Turkey’s Taste of Mesopotamia: Anatolia’s Euphrates and Tigris Basin

Turkey’s Taste of Mesopotamia: Anatolia’s Euphrates and Tigris Basin.

Turkey’s Taste of Mesopotamia

There’s no mistaking it: south-eastern Anatolia is a world apart from the Turkey of carpet shops, tourist buses and holiday resorts. This opportunity for getting offthe-beaten track in one of the least-visited corners of Turkey was exactly what had drawn me to this region, with its scorched plains, jagged peaks, lakes like small inland seas, and cities steeped in history. South-eastern Anatolia is also considered apart because it is the bastion of Kurdish identity and culture, in addition to its pockets of distinctive Arab culture. Whether coming from the west or the east of Anatolia, you feel a perceptible change as you enter the basin of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, surrounded on three sides by mountains from where the headwaters of these two great rivers rise. Coming from Lake Van and the sparsely peopled steppes of the northeast, it’s as if summer arrives all of a sudden. The scenery becomes less harsh and more fertile as you drop down into the basin, and the realization dawns that you are entering the fabled lands of Mesopotamia. If coming from the west and the Mediterranean, you leave touristic Turkey behind you, as fellow travellers all but evaporate and large-scale resorts and tour buses vanish. This has always been a border area, where empires and civilizations met and clashed in the past. The Roman Empire made the Tigris River its eastern bastion, later to be extended further southeast into the Persian heartlands by the Byzantines in their heyday. With the birth of Islam in 632 AD, Byzantine control began to weaken under pressure from Arab incursions. After the Arabs came numerous waves of other invaders: crusaders, Armenians, Selcuk Turks, Mongols, Ottomans, and then finally the French, who invaded at the end of World War I in an attempt to extend their Syrian possessions further north as the Ottoman Empire imploded.

Today, ethnic Turks are often found to be in the minority, with Arab influence strong close to the Syrian border, while further east Kurds are increasingly in the majority. The further east you go, the more you will hear locals speaking Kurdish and talking of ‘Kurdistan’, especially in the Kurdish ‘capital’ of Diyarbakir. Indeed, in recent years this was the centre of Kurdish resistance by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) against the Turkish army, with pitched battles in the streets. Thankfully, things have improved a good deal since then, making it once more safe for visitors to return. On my own trip, I was working my way from east to west and so, as I descended into the river basin, my first port of call was the spectacular ruined settlement of Hasankeyf, built on high cliffs overlooking the Tigris River below. Today, the picturesque village of Hasankeyf clings to the rocks of a gorge, a sort of mini version of Cappadocia where some folk still live troglodyte lives. Originally founded by the Romans as an imposing eastern bastion of Asia Minor, it later became the Byzantine city of Cephe until this fell to the Arabs in 640. Hasankeyf was later made the capital of the Artukid Turcoman Empire in the 12th century, the same period when its once magnificent bridge across the Tigris was constructed. Today only the old pylons remain, testament to the days when this was one of the most important routes of the Silk Road from the lands to the east. Perched high above the Tigris is the ruined city of the Artukids and the crumbling palaces of Artukid kings. Occupied by the Byzantines in former times, the ruined mosque was clearly built on the site of a Byzantine church.

My Trip A look-out tower is perched right on the edge of the cliff giving superb views of the river and the remains of the ancient bridge below. Sadly, Hasankeyf lives in the shadow of a giant dam project that would drown the historic sight and also lead to the displacement of 37 villages. So, if you do ever pass this way, make sure you see this wonderful sight while you still can. Moving further west, you come to the city of Diyarbakir on the edge of the Tigris flood plain, the centre of Kurdish culture. The city is surrounded by still impressive black basalt city walls running for a total of 6km, first erected by the Romans, although the walls that remain today were built a few centuries later in early Byzantine times. I have mixed feelings about Diyarbakir, as it was on a walk down to the Ottoman Bridge of Ten Eyes over the Tigris and 3km from the city that I was attacked and robbed by a gang. So, I would tend to agree with many other Turks, that Diyarbakir deserves its dubious reputation. At the very least, travellers should avoid exploring the city and its surroundings on their own. Despite its reputation, Diyarbakir is the best base for visiting the ancient towns to the south such as Mardin. Mardin is perched on the side of a hill overlooked by a fortress, with the roasting Mesopotamian plains lying below, stretching towards the horizon and the border with Syria. Probably Roman in origin, Mardin owes its development to Assyrian Christians who arrived in the 3rd century. Sadly, its old churches have fallen into ruin and disuse since Turkey’s war of independence, and renewed emigration by the few remaining Christian families since the early 1990s. My guidebook spoke of donkeys being the main form a transport, but those days seem to have already passed. Today Mardin is interesting for its wonderful bazaar and breathtaking views across the Syrian plains.