Elazig
Encyclopedia
Elâzığ is a city in Eastern Anatolia
Eastern Anatolia Region
The Eastern Anatolia Region is one of seven non-administrative subdivisions of Turkey and encompasses its eastern provinces.The region and the name "Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi" were first defined at the First Geography Congress in 1941. It has the highest average altitude, largest geographical area, and...

, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and the seat of Elâzığ Province
Elazig Province
Elâzığ Province is a province of Turkey with its seat in the city of Elâzığ. The source of the Euphrates river is located in this province.The province has a population of 552,646 as of 2010...

. It has a population of
331,479 according to the 2010 census, and the plain on which the city extends has an altitude of 1067 metres.

Elâzığ initially developed as an extension of the historic city of Harput, which was situated on a hill and difficult to access in winter.

Name

The ancient town and citadel of Kharput (Pronounced Kharberd, in Eastern Armenian
Eastern Armenian language
Eastern Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of modern Armenian , the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form pluricentric language....

, and Harput in Western Armenian
Western Armenian language
Western Armenian is one of the two standardized forms of modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. The two standard forms form a pluricentric language. For historical reasons explained below, generally speaking, Western Armenian is used outside the Republic of Armenia, while Eastern...

) which means "burnt fortress" in Armenian
Armenian language
The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

, was built by the first Armenian
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

 kings about five kilometers from modern Elâzığ.

In the 19th century, under the reign of Mahmud II
Mahmud II
Mahmud II was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. He was born in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, the son of Sultan Abdulhamid I...

, the governor Reşid Mehmed Pasha
Resid Mehmed Pasha
- Early life :Reşid Mehmed was born in Georgia, the son of a Greek Orthodox priest. As a child, he was captured as a slave by the Turks, and brought to the service of the then Kapudan Pasha Husrev Pasha. His intelligence and ability impressed his master, and secured his rapid rise...

 started an expansion of Mezre located on the plain below Kharput. During the reign of Sultan Abdülazîz, military barracks, a hospital and a governor's mansion were built to accommodate the seat of a new vilâyet (province). The town was renamed "Mamuretülaziz" ( made prosperous by Aziz in Ottoman Turkish) in 1866 on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the enthronement of Sultan Abdülaziz
Abdülâziz
Abdülaziz I or Abd Al-Aziz, His Imperial Majesty was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned between 25 June 1861 and 30 May 1876...

, although he was not the initial founder. In time the city became known as "Elâzîz" due to its ease of pronunciation. On November 17, 1937, President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

 changed the name of the city to "Elazık". However, since this was hard to pronounce in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

, on December 10, 1937 the government changed the city's name to its final form, "Elâzığ".

History

The city of Elâzığ was founded among the skirts of the hill on which the historical Harput Castle was constructed in Eastern Anatolia. According to the present historical sources, the most ancient inhabitants of Harput was the Hurrian nation who settled in the Eastern Anatolia Region after 2000 B.C. Harput and vicinity had entered under the reign of Turkish nation in the year 1085 as the outcome of the victorious Malazgirt battle August,26 in 1071. The Çubukoğulları
Beylik of Çubukoğulları
Beylik of Çubukoğulları was a small and short-lived principality in East Anatolia, Turkey between 1085 and 1112.Çubuk was a commander in the Seljuk army. After the battle of Malazgirt in 1071, he fought in East Anatolia and was tasked with capturing the important fort of Harput . He captured the...

, Artuqids, Aq Qoyuns and Ottomans had reigned in the region

The area around Elâzığ has been settled for centuries. An ancient town and citadel called Kharput (Kharpert), which means "rocky fortress" in Armenian, was built by the first Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

n kings about five kilometers from modern Elâzığ. However, very little written material about this city reached our day. Harput is still settled today, but due to its high elevation and lack of water, it is slowly in the process of being abandoned, with most residents moving to Elâzığ although Harput still has a few thousand inhabitants.

