Southeastern Anatolia

The region lies in the northern arc of the Fertile Crescent, where some of the world's earliest farming began. Göbekli Tepe, north-east of Şanlıurfa, was built around 9600 BC by people who had not yet adopted farming, and related sites such as Karahan Tepe dot the surrounding hills. Harran, on the plain to the south, was an ancient centre of the moon god Sin and is named in the Bible's story of Abraham, whom local tradition says was born in Urfa.

In the classical age, Zeugma on the Euphrates grew rich as a Roman garrison town, and the small kingdom of Commagene built its royal sanctuary on Mount Nemrut in the 1st century BC. Edessa, today's Şanlıurfa, became one of the first centres of Syriac Christianity, and monasteries such as Mor Gabriel, founded in 397 in the Tur Abdin hills near Midyat, still stand. Amida, now Diyarbakır, was a fortress city between Rome and Persia.

After the Arab conquests, the Artuqid Turkmen dynasty ruled Mardin, Diyarbakır and Hasankeyf in the 12th to 14th centuries, followed by the Aq Qoyunlu, and the Ottomans took the region in the early 16th century. Gaziantep earned the prefix "gazi" (veteran) for its resistance to French forces in 1920–21. Since the 1980s the Southeastern Anatolia Project, known as GAP, has dammed the Euphrates and Tigris, creating the Atatürk Dam and, in 2020, flooding Hasankeyf. The region was a centre of the conflict between the army and the PKK, and fighting in 2015–16 destroyed parts of Diyarbakır's old Sur district.

The south-east is Turkey's most diverse region. Diyarbakır is regarded by many Kurds as their cultural capital, and Kurdish is the everyday language in much of Diyarbakır, Mardin, Batman, Siirt and Şırnak. Arabic is spoken in parts of Şanlıurfa and Mardin, Gaziantep is largely Turkish, and Syriac Christians keep their Aramaic language, Turoyo, and their liturgy in the villages and monasteries of Tur Abdin. Nevruz on 21 March is a major celebration, especially in Diyarbakır.

Şanlıurfa is known for its sıra gecesi, long evenings of music, conversation and food held in homes among friends, and for its devotional role as the "city of prophets", which draws pilgrims to Balıklıgöl. Diyarbakır has a house dedicated to dengbêj, the Kurdish singers of long narrative songs.

Crafts vary by city. Gaziantep's coppersmiths still hammer trays and pots in the copper bazaar, Midyat is known for telkari, fine silver filigree. Society is more traditional than in western Turkey, family and tribal ties matter, and hospitality to guests is taken seriously.

Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa each have around two million people in their provinces, and Diyarbakır nearly as many. Mardin, Batman, Adıyaman, Siirt, Şırnak and Kilis are smaller. The region has Turkey's highest birth rates, and it hosts many Syrian refugees, particularly in Gaziantep.

Gaziantep is a major industrial city, making textiles, machine-woven carpets, plastics and food products, and processing the region's pistachios. Irrigation from the GAP dams has turned the Harran plain into a major cotton-growing area. Batman produces much of Turkey's oil. Elsewhere, farming, livestock, border trade and public-sector jobs sustain most families, and unemployment is high.

Summer heat shapes the day, with business done in the morning and evening, and flat roofs are traditionally used for sleeping on hot nights. Recovery from the 2023 earthquakes, the long-term effects of the PKK conflict, and the future of Syrian refugees are the main current issues.

Gaziantep is widely regarded as Turkey's food capital. Its pistachio baklava, Antep baklavası, was registered as a Protected Geographical Indication in the European Union in 2013; katmer is a paper-thin pastry filled with pistachio and clotted cream, and beyran, a spicy soup of lamb and rice, is eaten even at breakfast. Other local dishes include ali nazik, grilled meat on a smoky aubergine and yoghurt purée, and yuvarlama, small rice-and-meat dumplings in yoghurt soup.

Şanlıurfa gives its name to Urfa kebap, milder than Adana's, and to isot, a dark, smoky dried pepper. The region is also the home of çiğ köfte, fine bulgur kneaded with pepper paste and spices, traditionally made with raw meat but now often meatless. Mırra, a very bitter, concentrated coffee, is served in tiny cups in Şanlıurfa and Mardin.

Diyarbakır is known for kaburga dolması, lamb ribs stuffed with spiced rice, and for its large watermelons. Mardin makes içli köfte, bulgur shells stuffed with meat, and Siirt perde pilavı, rice with chicken baked inside a pastry crust. Syriac families in Midyat make wine, and Kilis is known for olive oil.

Gaziantep has its castle, the copper bazaar and restored caravanserais, and the Zeugma Mosaic Museum; the castle of Rumkale above the Euphrates is nearby. In Şanlıurfa, Balıklıgöl's sacred fish pools lie below the citadel, the archaeology museum holds finds from Göbekli Tepe, and Göbekli Tepe itself lies about 12 kilometres from the city. Harran's beehive mud-brick houses and ruined university stand on the plain to the south, and Halfeti, partly submerged by a dam, is reached by boat on the Euphrates.

Mardin's old town looks south across the Mesopotamian plain, with the Zinciriye and Kasımiye madrasas and the Syriac monastery of Deyrulzafaran nearby. Midyat, with its carved stone houses, is the gateway to Mor Gabriel and the Tur Abdin villages, and the Roman frontier city of Dara lies near the Syrian border.

Diyarbakır's basalt walls and the Hevsel Gardens along the Tigris form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with the Great Mosque and the ten-arched Dicle Bridge nearby. At Hasankeyf, the old town and its cliffs were largely flooded by the Ilısu Dam; several monuments, including the tomb of Zeynel Bey, were moved to a cultural park near the new town. In Adıyaman, the statues of Mount Nemrut stand on the mountain's summit.