Viranşehir

Viranşehir
District and municipality
Map showing Viranşehir District in Şanlıurfa Province
Map showing Viranşehir District in Şanlıurfa Province
Viranşehir is located in Turkey
Viranşehir
Viranşehir
Location in Turkey
Viranşehir is located in Şanlıurfa
Viranşehir
Viranşehir
Viranşehir (Şanlıurfa)
Coordinates: 37°13′50″N 39°45′55″E / 37.23056°N 39.76528°E / 37.23056; 39.76528
CountryTurkey
ProvinceŞanlıurfa
Government
 • MayorSalih Ekinci (AKP)
Area
2,297 km2 (887 sq mi)
Population
 (2022)[1]
207,315
 • Density90/km2 (230/sq mi)
Time zoneTRT (UTC+3)
Postal code
63700
Area code0414
Websitewww.viransehir.bel.tr

Viranşehir (Kurdish: Wêranşar)[2] is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey.[3] Its area is 2,297 km2,[4] and its population is 207,315 (2022).[1] It is a market town serving a cotton-growing area, 93 km east of the city Şanlıurfa and 53 km north-west of Ceylanpınar at the Syrian border. In Late Antiquity, it was known as Constantina or Constantia (Greek: Κωνσταντίνη) by the Romans and Byzantines, and Tella by the local Assyrian/Syriac population.[5]

History

Main article: Constantia (Osrhoene)

According to the Byzantine historian John Malalas, the city was built by the Roman Emperor Constantine I on the site of former Maximianopolis, which had been destroyed by a Persian attack and an earthquake. During the next two centuries, it was an important location in the Roman/Byzantine Near East, playing a crucial role in the Roman–Persian Wars of the 6th century as the seat of the dux Mesopotamiae (363–540).[5] It was also a bishopric, suffragan of Edessa. Jacob Baradaeus was born near the city and was a monk in a nearby monastery.[5] The city was captured by the Arabs in 639.[5]

The city became the base for the Ottoman statesman of Kurdish origin Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the Kurdish Milan tribe, in the late nineteenth century. Beginning in 1891, Ibrahim Pasha led several regiments of the state-sponsored tribal light cavalries known as the Hamidiye Brigades. He enjoyed the favor of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and also extended protection to local Christian populations, with some 600 families taking up residence in the district by the early 1900s.[6] The British spy and diplomat Mark Sykes claimed that Ibrahim Pasha had also saved some 10,000 Christians in the midst of the massacres of the 1890s.[7] The historian Janet Klein writes that "on the eve of the Young Turk Revolution, Ibrahim Pasha was one of the most powerful figures in all of Kurdistan."[8] Yet after the revolution, Ibrahim Pasha could no longer count on the support of the palace. He died on 27 September 1908 of dysentery, hotly pursued by Ottoman troops near Nusaybin.[9]

On the eve of World War I, Viranşehir's Armenian population of numbered 1,339. The city's kaimakam apparently objected to May 1915 orders of raids on the population, but higher-ups eventually prevailed, and the entire population was massacred or sent to Ras al-'Ayn.[10]

Modern city

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
1990100,361—    
1997163,975+7.27%
2007152,469−0.72%
2012172,422+2.49%
2017192,966+2.28%
2022207,315+1.44%
Source: 1990 census,[11] 1997 census[12] and TÜIK (2007-2022)[1]

Thanks to the income from cotton, Viranşehir is a fast-growing town.

The Mayor of Viransehir, Leyla Güven, was detained in December 2009 under Turkey's anti-terror legislation. Her trial began on 18 October 2010. She was released in July 2014 with 30 other local elected representatives, after four years of detention.[13]

Salih Ekinci from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected Mayor of Viranşehir in the 31 March 2019 Local Election.[14] The current Kaymakam is Önder Koç.[15]

Composition

There are 148 neighbourhoods in Viranşehir District:[16]

