Mardin Province is a linguistically, ethnically and religiously diverse province.[3] The dominant ethnic groups areArabs,Assyrians, andKurds, of which Kurds constitute a majority.[4] Other minor groups includeArmenians,Chechens andTurks, whileJews lived in the area before migrating toIsrael around 1948.[5] The Chechens settled in the region during theRusso-Turkish War in 1877/1878.[4]
The distinctiveMhallami community also reside in the district.[6]
The province is considered part ofTurkish Kurdistan.[7] In 1990, it was estimated thatKurds constituted 75% of the population.[8]
Social relations between Arabs and Kurds have historically been difficult with hostility, prejudice and stereotypes but have in recent years improved.[9] Arabs with Assyrians did not take part in theKurdish–Turkish conflict and the position of the two groups have been described as being 'submissive' to the Turkish state, creating distrust between them and the Kurds. Kurds perceived Arabs as spies for the state and local Arabs in Mardin city tended to exclude and dominate local politics in the city.[10] Arabs started losing their grip on Mardin city in the 2010s and the KurdishBDP won the city in thelocal elections in 2014. Mardin city had previously been governed by pro-state parties supported by local Arabs.[11]
In the first Turkish census in 1927,Kurdish andArabic were thefirst language for60.9% and28.7% of the population, respectively.Turkish stood as the third largest language at6.6%. In the 1935 census, Kurdish and Arabic remained the two most spoken languages for63.8% and24.9% of the population, respectively. Turkish remained as the third largest language at6.9%.[13] In the 1945 census, Kurdish stood at66.4%, Arabic at24.1% and Turkish at5.6%.[14] In 1950, the numbers were66.3%,23.1% and7.5% for Kurdish, Arabic and Turkish, respectively.[15] The same numbers were65.8%,16.5% and12.9% in 1955, and66.4%,20.9% and8.6% in 1960.[16] In the last Turkish census in 1965, Kurdish remained the largest language spoken by71% of the population, while Arabic remained the second largest language at20% and Turkish stood at8.9%.[17]
A 2018 estimate put the Kurdish language at 70%, Arabic at 30% andSyriac at less than 1%.[4]
In the Ottoman yearbook of 1894–1895,Mardin Sanjak had a population of 34,361 and75.8% adhered to Islam. The largest religious minority wasSyriac Orthodox Assyrians who comprised9.9% of the population, followed by CatholicArmenians at8.3%, Catholic Assyrians at3.4%,Protestants at1.6% andChaldeans at0.9%.[18]
Muslims comprised90.5% of the population in 1927, while Christians of various denominations stood at3.1% and Jews at0.3%.[20] In 1935, Muslims comprised91.2% of the population, while Christians remained the second largest minority at5.3%. The Jewish population declined to 72 individuals from 490 in 1927.[21] In 1945,92.1% of the population was Muslim, while Christians were3.8% of the population.[22] The same numbers were93.2% and6.8% in 1955.[23] In 1960, Muslims constituted93.7% and Christians remained at6.3%.[24] Same numbers were91.9% and5.7% in 1965.[25]
It was estimated that 25,000 Assyrian members of theSyriac Orthodox Church still lived in the province in 1979.[26] Only 4,000 Assyrians remained in the province in 2020, most having migrated to Europe orIstanbul since the 1980s.[27]
In Mardin agriculture is an important branch accounting for 70% of the province's income.[28]Bulgur,lentils orwheat and other grains are produced.[28] In the capital, there are many civil servants, mostly Turks.[28] Close markets for foreign trade are Syria and Iraq.[28]
The local Assyrians, while reduced due to theAssyrian genocide andKurdish-Turkish conflict, hold on to two of the oldest monasteries in the world,Dayro d-Mor Hananyo (TurkishDeyrülzafaran, EnglishSaffron Monastery) andDeyrulumur Monastery. The Christian community is concentrated on theTur Abdin plateau and in the town ofMidyat, with a smaller community (approximately 200) in the provincial capital. After the foundation of Turkey, the province has been a target of aTurkification policy, removing most traces of a non-Turkish heritage.[30]
In 1927 the office of theInspector general was created, which governed with martial law.[31] The province was included in theFirst Inspectorate-General (Turkish:Birinci Umumi Müfettişlik) over which the Inspector General ruled. The Inspectorate-General span over the provinces ofHakkâri,Siirt,Van, Mardin,Bitlis,Sanlıurfa,Elaziğ andDiyarbakır.[32] The Inspectorate General were dissolved in 1952 during the Government of theDemocrat Party.[33] The Mardin province was also included in a wider military zone in 1928, in which the entrance to the zone was forbidden for foreigners until 1965.[34]
In 1987 the province was included in theOHAL region governed in a state of emergency.[35] In November 1996 the state of emergency regulation was removed.[36]
^Üngör, Uğur (2011),The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913–1950. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 245.ISBN0-19-960360-X.
^Jongerden, Joost (1 January 2007).The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds: An Analysis of Spatical Policies, Modernity and War. BRILL. p. 53.ISBN978-90-04-15557-2.
^Bayir, Derya (22 April 2016).Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law. Routledge. p. 139.ISBN978-1-317-09579-8.
^Fleet, Kate; Kunt, I. Metin; Kasaba, Reşat; Faroqhi, Suraiya (17 April 2008).The Cambridge History of Turkey. Cambridge University Press. p. 343.ISBN978-0-521-62096-3.
^Jongerden, Joost (28 May 2007).The Settlement Issue in Turkey and the Kurds: An Analysis of Spatial Policies, Modernity and War. BRILL. p. 303.ISBN978-90-474-2011-8.
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