It is possible that Harput stands on or is near the site of Carcathio-certa in Sophene, reached by Corbulo in A.D. 65. The early Muslim geographers knew it as Hisn Ziyad, but the Armenian name, Khartabirt or Kharbirt, whence Kharput and Harput, was generally adopted in time.

William of Tyre
William of Tyre
William of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...

 wrote that Joscelin I, Count of Edessa (Jocelyn) of Courtenay, and King Baldwin II of Jerusalem
Baldwin II of Jerusalem
Baldwin II of Jerusalem , formerly Baldwin II of Edessa, also called Baldwin of Bourcq, born Baldwin of Rethel was the second count of Edessa from 1100 to 1118, and the third king of Jerusalem from 1118 until his death.-Ancestry:Baldwin was the son of Hugh, count of Rethel, and his wife Melisende,...

 were prisoners of the Amir Balak in Kharput's castle and that they were rescued by their Armenian allies. William of Tyre calls the place Quart Piert or Pierre.

Christian communities

According to tradition, the Mart Maryam Church, a (Syriac Orthodox
Syriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....

) sanctuary, was the first church in Harput, built in 179 A.D.

Harput was the seat of a Syrian Orthodox bishop as early as the eleventh century, whose diocese was initially called Hisn Ziyad and later Harput. The last Syrian Orthodox bishop of Harput, Cyril Mansur, was murdered along with many of the town's Christians during the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...

 and Assyrian Genocide
Assyrian genocide
The Assyrian Genocide refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac population of the Ottoman Empire during the 1890s, the First World War, and the period of 1922-1925...

 of 1915.

An Armenian Catholic diocese of Kharput
Diocese of Kharput
The Diocese of Kharput was a diocese of he Armenian Catholic Church created in 1850. It is now a titular see.Its seat is now the Turkish town of Elazığ....

 was created in 1850.

Elâzığ under the Republic of Turkey

Year Population
1914 10,000 - 12,000
1927 20,052
1940 25,465
1945 23,695
1950 29,317
1955 41,667
1960 60,289
1965 78,605
1970 107,364
1975 131,415
2008 389,774

From its foundation until the end of the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the city's growth was somewhat irregular. While the town probably consisted of 10 to 12,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the first census conducted by the Republic of Turkey in 1927 counted 20,052 inhabitants. This figure continued to rise to reach 25,465 in 1940, but the general shortages suffered during the World War II years by the neutral Turkey led to an exodus of population, reducing the population to 23,635. From then onward, the city has gone through uninterrupted growth. Harput, in the meantime, acquired the status of a township separated from Elâzığ with a population running around two thousand souls.

Economy

The most important factor determining the growth of Elâzığ since the 1970s has been the construction of Keban Dam
Keban Dam
The Keban Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates, located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. The dam was the first and most upstream of several large-scale dams to be built on the Euphrates by Turkey...

 and the hydroelectric power plant (5,871,000 kwh/year) with its boulder at a distance of 45 km from the city and the resulting huge dam reservoir. This reservoir covers an area of 68,000 hectares and it flooded around a hundred villages with a hundred others losing a large part of their agricultural lands. Around 20,000 people were forced to move as a consequence of the dam's construction.

Industries connected with the dam such as a cement mill
Cement mill
A cement mill is the equipment used to grind the hard, nodular clinker from the cement kiln into the fine grey powder that is cement...

 contributed to the growth and, as Ayalon and Sharon points out, to a striking gap between the male and female populations in Elâzığ, the former outnumbering the latter by some eight thousand throughout the seventies, which was a consequence of the move into and settlement in the city of workers employed in the construction effort.

