WSiirt Province, is a province of Turkey, located in the southeast. The province borders Bitlis to the north, Batman to the west, Mardin to the southwest, Şırnak to the south, and Van to the east. It has an area of 5,406 km² and a total population of 300,695. The provincial capital is the city of Siirt. The majority of the province's population is Kurdish. The current Governor of the Siirt province is Ali Fuat Atik.
WTurkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan is a term that refers to southeastern part of Turkey, where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in the southeast.
WAdıyaman is a Kurdish-majority city in southeastern Turkey, and the capital of the Adıyaman Province.
WAdıyaman Province is a province in south-central Turkey. It was created in 1954 out of part of Malatya Province. It has an area of 7,606.16 km² and a population of 590,935, up from 513,131 in 1990. The capital is Adıyaman. The province is mostly Kurdish and religiously conservative.
WThe Ağrı Province is a province in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran to the east, Kars to the north, Erzurum to the northwest, Muş and Bitlis to the southwest, Van to the south, and Iğdır to the northeast. In Turkish Kurdistan, it has an area of 11,376 km² and a population of 542,022. A majority of the province's population are Kurds. The region also has a sizeable Qarapapaq minority.
WBatman Province is a Turkish province in southern Turkish Kurdistan. It was created in May 1990 under Law No. 3647, taking some parts from the east of Siirt Province and some from the south of Mardin Province. The province's population exceeded 500,000 in 2010. The province is important because of its reserves and production of oil which started in the 1940s. There is a 494-km long oil pipeline from Batman to İskenderun Harbor. Cotton is the main agricultural product. A railway line connects Batman with the nearby provinces of Diyarbakır and Elâzığ and with the Turkish capital Ankara. The city of Batman, with 460,955 inhabitants, is the provincial capital. The majority of the province's population is Kurdish. Its current Governor is Hulusi Şahin.
WBingöl Province is a province of Turkey in Eastern Anatolia. The province was created in 1936 out of parts of Elazığ and Erzincan. The new province was known as Çapakçur Province until 1945 when it was renamed as Bingöl province. Its neighboring provinces are Tunceli, Erzurum, Muş, Diyarbakır, Erzincan and Elazığ. The province covers an area of 8,125 km2 and has a population of 255,170. The main spoken languages are Turkish, Zazaki and Kurdish. The capital is Bingöl. The majority of the province's population is Zazas. As the current Governor of the province, Kadir Ekinci was appointed by the president on the 5 November 2018.
WBitlis Province is a province of eastern Turkey, located to the west of Lake Van. The majority of the province's population is Kurdish. The current Governor of the province is Oktay Çağatay.
WDiyarbakır is one of the largest cities in Turkey. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, it is the administrative capital of the Diyarbakır Province of south-eastern Turkey. It is the third-largest city in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, after Şanlıurfa and Gaziantep. The site was formerly the ancient city of Amida, and was of great importance in the Roman–Persian Wars, and during Late Antiquity was re-fortified with city walls by the Roman emperor; these walls remain standing.
WDiyarbakır Province, is a province in southeastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km2 and its population is 1,528,958. The provincial capital is the city of Diyarbakır.
WElâzığ Province is a province of Turkey with its seat in the city of Elâzığ. The province had a population of 568,753 in 2014. The population of the province was 569,616 in 2000 and 498,225 in 1990. The total area of the province is 8,455 square kilometres (3,264 sq mi), 826 km2 (319 sq mi) of which is covered by reservoirs and natural lakes. The current governor of the province is Çetin Oktay Kaldirim.
WHakkâri is a city and the capital of the Hakkâri Province of Turkey. It is located a few kilometres away from the Turkish and Iraqi border. The population of the city at the 2010 census was 57,844.
WHakkâri Province, is a province in the southeast of Turkey. The administrative centre is the city of Hakkâri. The province covers an area of 7,121 km² and had a population of 286,470 in 2018. The province was created in 1936 out of Van Province and borders Şırnak Province to the west, Van Province to the north, Iran to the east, and Iraq to the south. The current Governor is İdris Akbıyık. The province is a stronghold for Kurdish nationalism and a hotspot in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict.
