Travel Guide Diyarbakir

Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey. Diyarbakir is considered by some Kurds in Turkey to be the capital of the Kurds, the people living mainly in eastern Turkey straddling Iran, Iraq and Syria. Accused for a long time by the Turkish authorities of having sheltered the "terrorists" of the Kurdish independence party and in the midst of independence clashes, the city has been the scene of pro-Kurdish movements, sometimes violent. Some neighbourhoods have been totally destroyed. Diyarbakir seems today to have found serenity. Its eventful history is engraved in the stone, in the ramparts and in its monuments. They testify an incredible mixture of civilizations: Greek, Roman, Assyrian but also Seljuk and Ottoman. The old city of Diyarbakır is very rich historically. While it tends to impress with its inhospitable appearance, it is full of mosques, churches and nooks and crannies away from the hustle and bustle of the street, such as its shady hans. Diyarbakır has character and a high tourist potential that it is beginning to exploit. A city with multiple identities, the city remains difficult to define as ideological discourses work to appropriate it. It is a good starting point to visit the cities of Mardin or Mydiat. In February 2023, the Kurdish capital was violently hit by two particularly devastating earthquakes. Hundreds of inhabitants died under the rubble and many buildings collapsed.