Many of those who were forced to move with the construction of the dam chose to settle in Elâzığ center and the state indemnities paid were invested in houses in Elâzığ or laid a base for small businesses. However, the Keban Dam affected more than 30,000 people and at least 212 villages. Over 80% of families in zones affected by the Keban dam were landless peasants and thus ineligible to receive compensation or peasants with little land who would receive very little money (Koyunlu 1982: 250)

The region of Elâzığ has much mineral wealth, a healthy climate and a fertile soil. Extraction of chrome
Chromium
Chromium is a chemical element which has the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6. It is a steely-gray, lustrous, hard metal that takes a high polish and has a high melting point. It is also odorless, tasteless, and malleable...

 is an important mining activity.

The dam, the industry and the mining accounts for the high level of urbanization (42.7% in 1970) surpassing the average levels for Eastern Anatolia
Eastern Anatolia Region
The Eastern Anatolia Region is one of seven non-administrative subdivisions of Turkey and encompasses its eastern provinces.The region and the name "Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi" were first defined at the First Geography Congress in 1941. It has the highest average altitude, largest geographical area, and...

.

The main agricultural activity of the area centers around vineyards and Elâzığ also serves as a market hub for other agricultural products. The state-run vineyards of Elâzığ is notable for its production of Buzbağ, a full-flavored red wine.

Elâzığ today is the capital of the Elâzığ province
Provinces of Turkey
Turkey is divided into 81 provinces, called il in Turkish .A province is administered by an appointed governor , and was formerly termed a "governorate" ....

, a bustling city with a university and an industrial base, although historic monuments are understandably scarce. The exception is of course the ancient Harput citadel and town, a dependency of the greater municipality of Elâzığ today situated three miles to the north of the city center. The population of Elâzığ consists of Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...

, Zazas
Zaza people
The Zazas, Kird, Kirmanc or Dimilis are an ethnic Iranic people whose native language is Zazaki spoken in eastern Anatolia. They primarily live in the eastern Anatolian provinces, such as Adıyaman, Aksaray, Batman, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzurum, Erzincan , Gumushane, Kars, Malatya, Mus,...

 and Azeris
Azerbaijani people
The Azerbaijanis are a Turkic-speaking people living mainly in northwestern Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as in the neighbourhood states, Georgia, Russia and formerly Armenia. Commonly referred to as Azeris or Azerbaijani Turks , they also live in a wider area from the Caucasus to...

.

Geography

Elâzığ is situated at the northwestern corner of a 30-mile-long valley, known locally as Uluova (literally the Great Valley). The area's Armenians called this valley "Vosgetashd" (the Golden Plain). Its altitude is 3,300 feet: latitude and longitude are respectively: 38 degrees and 41 minutes North, and 39 degrees and 14 minutes East. Elâzığ Province is surrounded by the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...

 in the north, and since the completion of Keban Dam
Keban Dam
The Keban Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Euphrates, located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. The dam was the first and most upstream of several large-scale dams to be built on the Euphrates by Turkey...

 the rivers came to cover almost ten percent of the surface area (826 km²) of the province (8,455 km²). Elâzığ's adjacent province borders are with: Tunceli (North), Erzincan (North-West), Bingöl (East), Diyarbakır (South), and Malatya (West).

Climate

Elâzığ has a continental climate
Continental climate
Continental climate is a climate characterized by important annual variation in temperature due to the lack of significant bodies of water nearby...

 (Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...

: Dsa) with cold and snowy winters and hot and dry summers. However, due to the natural and artificial lakes around the city, some partial variations from this climate is experienced.

Notable people from Elâzığ

  • Mehmet Ağar
    Mehmet Agar
    Mehmet Kemal Ağar is a Turkish former police chief, politician, government minister and leader of the Democratic Party.-Early years:...

     — Former leader of the DYP
  • Kenan Çoban
    Kenan Çoban
    Kenan Çoban is a Turkish actor who is known for playing the role of Abdülhey in the Valley of the Wolves.-Actor:-External links:* *...

     — Turkish actor, known as abdulhey in "Valley of the Wolves
    Valley of the Wolves
    Valley of the Wolves is a popular Turkish media franchise created by Osman Sınav, which has been very popular obtaining high ratings for the television series and one of the highest box office returns in the history of the Turkish cinema for the first movie.The franchise has also been very...

