Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.[ İl Belediyesi, Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 22 May 2023.] Its population is 365,274 (2022).
The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is a moderately sized trade centre and industrial city, although the economy has traditionally been based on agriculture. Rail repair shops and a thriving manufacturing industry of rugs, bricks, cement, and cotton and woolen Textile form the mainstays of the city's economy. The surrounding region is a cereal-producing area with large deposits of iron ore which are worked at Divriği.
Sivas is also a communications hub for the north–south and east–west trade routes to Iraq and Iran, respectively. With the development of railways, the city gained new economic importance as junction of important rail lines linking the cities of Ankara, Kayseri, Samsun, and Erzurum. The city is linked by Sivas Airport to Istanbul and İzmir. The popular name Sebastian derives from Sebastianòs, Σεβαστιανός, meaning someone from the city of Sebastia.
Name
The name of the city is a truncated form of its
Byzantine Greek name Sivasteia
from the
Koine Greek name Sebasteia (Σεβάστεια), meaning that it was named in honour of an emperor using the title
Sebastos, the Greek equivalent of
Augustus.
In Armenian it is (Սեբաստիա).
In Kurdish it is called Sêwas.
History
Ancient history
Little is known of Sivas' history prior to its emergence in the
Roman Empire period. In 64 BC, as part of his reorganization of
Anatolia after the Third Mithridatic War,
Pompey founded a city on the site called "Megalopolis".
[A.H.M. Jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1971), 159.] Numismatic evidence suggests that Megalopolis changed its name in the last years of the 1st century BC to "Sebaste", the feminine form of
Sebastos, the
Greek language equivalent of
Augustus.
The name "Sivas" is the Turkish language version deriving from the name Sebasteia, as the city was known during the late Byzantine Empire. Sebasteia became the capital of the province of Armenia Minor under the emperor Diocletian, was a town of some importance in the early history of the Christian Church; in the 4th century it was the home of Saint Blaise and Saint Peter of Sebaste, bishops of the town, and of Eustathius, one of the early founders of monasticism in Asia Minor. It was also the place of martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, also 4th century. In 536, Justinian I made it the capital of Armenia Secunda and refortified it.
Medieval history
The city was sacked by the troops of Muhammad ibn Marwan in 692 and became first a kleisoura and in 911 a theme. Under Nikephoros II Phokas, many Armenians settled in the region.
In the early 1020s,
Basil II delivered the region around Sebasteia in exchange for
Vaspurakan to King Seneqerim Ardzruni, who settled in Sebasteia with thousands of his Armenian followers.
Sebasteia was the first important city to be plundered by Turkish tribes in 1059.[Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century (University of California Press, 1971), p. 155] The city came under the domain of the Turkmen people Danishmend dynasty (1071–1174) after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. After the death of Danişmend Gazi, Sivas passed to Nizamettin Yağıbasan who won it after a struggle with Danişmend Gazi's successors. In 1174, the city was captured by Seljuk ruler Kilij Arslan II and periodically served as capital of the Seljuk empire along with Konya. Under Seljuk rule, Sivas was an important center of trade along the Silk Road and site of a citadel, along with mosques and Madrasa (Islamic educational institutions), four of which survive today and one of which houses the Sivas Museum. Then it passed to the Ilkhanids, Eretna and Kadı Burhanettin.
Ottoman period
The city was acquired by Ottoman Sultan
Bayezid I (1389–1402). In 1398,
Tamerlane swept into the area and his forces destroyed the city in 1400, after which it was recaptured by the Ottomans in 1408.
[Henry Hoyle Howorth: History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th Century, 2008, p. 166] Under the Ottomans, Sivas served as the administrative center of the Eyalet of Rum
until about the late 19th century. The Armenian Apostolic Church maintained six Armenian churches in Sivas, being the Meryemana, Surp Sarkis, Surp Minas, Surp Prgitsh, Surp Hagop, and Surp Kevork; four monasteries, Surp Nschan, Surp Hreshdagabed, Surp Anabad, and Surp Hntragadar; an Armenian Apostolic orphanage, and several schools. The Armenian Catholic Church and the
Latin Church also had one church and a metropolitan of Sebastea, as did the Greek Orthodox Church.
