Diyarbakir
Diyarbakır's Tigris-side walls protected civilizations from Assyria to Rome—today 72% of 1.6 million residents speak Kurdish daily in what many consider the de facto capital of a stateless nation.
Diyarbakır exists because the Tigris River created a fertile corridor through otherwise forbidding terrain—and because every empire from Assyria to Rome to the Ottomans sought to control it. The city's basalt walls, among the longest defensive fortifications in the world, testify to millennia of contested ownership. Today, this is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey, seen by many Kurds as the de facto capital of a nation that has never had a state.
The region's formation reflects deep time. Assyrians, Urartians, Armenians, Persians, and Parthians successively controlled the area before Rome took it in 66 BCE. The Sassanids captured it in 359 CE; Arabs conquered it in the 7th century, and the name itself—diyar meaning 'district' of the Bakr tribe—dates from this period. The modern spelling substitutes bakır (copper) for Bakr, acknowledging the region's mineral wealth. Ottoman conquest came in 1514 under Sultan Selim I, and the empire held it for four centuries.
The transformation came through conflict. For decades, Diyarbakır has been the focal point of struggle between the Turkish state and Kurdish separatist groups. According to a 2006 municipal survey, 72% of inhabitants use Kurdish most often in daily speech. Political leadership has often aligned with pro-Kurdish parties like the HDP. Violence between Kurdish militants and Turkish military forces displaced populations and suppressed economic development. Larger-scale agriculture and industry struggled to develop amid military activity and high unemployment.
Present-day Diyarbakır (population 1.6 million) is emerging from decades of conflict. The economy centers on agriculture—cereals, cotton, tobacco, watermelons—alongside trade and a growing service sector. Copper and coal deposits remain significant. Flights now connect the city to both Istanbul airports, Ankara, Izmir, and seasonally to Germany, where a large Kurdish diaspora lives.
By 2026, Diyarbakır will test whether peace can bring the prosperity that war prevented. The city is welcoming tourism, its ancient walls and Mesopotamian heritage drawing visitors. The question is whether economic development can sustain a population whose cultural capital—as the largest Kurdish city—exceeds its political autonomy.