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Tunceli Province
Province of Turkey
Location of Tunceli Province in Turkey
Country	Turkey
Region	Central East Anatolia
Subregion	Malatya
Government
• Electoral district	Tunceli
Area
• Total	7,774 km (3,002 sq mi)
Population
• Total	88,198
• Density	11/km (29/sq mi)
Area code	0428
Vehicle registration	62

Tunceli Province (Template:Lang-diq, Template:Lang-tr), formerly Dersim Province, is located in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The province was originally named Dersim Province (Dersim vilayeti), then demoted to a district (Dersim kazası) and incorporated into Elâzığ Province in 1926. It was finally changed to Tunceli Province on January 4, 1936 by the "Law on Administration of the Tunceli Province" (Tunceli Vilayetinin İdaresi Hakkında Kanun), no. 2884 of 25 December 1935, but some still call the region by its original name. The name of the provincial capital, Kalan, was then officially changed to Tunceli to match the province's name.

The adjacent provinces are Erzincan to the north and west, Elazığ to the south, and Bingöl to the east. The province covers an area of 7,774 km (3,002 sq mi) and has a population of 76,699. It has the lowest population density of any province in Turkey, just 9.8 inhabitants/km. The majority of the population is Zaza. Tunceli is the only province of Turkey with an Alevi majority.

Tunceli is known for its old buildings such as the Çelebi Ağa Mosque, Sağman Mosque, Elti Hatun Mosque and adjoining Tomb, castles including Mazgirt Castle, Pertek Castle, Derun-i Hisar Castle, and impressive natural scenery, especially in Munzur Valley National Park, the largest national park of Turkey.

Geography

Tunceli is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

History

The history of the province stretches back to antiquity. It was mentioned as Daranalis by Ptolemy, and seemingly, it was referred to as Daranis before him. One theory as to the origin of the name associates with Darius the Great. Another, more likely hypothesis, considering the region's Armenian background, says the name Daranalis or Daranaghis comes from the historical Armenian province of Daron, of which Dersim belonged.

The area that would become Dersim province formed part of Urartu, Media, the Achaemenid Empire, and the Greater Armenian region of Sophene. Sophene was later contested by the Roman and Parthian Empires and by their respective successors, the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. Arabs invaded in the 7th century, and Seljuq Turks in the 11th.

As of the end of the 19th century, the region, called Dersim, was included in the Ottoman sancak (sub-province) of Hozat, including the city and the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet (now Elazığ), with the exception of the actual district of Pülümür, which was in the neighboring sancak of Erzincan, then a part of the Erzurum Vilayet. This status continued through the first years of the Republic of Turkey, until 1936 when the name of the province ("Dersim") was changed to Tunceli, literally 'the land of bronze' in Turkish (tunç meaning 'bronze' and el (in this context) meaning 'land') after the brutal events of the Dersim rebellion. The town of Kalan was made the capital and the district of Pülümür was included in the new province.

Armenians of Tunceli

Prior to the Armenian Genocide, The Armenians of Dersim lived peacefully alongside the Alevi Zazas, who partially assimilated into and had various Armenian beliefs. During the Armenian Genocide, many of the region's Armenians were living among the Alevi Zazas of the region, with whom they had good relations. This allowed the Armenians to avoid deportation, and therefore survive the genocide unscathed, because their Alevi neighbors didn't have any negative affinity towards Armenians, and as explained before were somewhat Armenian themselves. The Armenians lived quietly in their mountain villages until 1938, when Turkish soldiers invaded the region to put down a Dersim rebellion, and in the process blew up St Karapet's Monastery and killed around 60,000-70,000 Alevis and Armenians alike, causing an abrupt end to any open Armenian life in the province. Armenians now were forced to assimilate fully into the Alevi population, moving from their majority Armenian villages to blend in better with the population, and therefore becoming Hidden Armenians.

Tunceli Alevis

They have been practicing Alevism before the Ottoman Empire came to the Middle East and many believe Munzur, Dersim to be the heartland of the Alevi. Where holy places, all of which are natural features of the landscape, are found in abundance, and where the region's isolation has insulated it from the influence of Turkeys' dominant Sunni sect of Islam, helping to keep its unique Alevi character relatively pure. An example of this would be Newroz, the Kurdish New Year and a key date in Zoroastrian. The Alevi Kurds come out to sing and dance around the fire, they dress in traditional clothing, wear a red band over their heads and play soft music to their land.

The Alevi Kurds have a history of being attacked and discriminated against by Sunni Muslims in the past, both by the Ottoman Empire and Kurdish Sunni Muslims from other provinces due to their beliefs."If you really call yourself Alevi," says Bulut, "there is not really room for it in Islam," says Kadir Bulut, who is one of the few remaining "dedes" in Tunceli. "Davutoglu's visit was an attempt at assimilation, he tried to define a Muslim, and we do not want this." Says Engin Dogru, head of the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party in Tunceli

Name changes

It is said that ancient Greek historians and geographers named the Dersim region Daranis and Derksene. Baytar Nuri includes this information at the entrance of his book Dersim in Kurdistan history. After the Dersim rebellion, any villages and towns deemed to have non-Turkish names were renamed and given Turkish names in order to suppress any non-Turkish heritage. During the Turkish Republican era, the words Kurdistan and Kurds were banned. The Turkish government had disguised the presence of the Kurds statistically by categorizing them as Mountain Turks.

