Viranşehir

Viranşehir is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 2,297 km2, and its population is 207,315 (2022). It is a market town serving a cotton-growing area, 93 km east of the city Şanlıurfa and 53 km north-west of Ceylanpınar at the Syrian border. In Late Antiquity, it was known as Constantina or Constantia by the Romans and Byzantines, and Tella by the local Assyrian/Syriac population.
History
According to the Byzantine historian John Malalas, the city was built by the Roman Emperor Constantine I on the site of former Maximianopolis, which had been destroyed by a Persian attack and an earthquake. During the next two centuries, it was an important location in the Roman/Byzantine Near East, playing a crucial role in the Roman–Persian Wars of the 6th century as the seat of the dux Mesopotamiae (363–540). It was also a bishopric, suffragan of Edessa. Jacob Baradaeus was born near the city and was a monk in a nearby monastery. The city was captured by the Arabs in 639.
The city became the base for the Ottoman statesman of Kurdish origin Ibrahim Pasha, leader of the Kurdish Milan tribe, in the late nineteenth century. Beginning in 1891, Ibrahim Pasha led several regiments of the state-sponsored tribal light cavalries known as the Hamidiye Brigades. He enjoyed the favor of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and also extended protection to local Christian populations, with some 600 families taking up residence in the district by the early 1900s. The British spy and diplomat Mark Sykes claimed that Ibrahim Pasha had also saved some 10,000 Christians in the midst of the massacres of the 1890s. The historian Janet Klein writes that "on the eve of the Young Turk Revolution, Ibrahim Pasha was one of the most powerful figures in all of Kurdistan." Yet after the revolution, Ibrahim Pasha could no longer count on the support of the palace. He died on 27 September 1908 of dysentery, hotly pursued by Ottoman troops near Nusaybin.
On the eve of World War I, Viranşehir's Armenian population of numbered 1,339. The city's kaimakam apparently objected to May 1915 orders of raids on the population, but higher-ups eventually prevailed, and the entire population was massacred or sent to Ras al-'Ayn.
Modern city
Thanks to the income from cotton, Viranşehir is a fast-growing town.
The Mayor of Viransehir, Leyla Güven, was detained in December 2009 under Turkey's anti-terror legislation. Her trial began on 18 October 2010. She was released in July 2014 with 30 other local elected representatives, after four years of detention.
Salih Ekinci from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) was elected Mayor of Viranşehir in the 31 March 2019 Local Election. The current Kaymakam is Önder Koç.
Composition
There are 148 neighbourhoods in Viranşehir District:
Abalar
Adaköy
Akçataş
Akkese
Alakonak
Altınbaşak
Anıt
Arısu
Arıtır
Aşağıtınaz
Aslanbaba
Atatürk
Atıcılar
Ayaklı
Ayrıdüşen
Azadi(Evrenpaşa)
Bahçelievler
Bakımlı
Ballıca
Başaran
Başköy
Beğrük
Binekli
Bozca
Burç
Büyükbardakçı
Büyükçavuş
Büyükgörümlü
Büyükmutlu
Çalıcık
Çamurlu
Ceylan
Çiftçiler
Çiftekuyu
Çokran
Cumhuriyet
Dedeköy
Defterdar
Değim
Demirci
Dikili
Dinçer
Dinçkök
Ekinciler
Ekindöver
Elbeğendi
Elgün
Emiroğlu
Engelli
Eser
Eskikale
Eşkin
Esvetoğlu
Evcimen
Eyyüpnebi
Germen
Göğerli
Göktepe
Gölbaşı
Gölcük
Gömülü
Gönüllü
Gözeli
Gözler
Güleryüz
Gürpınar
Güzlek
Hürriyet
İncirli
İsa Harabesi
Işıldar
Kadıköy
Kale
Karakuzu
Karataş
Karatepe
Kargalı
Karınca
Kavurga
Keçeli
Kemerli
Kervansarayı
Kınalıtepe
Kırbalı
Kırkgöz
Kışla
Kızlarsarayı
Kolağası
Konakyeri
Koşulu
Kucak
Küçükmutlu
Küçüktopça
Kumçeşme
Kurtulmuş
Kururoğlu
Malta
Mehmetçik
Nergizli
Oğlakçı
Övüncük
Özal
Pınarlar
Reyhanlı
Sağırtaş
Şahinli
Sakalar
Samanlı
Sarıbal
Şarkpınar
Satıcık
Sayoba
Şehit
Selahattinieyyubi
Sepetli
Sergen
Sevgili
Şırnak
Sözeri
Süleymaniye
Tanyeli
Taşönü
Taşyaka
Tekke
Tekneli
Tepedüzü
Toklu
Tunçbilek
Türkeli
Üçgül
Uğurlu
Ulaklı
Yaban
Yağızlar
Yarpuz
Yayık
Yazgüneşi
Yeni
Yenişehir
Yeşilalıç
Yeşildurak
Yıldız
Yolbilen
Yollarbaşı
Yüceler
Yukarıbağ
Yukarıdilimli
Yukarışölenli
Notable people
Bilge Özgen (1935*), Musical Artist
Şivan Perwer (1955*), Musical Artist
Nureddin Nebati (1964*), politician
Ayşe Sürücü (1983*), Politician
Semra Güzel (1984*), medical doctor and a politician
Deniz Kadah (1986*), Footballer
Deniz Undav (1996*), Footballer
References
Cities in Turkey
Populated places in Şanlıurfa Province
Districts of Şanlıurfa Province
Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey
Kurdish settlements in Turkey