Tunceli

Tunceli

The Tunceli in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The province was named Dersim Province (Dersim vilayeti ), then demoted district (Dersim kazası ) and incorporated into Elâzığ Province in 1926.Finally it was changed to Tunceli Province on January 4, 1936 with 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 this name.

The capital city is Tunceli. The name of the provincial capital, Kalan, was then officially changed to match with the province’s name. Its 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 km2 (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 km². 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 and impressive natural scenery, especially in Munzur Valley National Park, the largest national park of Turkey.

Tunceli is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude. The history of the province stretches back to antiquity. It has been 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 the Persian Emperor Darius. The area that would become Tunceli 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 Sassanid 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 (subprovince) of Hozat, depending the city and the vilayet of Mamuret-ül Aziz (Elazığ today), with the exception of the actual district of Pülümür, which depended on the neighboring sancak of Erzincan, then a part of the Vilayet of Erzurum. 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 Dersim Rebellion. The center of the province has been fixed in the town of Kalan and the district of Pülümür has been added within the boundaries of the new province.