    "
  • Vedat Dalokay
    Vedat Dalokay
    Vedat Ali Dalokay was a renowned Turkish architect and a former mayor of Ankara.-Early life:He was born in Elazığ, Turkey in 1927 to İbrahim Bey from Pertek. He completed his elementary and secondary education in the same city...

     — Turkish architect and a former mayor of Ankara
  • Reha Denemeç
    Reha Denemeç
    Reha Denemeç is a Co-founder, Board Member and Deputy Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Turkey...

     — Co-founder of the Justice and Development Party
    Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
    The Justice and Development Party , abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a centre-right political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament...

     (AKP)
  • Balak Gazi — The Turkish commander
  • J. Michael Hagopian
    J. Michael Hagopian
    Jakob Michael Hagopian , was an Armenian-American Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Armenian Genocide survivor.-Biography:Hagopian was born to an Armenian family on 20 October 1913, in Kharpert, Ottoman Empire...

     - Armenian-American documentary filmmaker
  • Hamastegh
    Hamastegh
    Hamastegh was a poet and writer of Armenian diaspora....

     - (d. 1966) Armenian writer, student of Tlgadintzi
  • Ahmet Kabaklı  - (d. 2001) Turkish writer
  • Esat Kabaklı — Turkish Musician
  • Dursun Karataş
    Dursun Karatas
    Dursun Karataş was the founding leader of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front in Turkey....

    — Founder and leader of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front (DHKP-C)
  • Fatih Kısaparmak — Turkish Musician
  • Stephen P. Mugar
    Stephen P. Mugar
    Stephen P. Mugar, 1901-1982, founder of the Star Market chain of supermarkets in New England, philanthropist and most prominent member of the Mugar family of Greater Boston, was born March 5, 1901, in Kharpert in the former Ottoman Empire now Turkey, of Armenian parents and died October 16, 1982,...

     - (d. 1982) Armenian-American businessman and entrepreneur
  • Shahan Natalie
    Shahan Natalie
    Shahan Natalie was a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Bureau and the principal organizer of Operation Nemesis wherein the Turkish masterminds of the Armenian Genocide were assassinated...

     — (d. 1983), Armenian writer and principal organizer of Operation Nemesis
    Operation Nemesis
    Operation Nemesis is the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's code-name for a covert operation in early 1920s to assassinate the Turkish planners of the Armenian Genocide. Those involved with the planning and execution of the operation were survivors of the massacres...

  • Catholicos Nerses IV — (d. 1173), Armenian church leader, theologian and writer
  • Erkan Oğur
    Erkan Ogur
    Erkan Oğur , or Erkan Ogur in the West, is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.Martinelli, op. cit.Unfretted, op. cit. A composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk...

     — Turkish Musician
  • Necati Şaşmaz
    Necati Sasmaz
    Necati Şaşmaz is a Turkish actor, who starred in the popular television series Kurtlar Vadisi and its movie spin-offs, including Kurtlar Vadisi Irak ....

     — Star of the "Valley of the Wolves
    Valley of the Wolves
    Valley of the Wolves is a popular Turkish media franchise created by Osman Sınav, which has been very popular obtaining high ratings for the television series and one of the highest box office returns in the history of the Turkish cinema for the first movie.The franchise has also been very...

    " TV series and the 2006 movie "Valley of the Wolves Iraq
    Valley of the Wolves Iraq
    Valley of the Wolves: Iraq is a 2006 Turkish action film, directed by Serdar Akar, about a Turkish commando team which goes to Iraq to track down the US military commander responsible for the Hood event....

    "
  • Raci Şaşmaz
    Raci Şaşmaz
    Raci Şaşmaz is a Turkish film producer, writer and actor.Necati Şaşmaz is his brother.-Filmography:* The Hunter writer * Ekmek Teknesi producer & writer...

