Siverek

Siverek (Armenian: Սեւավերակ, romanized: Sevaverag, lit. 'black ruins'; Zazaki: Soyreg; Kurdish: Sêwreg) is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 3,936 km2, and its population is 267,942 (2022). Siverek is in the Şanlıurfa province but is geographically closer to the large city of Diyarbakır (approx. 83 km).

Etymology

Siverek was historically known in medieval Arabic as Hisn ar-Ran (Arabic: حصن الران), which was corrupted into Greek as Chasanara (Greek: Χασαναρᾶ), as found in the Escorial Taktikon. The word "Siverek" is of Armenian origin. In Byzantine sources, it is mentioned as Sevaverag. The literal meaning of this name used for Siverek in Byzantine and Armenian sources is Sev "black" and Averag "ruins". Other ways to spell Sevaverag include Sebabarak, Sebabarok, Sevaverak, Severags and Suveyda.

History

The town came under Byzantine control sometime after 956 and had become the seat of a strategos by the early 970s. Together with Edessa, Gargar, Samosata and Hisn Mansur formed part of the Byzantine defence system up to the 1060s when 200 Frankish horsemen were stationed there. In the Ottoman Empire period, Siverek was within the Diyarbekir vilayet, and it had several Christian settlements.

Demographics

9,275 Armenians lived in the kaza on the eve of the First World War according to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. They had eight churches and three schools. 5,450 Armenians and 1,200 Assyrians lived in the town of Siverek. 6,550 Assyrians lived in 32 surrounding villages. Armenian men were massacred in May 1915, followed by the deportation of the women and children, as part of the Armenian genocide. Faiz El-Ghusein reported that the road between Urfa and Severek was littered with corpses.

Politics

In common with other districts of Şanlıurfa, business and politics in Siverek are strongly influenced, even controlled, by a powerful clan. Siverek is the home town of Sedat Bucak, the former DYP member of parliament who survived the car crash in the Susurluk scandal. He is the leader of the Bucak tribe, one of whom has represented the area in the Turkish Parliament since its foundation. Sedat Bucak remains a friend of former DYP leader Mehmet Ağar. In the local elections in March 2019, Şehmus Aydın was elected mayor. He resigned due to health problems in 2020, and was succeeded by Ayşe Çakmak (AKP). The current kaymakam is Musa Aydemir.

Composition

There are 180 neighbourhoods in Siverek District:

Climate

Siverek has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa).

Notable people

Osman Efendîyo Babij (1852-1929), Kurdish religious figure Yılmaz Güney (1937–1984), Kurdish film director, scenarist, novelist and actor Necmettin Büyükkaya, (1943-1984), Kurdish activist Mehmed Uzun (1953–2007), Kurdish writer Sedat Bucak (b. 1960), politician Adnan Selçuk Mızraklı (b. 1963), politician İbrahim Ayhan (1968-2018), politician Filiz İşikırık (b. 1993), footballer Remziye Bakır (b. 1997), footballer

Sources

Beihammer, Alexander Daniel (2017). Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim Turkish Anatolia, ca. 1040-1130. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-22959-4.