Bitlis

Perched at 1,400 meters in the narrow valley of the Bitlis Çay—a Tigris tributary—this Kurdish-majority province commands the only route from Lake Van's basin to the Mesopotamian plains. Geography made it strategic; economics made it poor. A 2020 survey revealed Bitlis among Turkey's lowest average annual disposable incomes at 15,198 Turkish lira, less than half the national average of 33,428 TL.

The poverty has deep roots. Decades of conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish insurgents left the regional economy fractured. Restrictions on highland access—traditional grazing lands for livestock—eliminated a primary livelihood for many residents. Today's economy depends on grain, fruit, tobacco cultivation, and cottage industries in leather and textile production. Kurmanji Kurdish remains the primary vernacular, though Turkish dominates official channels.

Change arrived in 2024 with a collective opening ceremony for 31 new production facilities, including eight within the local Organized Industrial Zone, representing 6.5 billion Turkish lira in investment. The March 2024 local elections saw AKP defeat the pro-Kurdish DEM Party for the provincial mayoralty—a political shift that may redirect development priorities.

Tatvan, the province's port on Lake Van, provides an unusual asset: Turkey's largest ferries, which provincial authorities used in September 2024 for mass evacuation drills simulating earthquake response. In a region where seismic risk compounds economic fragility, such infrastructure serves dual purposes.

For 2026, the question is whether new industrial zones can absorb displaced agricultural workers, and whether political changes translate into actual development rather than continued peripheralization of Turkey's Kurdish southeast.