[Pars Tuğlacı: Tarih boyunca Batı Ermenileri tarihi. Cilt 3. (1891 – 1922), Pars Yayın ve Tic., Istanbul und Ankara 2004 , p. 43] Two Protestant churches and eight, mostly
Germans- and
American people-staffed, schools. During the genocide against Armenians as well as during the
Greek genocide from July 5, 1915 onward, the Christian community of Sivas was exterminated during deportations and mass executions.
[Raymond Kévorkian: Le Génocide des Arméniens; Odile Jacob, Paris 2006, p. 542]
Turkish Republic period
The
Sivas Congress (
Heyet-i Temsiliye) was held in this city 4–11 September 1919.
[Halil Gülbeyaz: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Vom Staatsgründer zum Mythos, Parthas, Berlin 2003, p. 87] With the arrival of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), the founder of the Turkish Republic, from
Amasya, the Congress of Sivas is considered a turning point in the formation of the Turkish Republic. It was at this congress that Atatürk's position as chair of the executive committee of the national resistance was confirmed (
see Turkish War of Independence). Sivas was depicted on the reverse of the Turkish 500
Turkish lira banknote of 1927–1939.
[ Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey . Banknote Museum: 1. Emission Group - Five Hundred Turkish Lira - I. Series. – Retrieved on 20 April 2009.]
On 2 July 1993, 37 participants in an Alevi cultural and literary festival were killed when a mob of demonstrators set fire to the Madımak hotel in Sivas during a violent protest by some 15,000 members of various radical Islamist groups against the presence of Aziz Nesin. The deaths resulted in the Turkish government taking a harder stance against religious fanaticism, militant Islam, and antisecularism. In late 2006, there was a campaign by the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Institute to convert the former hotel into a museum to commemorate the tragedy, now known as the Sivas massacre.
Demographics
In the mid 19th century, Sivas had 17,000 inhabitants, with a majority of Muslim Turks.
[ In 1914, Sivas had 45,000 inhabitants: a third were Armenians, the rest Turks and 1,500 Greeks.][ In July 1915, Armenian families were deported as part of the Armenian genocide.][ Greeks were removed as part of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey.][ In 1925, there were 3,000 Armenians left around Sivas.][ By 1929, Armenians numbered 1,200. In 1939 the total population was 35,000, including 2000 Armenians.][ In the 1970s, there were 300 Armenians.][ In the 1990s, there were 50 Armenians.]
Climate
Sivas has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dsb, Trewartha: Dcbo), with warm, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. The driest months are July and August and the wettest are April and May.
Economy
Historically, Sivas was known for producing cereal.
Sights
A cultural hub as well as an industrial one, Sivas contains many examples of 12th and 13th-century Seljuk architecture. The Great Mosque ( Ulu Cami) of Sivas was first built in 1197.
The city also contains some fine examples of the Ottoman architectural style. The most prominent example of Ottoman architecture in the city is the Kale Camii ("Citadel Mosque"), built in 1580 by Mehmet Pasha, an Ottoman vizier.
The modern heart of the city is Hükümet Square (Hükümet Meydanı, also called Konak Meydanı) located just next to the Governor's mansion. This area is also home to many of the city's high end hotels and restaurants. The city's shoppers usually head to Atatürk Avenue.
Sivas is also famous for its thermal springs which have a respectable percentage in the city's income. People believe that the water of these thermal springs can cure many illnesses. The most famous thermal areas are, Sıcak Çermik, Soğuk Çermik and Kangal Balıklı Kaplıca.
Sport
Football is the most popular sport: in the older districts above the city centre children often kick balls around in the evenings in the smallest streets. The city's football club is Sivasspor, which plays its games at the New Sivas 4 Eylül Stadium. The club currently plays in Süper Lig.
Cuisine
Specialties of Sivas are tarhana (a soup made using sour yogurt), kelecos (a sour potato soup made with yoghurt) and katmer, a flaky pastry-bread which can be consumed on its own. One distinct feature of Sivas cooking is the use of madimak, which is a local herb used similarly to spinach. Sivas kebabı is a variety of kebab originating from Sivas.
Mayors of Sivas
International relations
Sivas is twinned with:[ Uzaklar Yakinlaşti - Sivas Twin Towns ]
Notable people
See also
External links
