Siirt

Folk poetry and poets: Anthologies contain no works by folk poets from the area. The mixed social structure and the features of the local languages are among the main reasons for this.

Manis (folk quatrains): The tradition of singing manis is not as lively and widespread in Siirt as in other provinces. When women mani singers come to weddings, they sing Arabic quatrains resembling manis to the groom and his brothers. These are mostly praises sung in the hope of a tip. As mani singers have grown fewer, and the quatrains have lost their appeal through constant repetition, the tradition has all but disappeared.

Proverbs and sayings used in Siirt: - Do not give a job to the unqualified. - Whoever fears the evening rain takes precautions in the afternoon. - A black dog does not turn white. - Inviting is custom; if they come, we are grateful; if they don't, it is a blessing. - To the poor: where from? To the rich: welcome. - The potter drinks water from a broken bowl. - Whoever keeps a camel keeps a wide door. - The lion the fox has tied, the mouse sets free. - When the ox falls, the knives are sharpened. - Whoever finds no one to consult should consult a stone. - Work Saturday and Sunday, get used to not being in need. - My life ended before I knew who my friend was. - May God not make the ignorant a master. - No trousers on his backside, yet he wants trouser cuffs. - Those who know, know; those who don't take it for a pinch of lentils. - When the valley is empty, the fox becomes governor. - Pity the land whose ruler is a child. - Turn the jug upside down: the daughter takes after her mother. - Some misfortunes make you laugh, some make you cry. - Better than nothing, even a sip of water is good. - For the sake of his desires he ended up in jail. - The father of the winner has gone to Aleppo. - Debt is worse than a sore eye. - The creditor does not strangle the debtor. - Pessimism darkens, happiness brightens. - The ewer became a gentleman, the broom a lady. - He prepared the fodder before the horse arrived. - I am looking for a loyal friend, for hard days. - Were it not for death, hardship would never end. - Ten people together could not kill one mouse. - At the end of every hardship there is relief. - God said, “Get up and I will get up with you,” not “Lie down and I will pour it into your throat.” - Whoever does not value their feet tires their hands. - God gave plums to a mouth with no teeth.

Poems of Siirt: In his poems of the East, Hilmi YAVUZ, who is from Siirt, voices the sorrow and pain of the East. The book, which opens with the legacy of the East, contains its loves, deaths, women, babies, exiles and migrant workers. These poems give the history of the East, its life today and the questions asked in the face of this sad, painful life. In his poem “Doğunun Bebeleri” (Babies of the East), the East is drawn in full with a realistic view: the babies of the East are not stone dolls / they spend pain on trachoma, daytime on labour, / the day on a future / say their mothers are the plain, their fathers the mountain / and their pacifiers rifles. After this poem, which tells of the East in a deep flow, the poet describes Siirt in his poem “Doğudan Bir Kent” (A City from the East). Siirt is a city that symbolises the pain, sorrow, past and present of the East. Siirt, a city of treeless graveyard childhood, natural lime, / there every well knows as much water as a saint / a city of clay for sorrow, sand for anger, / there oleander fills feeling from end to end / Siirt, a city of windy, epileptic youth, a caravanserai for all, / it picks over time like the rice of fear / its beggar, a blind narcissus city, / buries a dead honey in a bee without a comb / Siirt, a city of grapes as mirrors, old age of concrete tulips, / there even autumn withers, along with pain / exiles rot in the bedding cupboards / and death, like a great family, / scatters through its mansions (English rendering of the Turkish poems)

Source: http://www.siirtmanset.com/kultur-sanat/siirt-kulturu-hakkinda-bilmedikleriniz-h24.html

Surface surveys around Siirt have turned up finds from the Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods. The source also notes that the Akabe Road, said to date back 3,500 years, was in this city.

The city came under Islamic rule in the 7th century. In the Anatolian Seljuk period the region was first under Artuqid rule. The Great Mosque, built in 1129, is the city's main monument and was restored in 1965. Siirt joined the Ottoman lands with Yavuz Sultan Selim's (Selim I's) Chaldiran campaign and remained part of the sanjak of Bitlis until the Republic.

During the War of Independence the Müdafaa-i Hukuk Derneği (Society for the Defence of Rights) was active; Cemil Aydın attended the Erzurum Congress and brought its decisions back to the Siirt branch. The population, which declined from the 1890s on, fell from about 60,000 to about 30,000 in 1914.

By road
The east–west road between Diyarbakır and Siirt is the province's most important road link. The bus station is 1 km from the city centre and can be reached by bus company shuttles, municipal buses and city minibuses.

By rail
The railway, which runs parallel to the road via Diyarbakır and Batman, ends at Kurtalan. The station is 28 km from the city centre.

By air
A private airline runs flights to Istanbul via Ankara two days a week (Tuesday and Saturday).

Siirt's economy rests mainly on farming, livestock, handicrafts and, to some extent, industry. Its best-known product is the Siirt pistachio, which is protected by a geographical indication; according to statements by the governor's office, Siirt ranks first in Türkiye for pistachio production.

Pervari honey is another well-known product. Livestock farming includes hair goats, Angora goats, cattle and sheep. Blanket weaving is also part of local production.