Nişanyan estimates that 4,000 Kurdish geographical locations have been changed (Both Zazaki and Kurmanji). The people of Tunceli have been actively fighting to get their province reverted to its old Kurdish name "Dersim". Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) claimed they are working on what it called a “democratization package” that includes the restoration of the Kurdish name of the eastern province of Tunceli back to Dersim in early 2013, but there has been no updates or news of it since then.

Districts

Tunceli Province is divided into eight districts (capital district in bold):

• Çemişgezek
• Hozat
• Mazgirt
• Nazimiye
• Ovacık
• Pertek
• Pülümür
• Tunceli

Although a distinct province, Tunceli was administered from Elazığ until 1947.

Cities and towns

• Tunceli City 31,599 inh.
• Pertek City 11,869 inh.
• Hozat City 4,714 inh.
• Ovacık City 3,227 inh.
• Çemişgezek City 2,819 inh.
• Akpazar Town 1,769 inh.
• Mazgirt City 1,712 inh.
• Pülümür City 1,656 inh.
• Nazımiye City 1,636 inh.

Education

Ninety-eight percent of Tunceli's population has at least a primary school education, leading to one of the highest rates of literacy for a district within Turkey. In 1979/1980 Tunceli had the highest number of students attending universities as well as the top entry points until the only higher education school shut down and was converted to a military base.

Tunceli University was established on May 22, 2008. It has departments in international relations, economics, environmental protection engineering, industrial engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering and mechanical engineering.

References

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2. Area codes page of Turkish Telecom website Archived 2011-08-22 at the Wayback Machine (in Turkish)
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4. Album of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Archived 2013-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, Vol. 1, p. XXII, Dersim İli, 26.06.1926 tarih ve 404 sayılı Resmi Ceride'de yayımlanan 30.5.1926 tarih ve 877 sayılı Kanunla ilçeye dönüstürülerek Elazıg'a bağlanmıştır.
5. Paul J. White, Primitive rebels or revolutionary modernizers?: the Kurdish national movement in Turkey, Zed Books, 2000, ISBN 978-1-85649-822-7, p. 80.
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7. Victoria Arakelova, "The Zaza People as a New Ethno-Political Factor in the Region" - in – “Iran & the Caucasus: Research Papers from the Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies, Yerevan”, vols.3-4, 1999-2000, pp. 197-408.
8. G.S. Asatrian, N.Kh. Gevorgian. Zaza Miscellany: Notes on some Religious Customs and Institutions. – A Green Leaf: Papers in Honour of Prof. J. P. Asmussen (Acta Iranica - XII). Leiden, 1988, pp. 499-508
9. http://www.tuncelikulturturizm.gov.tr/TR,57296/celebi-aga-camii.html
10. http://www.tuncelikulturturizm.gov.tr/TR,57297/sagman-camii.html
11. http://www.tuncelikulturturizm.gov.tr/TR,57301/elti-hatun-camii.html
12. http://www.tuncelikulturturizm.gov.tr/TR,57308/mazgirt-kalesi.html
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-20. Retrieved 2016-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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16. http://www.kirdki.com/images/kitaphane/Meqale%202.pdf
17. Arakelova, Victoria; Grigorian, Christine. "The Halvori Vank': An Armenian Monastery and a Zaza Sanctuary". academia.edu. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
18. http://www.hum.uu.nl/medewerkers/m.vanbruinessen/publications/Dersim_rebellion.pdf
19. van Bruinessen, Martin (June 1994). "Genocide of the Kurds". In Charny, Israel W. (ed.). The Widening Circle of Genocide. New Brunswick, New York: Routledge. pp. 165–191. ISBN 9781351294072. Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
20. "The Dersim Massacre: Turkish Destruction of the Kurdish People in the Dersim Region". kurdistantribune.com. 10 May 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
21. Kharatyan, Hranush. "The search for identity in Dersim Part 2: the Alevized Armenians in Dersim". repairfuture.net. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
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27. ^ Boran, Sidar (12 August 2009). "Norşin ve Kürtçe isimler 99 yıldır yasak". Firatnews (in Turkish). Retrieved 13 January 2013.
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38. "Tunceli University Signs Protocol with 4 American Universities". turkishdailymail.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.

External links

• Official Homepage of the Province Governor
• Official Homepage of the Culture and Tourism head office
• Official Homepage of the police head office
• Official Homepage of the Education head office
• Official Homepage of the health head office
• Education

v t e Tunceli Province of Turkey
Districts	Çemişgezek Hozat Mazgirt Nazımiye Ovacık Pertek Pülümür Tunceli
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39°12′53″N 39°28′17″E / 39.21472°N 39.47139°E / 39.21472; 39.47139

• Tunceli Province
• Provinces of Turkey
• Turkish Kurdistan
• Zaza settlements
• Kurdish settlements