WThe history of Diyarbakır, one of the largest cities in Kurdistan and a metropolitan municipality of Turkey, spans millennia. Diyarbakır is situated on the banks of the Tigris River. The city was first mentioned by Assyrian texts as the capital of a Semitic kingdom. It was ruled by a succession of nearly every polity that controlled Upper Mesopotamia, including the Mitanni, Arameans, Assyrians, Urartu, Armenians, Achaemenid Persians, Medes, Seleucids, and Parthians. The Roman Republic gained control of the city in the first century BC, by which stage it was named "Amida". Amida was then part of the Christian Byzantine Empire until the seventh century Muslim conquest, after which a variety of Muslim polities gave way to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. It has been part of the Republic of Turkey since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.
WIğdır Province is a province in eastern Turkey, located along the borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Its adjacent provinces are Kars to the northwest and Ağrı to the west and south. It occupies an area of 3,587 km2 and population of 184,418, it was 168,634 in 2000. It was created from southeastern part of the former Kars Province in 1993. The current Governor of the province is Hüseyin Engin Sarıibrahim.
WKars Province is a province of Turkey, located in the northeastern part of the country. It shares part of its closed border with Armenia. The provincial capital is the city of Kars. The provinces of Ardahan and Iğdır were until the 1990s part of Kars Province.
WThe Kurdish–Turkish conflict is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK. Although the Kurdish-Turkish conflict has spread to many regions, most of the conflict has taken place in Northern Kurdistan, which corresponds with southeastern Turkey. The PKK's presence in Iraqi Kurdistan has resulted in the Turkish Armed Forces carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region, and its influence in Western Kurdistan has led to similar activity there. The conflict has cost the economy of Turkey an estimated $300 to 450 billion, mostly military costs. It has also affected tourism in Turkey.
WMardin Province, is a province of Turkey in Turkish Kurdistan with a population of 809,719 in 2017. The capital of the Mardin Province is Mardin. Located in southeastern Turkey near the traditional geographical boundary of Anatolia and Mesopotamia, it has a diverse population, composed of Kurdish, Arab and Assyrian people, with Kurds forming the majority of the province's population. A recent study from 2013 has shown that 40% of Mardin Province's population identify as Arabs, and this proportion increases to 49% in Mardin and 48% in Midyat, where Arabs form the majority.
WMuş Province is a province in eastern Turkey. It is 8,196 km2 in area and has a population of 406,886 according to a 2010 estimate, down from 453,654 in 2000. The provincial capital is the city of Muş. Another town in Muş province, Malazgirt (Manzikert), is famous for the Battle of Manzikert of 1071. The majority of the province's population is Kurdish. İlker Gündüzöz was appointed Governor of the province by the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in October 2018.
WThe OHAL region was a "super-region" created in Turkey under state of emergency legislation, as part of its approach to the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. From 1994 onwards the scope of the OHAL super-region was gradually narrowed, with provinces being downgraded to "neighbouring province" and then removed from OHAL altogether. The state of emergency was extended 46 times, for four months each time. OHAL was finally discontinued on 30 November 2002.
WŞanlıurfa Province or simply Urfa Province is a province in southeastern Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which bears its name. The population is 1,845,667 (2014). The province has a Kurdish majority, with a significant Arab minority.
WŞırnak Province is a province of Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt and Mardin Provinces. It borders both Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Syria. The current Governor of the province is Ali Hamza Pehlivan. As of 2013, the province had an estimated population of 475,255 people.
WTunceli Province, formerly Dersim Province, is located in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The least densely-populated province in Turkey, it was originally named Dersim Province, then demoted to a district and incorporated into Elâzığ Province in 1926.
WVan Province is a province in eastern Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,035,418 at the end of 2010. Its adjacent provinces are Bitlis to the west, Siirt to the southwest, Şırnak and Hakkâri to the south, and Ağrı to the north. The capital of the province is the city of Van. The majority of the province's population is Kurdish, and has a sizable Azerbaijani minority (Küresünni). The current Governor is Mehmet Emin Bilmez.
WVan is a city in eastern Turkey's Van Province, located on the eastern shore of Lake Van. The city has a long history as a major urban area. It has been a large city since the first millennium BC, initially as Tushpa, the capital of the kingdom of Urartu from the 9th century BC to the 6th century BC, and later as the center of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan. Today, Van has a Kurdish majority and a sizeable Turkish minority. In 2010 the official population figure for Van was 367,419, but many estimates put it much higher with a 1996 estimate stating 500,000 and former Mayor Burhan Yengun is quoted as saying it may be as high as 600,000.