Thehistory of Diyarbakır (Kurdish:Amed,[1]Zaza: Diyarbekir,[2]Assyrian Neo-Aramaic:Amedi or Amedu,[3]Armenian:Տիգրանակերտ,Tigranakert;[4]Syriac:ܐܡܝܕ,romanized: Āmīd[5]), one of the largest cities in southeasternTurkey and ametropolitan municipality of Turkey, spans millennia.Diyarbakır is situated on the banks of theTigris River. The city was first mentioned by Assyrian texts as the capital of a Semitic kingdom. It was ruled by a succession of nearly everypolity that controlledUpper Mesopotamia, including theMitanni,Arameans,Assyrians,Urartu,Armenians,Achaemenid Persians,Medes,Seleucids, andParthians.[6] TheRoman Republic gained control of the city in the first century BC, by which stage it was named "Amida".[7] Amida was then part of theChristianByzantine Empire until the seventh-centuryMuslim conquest, after which a variety ofMuslim polities gave way to theOttoman Empire in the 16th century. It has been part of the Republic ofTurkey since thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.
The area around Diyarbakır has been inhabited by humans from the Stone Age with tools from that period having been discovered in the nearby Hilar cave complex. The pre-pottery neolithic B settlement of Çayönü dates to over 10,000 years ago and its excavated remains are on display at theDiyarbakır Museum. Another important site is the Girikihaciyan Tumulus inEğil.[8]
The first major civilization to establish themselves in the region of what is now Diyarbakır were theHurrian kingdom of theMitanni. The city was first mentioned by Assyrian texts as the capital of a Semitic kingdom.
It was then ruled by a succession of nearly every polity that controlled Upper Mesopotamia, including theArameans,Assyrians,Urartu,Armenians,Achaemenid Persians,Medes,Seleucids, andParthians.[6] TheRoman Republic gained control of the city in 66 BC, by which stage it was named Amida, from which the modernKurdish language name for the city, Amed, comes.[7] In 359,Shapur II of Persiacaptured Amida after a siege of 73 days which is vividly described by the Roman historianAmmianus Marcellinus.[9]
Syriac Christianity took hold in the region between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, particularly amongst the Assyrians of the city. The earliest documented bishop of Amida was Simeon of theAssyrian Church of the East, who took part in theFirst Council of Nicaea in 325, on behalf of the Assyrians. In the next century, SaintAcacius of Amida (who died in 425, and is included in theRoman Martyrology[10]) was noted for having sold the church's gold and silver vessels to ransom and assist Persian prisoners of war.
Byzantine EmperorTheodosius II (408–450) divided theRoman province ofMesopotamia into two, and made Amida the capital of Mesopotamia Prima, and thereby also themetropolitan see for all the province'sbishoprics.[11] A sixth-centuryNotitia Episcopatuum indicates assuffragans of Amida the sees ofMartyropolis,Ingila,Belabitene,Arsamosata,Sophene, Kitharis,Cefa, andZeugma.[12] TheAnnuario Pontificio addsBethzabda andDadima.
The names of several of the successors of Acacius are known, but their orthodoxy is unclear. The last whose orthodoxy is certain is Cyriacus, a participant in theSecond Council of Constantinople (553). Many bishops of the Byzantine Empire fled in the face of the Persian invasion of the early 7th century, with a resultant spread of theJacobite Church.Michael the Syrian gives a list of Jacobite bishops of Amida down to the 13th century.[13][14][15]
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At some stage, Amida became a see of theArmenian Church. The bishops who held the see in 1650 and 1681 were infull communion with theHoly See, and in 1727 Peter Derboghossian sent his profession of faith to Rome. He was succeeded by two more bishops of theArmenian Catholic Church, Eugenius and Ioannes ofSmyrna, the latter of whom died inConstantinople in 1785. After a long vacancy, three more bishops followed. The diocese had some 5,000 Armenian Catholics in 1903,[16] but it lost most of its population in the 1915Armenian genocide. The lastdiocesan bishop of the see, Andreas Elias Celebian, was killed with some 600 of his flock in the summer of 1915.[17][18][19][20]
An eparchy for the local members of theSyriac Catholic Church was established in 1862.Ignatius Philip I Arkus, who was its first bishop, was elected patriarch in 1866, and kept the governance of the see of Amida, which he exercised through a patriarchal vicar. The eparchy was united to that ofMardin in 1888.Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War brought an end to the existence of both these Syrian residential sees.[17][18][21][22]
In 1966, theChaldean Catholic Archeparchy of Amida, with jurisdiction over allChaldean Catholics inTurkey, was revived in Diyarbakır, with the city being both episcopal see and location of the diocesan cathedral ofSt. Mary Church, Diyarbakır.
As of 2015, there are two Chaldean churches and three Armenian churches in at least periodic operation. Three other churches are in ruins, all Armenian: one inSur, Diyarbakır, one in the citadel that is now part of a museum complex, and one in another part of the city.
No longer a residential bishopric until 1966 (Chaldean rite), Amida is today listed by theCatholic Church as a multipletitular see,[23] separately for theRoman Rite and twoEastern Catholic particular churchessui iuris.
Amida of the Romans was suppressed in 1970, having had many archiepiscopal incumbents with a singular episcopal exception :
The diocese of Amida, in 1650, was suppressed in 1972 and immediately nominally restored as Armenian Catholic (Armenian Rite and language)titular bishopric of the lowest (episcopal) rank,Amida of the Armenians.
So far, it has had the following incumbents, of the fitting episcopal rank with an archiepiscopal exception:
Established in 1963 asTitular archbishopric of the highest (Metropolitan) rank,Amida of the Syriacs.
