Malatya Province (Turkish:Malatya ili) is aprovince andmetropolitan municipality ofTurkey. Its area is 12,259 km2,[2] and its population is 812,580 (2022).[1] It is part of a larger mountainous area. The capital of the province is the city ofMalatya, which has a population of 485,484 (2022).[3]
According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, the province is considered part ofTurkish Kurdistan.[4]
According to German geographersGeorg Hassel and Adam Christian Gaspari, Malatya was composed of 1200 to 1500 houses in early 19th century, inhabited by Ottomans, Turkmens, Armenians, and Greeks, while the mountainous areas in thesanjak of Malatya were mostly inhabited byKurdish tribes such asReşwan.[5]
The province had a population of 306,882 in 1927 of which98.9% wasMuslim and1%Christians.[6] Linguistically,Turkish was the most spokenfirst language at57.3%, followed byKurdish at40.2% andArmenian at0.9%.[7] The population increased to 410,152 in 1935 of which99.3% was Muslim and0.6% Christian.[8] Turkish remained the most spoken first language at60.2%, followed by Kurdish39.3% and Armenian at0.4%.[9] The province had a population of 483,568 in 1950 of which Turkish was spoken by64.8% of the population, followed by Kurdish at34.9%. Armenian remained the third most spoken language but decreased to0.2%.[10] The modern province of Malatya does not fully coincide with the province of Malatya until 1954, before when the province also included the modern Turkish province ofAdıyaman,[11] which was more than double Kurdish-speaking than Malatya according to the 1965 census.[12]
It was estimated in 2012 that about 20% to 30% of the province wasAlevi of which the vast majority wasKurdish. This group is mostly politically aligned with nationalist Kurdish parties especially after theSivas Massacre and activity of theKurdistan Workers' Party since the early 1990s.[13]
History
German academic Barbara Henning describes the province as the regional center ofKurdish nationalism in the early 20th century. During this period, the local governor of the province and mayor of Malatya city were both sympathetic to the Kurdish cause andCeladet Bedir Khan,Kamuran Alî Bedirxan and other members of theSociety for the Rise of Kurdistan visited the region various times and established cordial relations with the local tribes including with theReşwan tribe.[14]
Geography
Malatya Turgut Ozal Nature Park. View of stream and trees
^"Malatya".citypopulation.de. Retrieved23 January 2024.
^"Kurds, Kurdistān".Encyclopaedia of Islam (2 ed.).BRILL. 2002.ISBN9789004161214.Turkish Kurdistan numbers at least 17 of them almost totally:... the provinces of Malatya, Tunceli, Elazığ, Bingöl, Muş, Karaköse (Ağrı), then Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Siirt, Bitlis and Van; Finally, the southern provinces of Şanlıurfa, Mardin and Çölamerik (Hakkarî)...
^Henning, Barbara (2018).Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes.University of Bamberg Press. p. 443.ISBN9783863095512.
