The Vilayet of Diyâr-ı Bekr (, , )HathiTrust Digital Library - Holdings: Salname-yi Vilâyet-i Diyarbakır. was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire, wholly located within what is now modern Turkey. The vilayet extended south from Palu on the Euphrates to Mardin and Nusaybin on the edge of the Mesopotamian plain. After the establishment of Republic of Turkey in 1923, the region was incorporated into the newly created state.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Diyarbekir Vilayet reportedly had an area of , while the preliminary results of the first Ottoman census of 1885 (published in 1908) gave the population as 471,462.Asia by A. H. Keane, page 460 The accuracy of the population figures ranges from "approximate" to "merely conjectural" depending on the region from which they were gathered.
History The Vilayet of Diyarbakir was created in 1867. In 1867 or 1868 Mamuret-ul-Aziz and the Kurdistan Eyalet merged with and joined the Vilayet of Diyarbakir. In 1879–80 Mamuret-ul-Aziz was separated again from the Vilayet of Diyarbakir, and turned into the Vilayet of Mamuret-ul-Aziz. It was one of the six Armenian Vilayets of the Empire.
Administrative divisions
Sanjaks of the vilayet:Diyarbekir Vilayeti | Tarih ve Medeniyet Diyarbekir Sanjak (Diyarbakır, Lice, Silvan, Derik, Beşiri) Mardin Sanjak (Mardin, Cizre, Midyat, Savur, Nusaybin and maybe Silopi) Ergani Sanjak (Maden, Palu) Siverek Sanjak (Split from Diyarbekir in 1907) (Siverek, Çermik, Viranşehir)
Demographics The Vilayet was a place in which the Christian population was systematically massacred during World War I during the 1915 genocide in Diyarbekir. + Gaunt, David. Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias Press, 2006, p. 433. Denomination Prewar population Postwar population DisappearedArmenian Apostolic Church60,0002,00058,000 (97%)Armenian Catholic Church12,5001,00011,500 (92%)Chaldean Catholic Church11,1201,11010,010 (90%)Syriac Catholic Church5,6002,1503,450 (62%)Syriac Orthodox Church84,72524,00060,725 (72%)Protestantism725225500 (69%)Total 174,670 30,485144,185 (83%)
See also Massacres of Diyarbakır (1895) 1915 genocide in Diyarbekir Six Vilayets
References
Hakan Özoğlu, "Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State" SUNY, 2004
External links