  • Abalar
  • Adaköy
  • Akçataş
  • Akkese
  • Alakonak
  • Altınbaşak
  • Anıt
  • Arısu
  • Arıtır
  • Aşağıtınaz
  • Aslanbaba
  • Atatürk
  • Atıcılar
  • Ayaklı
  • Ayrıdüşen
  • Azadi(Evrenpaşa)
  • Bahçelievler
  • Bakımlı
  • Ballıca
  • Başaran
  • Başköy
  • Beğrük
  • Binekli
  • Bozca
  • Burç
  • Büyükbardakçı
  • Büyükçavuş
  • Büyükgörümlü
  • Büyükmutlu
  • Çalıcık
  • Çamurlu
  • Ceylan
  • Çiftçiler
  • Çiftekuyu
  • Çokran
  • Cumhuriyet
  • Dedeköy
  • Defterdar
  • Değim
  • Demirci
  • Dikili
  • Dinçer
  • Dinçkök
  • Ekinciler
  • Ekindöver
  • Elbeğendi
  • Elgün
  • Emiroğlu
  • Engelli
  • Eser
  • Eskikale
  • Eşkin
  • Esvetoğlu
  • Evcimen
  • Eyyüpnebi
  • Germen
  • Göğerli
  • Göktepe
  • Gölbaşı
  • Gölcük
  • Gömülü
  • Gönüllü
  • Gözeli
  • Gözler
  • Güleryüz
  • Gürpınar
  • Güzlek
  • Hürriyet
  • İncirli
  • İsa Harabesi
  • Işıldar
  • Kadıköy
  • Kale
  • Karakuzu
  • Karataş
  • Karatepe
  • Kargalı
  • Karınca
  • Kavurga
  • Keçeli
  • Kemerli
  • Kervansarayı
  • Kınalıtepe
  • Kırbalı
  • Kırkgöz
  • Kışla
  • Kızlarsarayı
  • Kolağası
  • Konakyeri
  • Koşulu
  • Kucak
  • Küçükmutlu
  • Küçüktopça
  • Kumçeşme
  • Kurtulmuş
  • Kururoğlu
  • Malta
  • Mehmetçik
  • Nergizli
  • Oğlakçı
  • Övüncük
  • Özal
  • Pınarlar
  • Reyhanlı
  • Sağırtaş
  • Şahinli
  • Sakalar
  • Samanlı
  • Sarıbal
  • Şarkpınar
  • Satıcık
  • Sayoba
  • Şehit
  • Selahattinieyyubi
  • Sepetli
  • Sergen
  • Sevgili
  • Şırnak
  • Sözeri
  • Süleymaniye
  • Tanyeli
  • Taşönü
  • Taşyaka
  • Tekke
  • Tekneli
  • Tepedüzü
  • Toklu
  • Tunçbilek
  • Türkeli
  • Üçgül
  • Uğurlu
  • Ulaklı
  • Yaban
  • Yağızlar
  • Yarpuz
  • Yayık
  • Yazgüneşi
  • Yeni
  • Yenişehir
  • Yeşilalıç
  • Yeşildurak
  • Yıldız
  • Yolbilen
  • Yollarbaşı
  • Yüceler
  • Yukarıbağ
  • Yukarıdilimli
  • Yukarışölenli

Notable people

References

  1. ^ a b c "Population Of SRE-1, SRE-2, Provinces and Districts". TÜIK. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  2. ^ Adem Avcıkıran (2009). Kürtçe Anamnez Anamneza bi Kurmancî (PDF) (in Turkish and Kurdish). p. 57. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  3. ^ Büyükşehir İlçe Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  4. ^ "İl ve İlçe Yüz ölçümleri". General Directorate of Mapping. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, p. 497, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
  6. ^ Jongerden, Joost (2012). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Leiden: Brill. pp. 62–65.
  7. ^ Üngör, Uğur Ümit (2011). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 18.
  8. ^ Klein, Janet (2011). The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. p. 102.
  9. ^ Klein, Janet (2011). The Margins of Empire: Kurdish Militias in the Ottoman Tribal Zone. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. pp. 103–104.
  10. ^ Kevorkian, Raymond (2011). The Armenian Genocide: a Complete History. New York: Tauris. p. 366.
  11. ^ "1990 General Census" (PDF) (in Turkish). Turkish Statistical Institute. 1991. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 August 2021.
  12. ^ "1997 Population Count" (PDF) (in Turkish). Turkish Statistical Institute. 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 October 2022.
  13. ^ "Congress pleased by a release of Leyla Güven and the other elected representatives detained in Turkey"; http://www.coe.int/t/congress/files/topics/leyla-guven/default_en.asp
  14. ^ Şafak, Yeni (2019-09-12). "Şanlıurfa Viranşehir Seçim Sonuçları – Viranşehir Yerel Seçim Sonuçları". Yeni Şafak (in Turkish). Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  15. ^ "Kaymakam Önder Koç". www.viransehir.gov.tr. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  16. ^ Mahalle, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 19 September 2023.