     — Scriptwriter and producer of the "Valley of the Wolves
    Valley of the Wolves
    Valley of the Wolves is a popular Turkish media franchise created by Osman Sınav, which has been very popular obtaining high ratings for the television series and one of the highest box office returns in the history of the Turkish cinema for the first movie.The franchise has also been very...

    " and other movies and TV series
  • Mümtaz Sevinç
    Mümtaz Sevinç
    Mümtaz Sevinç is a Turkish actor who has taken part in theater acting as well as many roles in TV's and Movies. He has graduated from Hacettepe University Faculty of Engineering Physics Department and in 1978 began working in the State Theater. In 1994, began to take part in Istanbul State...

     — Turkish actor
  • Tlgadintsi
    Tlgadintsi
    Tlgadintsi or Tlkatintsi was an Armenian writer and teacher, one of the prominent representatives of rural literature....

     (Hovhannes Haroutiunian) - (d. 1915) Armenian writer
  • Vahan Totovents
    Vahan Totovents
    -Biography:Vahan Totovents was born in Kharpert . He studied in Armenia and Istanbul, then at Wisconsin University which he finished in 1915....

     - (d. 1938) Armenian writer, student of Tlgadintzi
  • Namık Kemal Yolga
    Namik Kemal Yolga
    Namık Kemal Yolga was a Turkish diplomat and statesman, known as the Turkish Schindler. During World War II, Yolga was the Vice-Consul at the Turkish Embassy in Paris, France...

     — Turkish Diplomat and statesman
  • Aşur Yusuf - (d.1915) Assyrian
    Assyrian people
    The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...

     journalist and teacher at the Euphrates College
  • Rupen Zartarian
    Rupen Zartarian
    Rupen Zartarian or Roupen Zartarian was an Armenian writer, educator, and political activist. He was killed by Turkish authorities during the Armenian Genocide.- Life :...

     - (d. 1915) Armenian writer, student of Tlgadintsi

Attractions

  • Fırat Üniversitesi (University of Euphrates)
  • Harput Kalesi (Harput Castle)
  • Buzluk Mağarası (Buzluk Cave)
  • Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography
  • Hazar Gölü (Lake Hazar
    Lake Hazar
    Lake Hazar is a lake in the Taurus Mountains, southeast of Elazig, notable as the source of the Tigris....

    )
  • Hazarbaba Ski Centre
  • Historic Mosques (Cami in Turkish) and Shrines (Türbe in Turkish)
    • Ulu Camii: Built by Artuqid Sultan Fahrettin Karaaslan in 1156. It is one of the oldest and important structures in Anatolia
    • Sarahatun Camii (also known as Sarayhatun Cami): Built by Sara Hatun, mother of Ak Koyunlu
      Ak Koyunlu
      The Aq Qoyunlu or Ak Koyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans , was an Sunni Oghuz Turkic tribal federation that ruled parts of present-day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and Iran from 1378 to 1508.-History:According to chronicles from the Byzantine Empire, the Aq Qoyunlu...

       Sultan Bahadır Han (also known as Uzun Hasan), in 1465 as a small mosque. It was renovated in 1585 and 1843.
    • Kurşunlu Camii: Built between 1738 and 1739 in Harput during the Ottoman
      Ottoman Empire
      The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

       era.
    • Alacalı Camii
    • Ağa Camii: built in 1559.
    • Arap Baba Mescidi ve Türbesi: Built during the reign of Seljuks Sultan Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev III (Son of Kılıçarslan IV) in 1279. The shrine contains a mummified body which is known as Arap Baba among commons.
    • Fetih Ahmet Baba Türbesi (Shrine of Fetih Ahmed)
    • Mansur Baba Türbesi

Sources

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  • Fiey, J. M., Pour un Oriens Christianus novus; répertoire des diocèses Syriaques orientaux et occidentaux (Beirut, 1993)
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