Syriacs (Palestine and Jordan) (1978–1991 and 1991–2000), later

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

of Antioch of the Syriacs (Lebanon) ( 001.02.162001.02.24 – 2008.01.25), President of Synod of the Syriac Catholic Church (2001.02.24 – 2008.01.25) * Grégoire Pierre Melki (2002.02.25 – ...) of the

Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Jerusalem The Syriac Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate of Jerusalem (informally Jerusalem of the Syriacs) is a Patriarchal exarchate (missionary Eastern Catholic pre-diocesan jurisdiction) of the Syriac Catholic Church ( Antiochian Rite in Syriac language and ...

(Palestine and Jordan, see in the Holy Land)

Notable people

* Abdülkadir Aygan (1958–) former PKK Member * Ayşe Gökkan (1965–) Kurdish Journalist * İbrahim Halil Baran (1981–) Kurdish

Poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

References

Sources and external links

GigaCatholic - Latin titular see with incumbent biography links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suruc Districts of Şanlıurfa Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey Populated places in Şanlıurfa Province Divided cities on the Syria–Turkey border Former populated places in Turkey Kurdish settlements in Turkey