Midyat

Midyat
Mor Barsawmo Syriac Orthodox Church. Although now a minority of less than 10% of the population, Christian churches under long term protection of Turks now dominate the skyline of Midyat.
Midyat
Coordinates:
Country	Turkey
Province	Mardin
Government
• Mayor	Şehmus Nasıroğlu (AKP)
• Kaymakam	Fatih Akkaya
Area
• District	1,054.25 km2 (407.05 sq mi)
Population (2012)
• Urban	60,425
• District	105,542
• District density	100/km2 (260/sq mi)
Post code	47500
Website	www.midyat.bel.tr

Midyat (Kurdish: Midyad‎, Syriac: ܡܕܝܕ Mëḏyaḏ or Miḏyôyo in the local Turoyo dialect, Arabic: مديات‎‎) is a town in Mardin Province of Turkey. The ancient city is the center of a centuries-old Hurrian/Hurrian town in Southeast-Turkey, widely familiar under its Syriac name Tur Abdin. A cognate of the name Midyat is first encountered in an inscription of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashur-nasir-pal II (883-859 B.C.). This royal text depicts how Assyrian forces conquered the city and its surrounding villages. In its long history, the city of Midyat has remained politically subjected by various rulers - from the Assyrian Empire to the modern Turks.

History

The history of Midyat can be traced back to the Hurrians during the 3rd millennium. Ninth century BC Assyrian tablets refer to Midyat as Matiate, or city of caves due to the caves at eleth 3 km away from the city where the earliest inhabitants lived. Many different empires had ruled over Midyat including the Mitannians, Assyrians, Armenians, Medes, Persia, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Abbasids, Seljuks and Ottomans.

Midyat is a historic center of Assyrians in Turkey, and as late as the Assyrian Genocide took up a majority in the city. During the Gastarbeiter era, The Assyrian population of the city started to gradually diminish from immigration, but the community was still very large. The Assyrians of Tur Abdin were the only significant population of Christians outside of Istanbul, until 1979, when panic overtook the still Assyrian city, because a major Assyrian figure in the City of Dargecit was assassinated and replaced with a Kurd. The Assyrians up until then had control over the local government, and could therefore unify and have power in the case of threats. Soon after the takeover, local Mhallami and Kurdish inhabitants started immigrating into the traditionally Assyrian areas, causing a demographic imbalance and, along with the start of the Turkey-PKK conflict a few years later in 1984, was a death blow to the community not only here, but in all of Tur Abdin. From a population in 1975 of 50,000, taking up 10% of Mardin provinces demographic barely 2,000 were left by the end of the conflict in 1999. Now only around 3-5,000 live in Tur Abdin, with the other 15-17,000 living in Istanbul.

The churches and houses belonging to Christians have been preserved although many of them are empty, with their owners living away in Europe. At present some 130 Assyrian Christians families continue to live in Midyat permanently, and they have been joined by at least 300 Syrian refugees fleeing the Syrian Civil War.

Quarters

The City has many distinguishable features which can make it easy to tell which areas are which. The city of Midyat is in fact two settlements, one to the east and one to the west. This is noticeable even today as the old towns, and their clustered street plans, are very far apart, therefore showing that later on the area was connected when more buildings were built in between them. The Assyrian part of the City is in the west, and is distinguishable by the amount of older buildings,churches, and deterioration due to abandonment. The Kurdish and Mhlammi parts are all of the buildings to the east of the Assyrian old town.

From late Ottoman time up to modern time Old Midyat was divided into following quarters (in Syriac: Aš šawṯawoṯo d Mëḏyaḏ):

• Qašrowat
• Barlaṭe
• Griġowat
• Baḥdowat
• Zatte Čalma
• Zabuq
• Malke Mire
• Ġannowat
• Sacidowat
• Čëfčaqa

Economy

Midyat is the regional center of commerce.The City makes handicrafts such as carpets, towels and other cloth goods. More specific to the city is its silver crafts called telkari, which are handcrafted filigreed ornaments. Another staple in the Midyat market is its bulgur, which is a cereal food derived from wheat. Tourism in Midyat, however dwarfed compared to in Mardin, is an important part of the economy as well.

Climate

Midyat part of the province of Mardin has a semi-arid climate with very hot and dry summers and cold, wet, and occasionally snowy winters. Temperatures in summer usually increase to 40 °C - 50 °C (104 °F - 122 °F) due to Mardin being situated right next to the border of Syria. Snowfall is quite common between the months of December and March, snowing for a week or two. Mardin has over 3000 hours of sun per year. The highest recorded temperature is +48.8 °C.

Climate data for Mardin, Midyat
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	6.1 (43)	7.5 (45.5)	12.0 (53.6)	17.7 (63.9)	24.2 (75.6)	30.9 (87.6)	35.3 (95.5)	34.9 (94.8)	30.4 (86.7)	23.1 (73.6)	14.4 (57.9)	8.2 (46.8)	20.39 (68.71)
Daily mean °C (°F)	3.1 (37.6)	4.1 (39.4)	8.2 (46.8)	13.7 (56.7)	19.7 (67.5)	25.8 (78.4)	30.0 (86)	29.6 (85.3)	25.2 (77.4)	18.5 (65.3)	10.7 (51.3)	5.2 (41.4)	16.15 (61.09)
Average low °C (°F)	0.6 (33.1)	1.3 (34.3)	4.7 (40.5)	9.9 (49.8)	15.1 (59.2)	20.2 (68.4)	24.6 (76.3)	24.6 (76.3)	20.6 (69.1)	14.6 (58.3)	7.7 (45.9)	2.7 (36.9)	12.22 (54.01)
Average precipitation mm (inches)	99.8 (3.929)	110.7 (4.358)	94.6 (3.724)	75.5 (2.972)	37.7 (1.484)	8.3 (0.327)	3.3 (0.13)	1.2 (0.047)	4.1 (0.161)	33.3 (1.311)	68.7 (2.705)	104.2 (4.102)	641.4 (25.25)
Average rainy days	10.6	10.6	10.7	9.9	6.6	1.7	0.5	0.2	0.7	5.3	7.4	10.2	74.4
Mean monthly sunshine hours	139.5	142.8	189.1	222	310	375	396.8	368.9	315	238.7	174	136.4	3,008.2
Source: Devlet Meteoroloji İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü [1]

References:

Bargello, Fehmi, Min hemstad Midyat. Linköping: 2015.

Bargello, Fehmi, I flyktens kölvatten. Jönköping: 1998.

Hollerweger, Hans, Turabdin. Austria: 1999.

External links

• Study on the spoken Arabic of Midyat, in the Arabic language