Şanlıurfa (also called simply, "Urfa") is a province in Southeast Anatolia, Turkey. It is also the name of a city within the province.

History

The history of Şanlıurfa city dates as far back as 8000 BC. It was among several cities in the Euphrates-Tigris Basin that together, are considered to be the cradle of the Mesopotamian civilization. The Turks claim that Urfa (its name, since Byzantine days) is the biblical city of Ur, due to its proximity to the biblical village of Harran, and is where Abraham was born. However, the Iraqis also claim the same about the city of Ur in southern Iraq, as do many historians and archeologists.

Urfa was conquered repeatedly throughout history, and has been dominated by many civilizations, including the Ebla, Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, , , Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Macedonians (under Alexander the Great), Seleucids, Arameans, , Romans, Sassanids, Byzantines, Crusaders, and the Islamic empires of the Ayyubids, Seljuk and Ottoman Turks. Islam came to Urfa around 639 C.E., when the Ommiad army conquered the region without a fight.

At the end of World War I, with the Ottoman Empire defeated, and European armies attempting to grab parts of Anatolia, first the British and then the French occupied Urfa. The British occupation started, for the city of Urfa, de facto, on 7 March 1919 and officially as of 24 March 1919, and lasted till 30 October 1919. The French forces took over the city the next day and their uncomfortable presence, met by outbursts of resistance, stretched till 11 April 1920, when they were defeated by locally assembled forces (the new Turkish central government in Ankara being in phase of composition, with the National Assembly declared on 23 April 1920.

The French retreat from the city of Urfa on 11 April 1920 had been conducted within the framework of an agreement reached between the occupying forces and the representatives of the local forces, commanded by Captain assigned from Ankara. The withdrawal that was meant to take place peacefully has been broken by an ambush the same day on the French by irregular forces at the locality called Şebeke Pass on the way to Syria, leading to 296 casualties among the French, and more among the ambushers.

Urfa has been officially re-named Şanlıurfa (Urfa the Glorious) by the in 1984, following recurrent requests by the representatives of the province, desirous to earn a title similar to those of the neihgboring 'Gazi' (veteran) and 'Kahraman' (Heroic) Maraş for their own locality. The delay in according the title can possibly be explained by the controversial nature of the closing chapter of the region's liberation (attack by irregulars on troops withdrawing under an agreement).

Geography

Extending over a territory of 18,584 km² (7,173 sq. miles), with:

• Adıyaman to the north;
• Syria to the south;
• the provinces of Mardin and Diyarbakır to the east; and
• Gaziantep to the west;

the province of Şanlıurfa is the largest province of Southeast Anatolia. The Şanlıurfa and Harran Plains extend over an area of about 1,500 km² (579 sq. miles).

Şanlıurfa includes several major components of the "Southeast Anatolia Development Project" (Turkish name: Güneydogu Anadolu Projesi (GAP)), which is a regional program designed to:

• exploit the hydropower potential of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers;
• dramatically expand irrigation agriculture; and
• develop the economy of the region.

This very large-scale, state-sponsored development project involves the damming, redirecting, hydroelectric tapping and multipurpose utilization within Turkey of rivers that feed a broad, semi-arid region. The rivers are shared by two other competing nations, Syria and Iraq. It entails the construction of 22 dams, and hundreds of miles of irrigation works, and is expected to cost $32 billion. if and when it is ever completed (currently, it is 50% completed). Even before GAP, Şanlıurfa Province had the largest share of cultivated and cultivable land in the GAP region, due to its flatness and highly fertile, agricultural land. The "Şanlıurfa-Harran Plains Project" is one of the most important components of GAP, with its target of irrigating 1,677 km² (414,467 acres).

According to the 1990 census, Şanlıurfa Province contained 148,521 households, and the average household size was 6.74 persons. 71 % of household heads described their occupation as farming. The province had 11 district centers (‘ilçe’), 772 villages and 1,646 sub-village settlements. While 551,124 people lived in the district centers, 450,331 people lived in sub-districts, villages and sub-villages.

Şanlıurfa’s average annual growth rate between 1985 and 1990 was 4.6%. This rate is considerably higher than both the national and regional averages. Approximately 40% of the province’s population is Kurdish, 40% is Arab, and 20% is Turkish.

In 1992, Şanlıurfa had the highest concentration of land ownership in Turkey, with a landless rate of 48%. While 5% of the families in the province owned 65% of the land, the vast majority (70%) owned only 10%.

By 2000, the population of Şanlıurfa province has grown to 1,436,956, and that of Şanlıurfa city, 829,000.

Politics

Şanlıurfa Province's politics is still widely shaped by the electoral adherence of a number of Zaza clans (aşiret) and, in particular, the districts along the Fırat Euphrates river has since long been a power base for the traditional center-right represented by DYP, formerly under Süleyman Demirel's and Mrs. Tansu Çiller's, and now under ex-chief of police Mr. 's helm. Turkey's ruling AKP did come first for Provincial General Assembly votes in 2004 local elections with a comfortable 43.04 %, but DYP, currently out of parliament for having very closely missed the 10 % threshold, seems to recover under the new leadership, and Mr. Ağar is known for his intimacy with the local feudal structures. Much effort is deployed by DEHAP, campaigning on Kurdish-identity consciousness arguments, to attract clan votes towards a more nationalistic line, but this is complicated by the ongoing polemics on the definitions of a Kurdish and a distinct Zaza identity. Several clans were on the forefront of the struggle against PKK terrorism in the 1980's and the 1990's. Still, DEHAP seems to have registered some success in 2004 local elections, having come second for the province with 16.95 %, rising from 12,06 % in 1999, with a faithful electorate in the two districts bordering Diyarbakır Province. MHP, campaigning on Turkish-identity consciousness arguments, after having scored an exceptional 7,18 % in 1999, has in 2004 ebbed back to a more usual 2,97 %. DEHAP traditionally avoids the districts bordering Syria and populated by ethnic Arabs, where they did not even name candidates for the 2004 elections. Center-left CHP usually obtains a modest share slightly below 10 % at each local election in Şanlıurfa Province.

External links

• Pictures of the capital of this province
• Local politics
• Sanliurfa Firm Index

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