It has been vacant for decades, having had the following incumbent of Metropolitan rank;
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In 639, the city was subjected to theMuslim conquests, and the religion ofIslam was introduced. The city passed underUmayyad and thenAbbasid control, but with the progressive fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate from the late 9th century, it periodically came under the rule of autonomous dynasties.Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani and his descendants ruled the city and the widerDiyar Bakr province from 871 until 899, when Caliphal-Mu'tadid restored Abbasid control, but the area soon passed to another local dynasty, theHamdanids. The latter were displaced by theBuyids in 978, who were in turn followed by theMarwanids in 983. The Marwanids ruled until 1085, when theSeljuks took the city from them. It came under the rule of theMardin branch of theOghuz Turks, and then theAnatolian beylik of theArtuqids. The city came under theAyyubid Sultanate in 1183, which ruled the city until it was overrun by theMongols in 1260. For a time the city was ruled by the competing Turkic federations of theKara Koyunlu (the Black Sheep) and then theAq Qoyunlu until the rise of the PersianSafavids, who took over the city and the wider region in the 16th century.
TheClassical Age of the Ottoman Empire saw it expand intoWestern Armenia and all but the eastern regions ofKurdistan 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 theOttoman Empire, both of whom sought the support of the Kurdish chieftains aroundIdris Bitlisi.[24] It was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1514 in the campaigns ofBıyıklı Mehmed Pasha, under the rule of SultanSelim I.Mohammad Khan Ustajlu, the Safavid Governor of Diyarbakir, was evicted from the city and killed in the followingBattle of Chaldiran in 1514.[24]
Following their victory, the Ottomans established theDiyarbekir Eyalet with its administrative centre in Diyarbakır. The Eyalet of Diyarbakır corresponded to today'sTurkish Kurdistan, a rectangular area between theLake Urmia toPalu and from the southern shores ofLake Van toCizre and the beginnings of theSyrian 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 ofRumi's tomb inKonya were made in Diyarbakır, as were the gold and silver decorated doors of the tomb ofEbu Hanife inBaghdad. Ottoman rule was confirmed by the 1555Peace of Amasya which followed theOttoman–Safavid War (1532–1555). The Safavid ShahAbbas I recaptured the city for two brief periods, during theOttoman–Safavid War (1603–18), and once again in 1623–1624, during theOttoman–Safavid War (1623–1639).[25]
Concerned with independent-mindedness of theKurdish principalities, the Ottomans sought to curb their influence and bring them under the control of the central government inConstantinople. 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 wasShaikh Ubaidalla Nahri, who began a revolt in the region between LakesVan andUrmia. The area under his control covered both Ottoman andQajar territories. Shaikh Ubaidalla is regarded as one of the earliest proponents ofKurdish nationalism. In a letter to aBritish Vice-Consul, he declared: "The Kurdish nation is a people apart... we want our affairs to be in our hands."
In 1895 an estimated 25,000Armenians andAssyrians weremassacred inDiyarbekir Vilayet, including in the city.[26] At the turn of the 19th century, the Christian population of the city was mainly made up of Armenians andSyriac Orthodox Christians.[27] The city was also a site ofethnic cleansing during the 1915Armenian andAssyrian genocide; nearly 150,000 were expelled from the city to the death marches in theSyrian desert.[28]
In January 1928, Diyarbakır became the center of theFirst Inspectorate-General, a regional subdivision for an area containing the provinces ofHakkari,Van,Şırnak,Mardin,Siirt,Bitlis andŞanlıurfa. A Inspectorate-General had wide-ranging authorities over all civil, military and educational matters. The post of the Inspectorate-General was abandoned in 1948.[29] But its legal framework was only abandoned in 1952 under the government of theDemocrat Party.[30] In a reorganization of the provinces in 1952, Diyarbakır city was made the administrative capital of theDiyarbakır Province. In 1993, Diyarbakir was established as a Metropolitan Municipality.[31] Its districts areBaĝlar,Bismil,Ergani,Hazro,Kayapinar,Çermik,Çinar,Eğil,Dicle,Kulp,Kocaköy,Lice,Silvan,Sur,Yenişehir andHani.[32]
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,[33] and eventually swelled to about 1.5 million by 1997.[34]
The American-TurkishPirinçlik Air Force Base, near Diyarbakır, was operational from 1956 to 1997.
During the 1980s and 1990s, at the peak of theKurdish-Turkish conflict, the population of the city grew dramatically[33][34] as many inhabitants of the thousands ofKurdish villages depopulated by Turkey settled in the city.[35] Diyarbakır has seen much violence in recent years, involving Turkish security forces, theKurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[36][37][38] In March 2006 heavy fighting broke out around Diyarbakir between the PKK and Turkish security forces, as well as large riots by PKK supporters, as result the army had to temporary close the roads toDiyarbakır Airport and many schools and businesses had to be shut down.[39] Between 8 November 2015 and 15 May 2016large parts of Sur were destroyed in fighting between theTurkish military and the PKK.[40]
Many bombings were perpetrated in city during the conflict targeting both military targets and civilians. On 18 February 2016,a roadside bomb placed by PKK killed 6 soldiers and injured another.[41] On 10 May 2016,a bombing perperated by PKK in city killed 3 people while injuring 45 others, including 33 civilians.[42] On 12 May 2016,a truck bombing in Dürümlü hamlet of city killed 16 people and injured 23 others, all civilians.[43][44][45] On 4 November 2016a bombing near a police building in city killed 2 policemen and 9 civilians while injuring 100 others, bothIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant and theKurdistan Freedom Hawks claimed responsibility.[46][47]
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.[48]
The city that later generations of Armenians would call Dikranagerd was actually ancient Amid or Amida (now Diyarbekir or Diyarbakır), a great walled city with seventy-two towers...
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