Siverek

Siverek (from Armenian: Սեւավերակ, romanized: Sevaverag, lit. 'black ruins',[2] Kurdish: Sêwreg)[3] is a municipality and district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey.[4] Its area is 3,936 km2,[5] and its population is 267,942 (2022).[1] Siverek is in the Şanlıurfa province but is geographically closer to the large city of Diyarbakır (approx. 83 km). Siverek was historically known in medieval Arabic as Hisn ar-Ran (Arabic: حصن الران), which was corrupted into Greek as Chasanara (Greek: Χασαναρᾶ), as found in the Escorial Taktikon.[6] The town came under Byzantine control sometime after 956 and had become the seat of a strategos by the early 970s.[6] Together with Edessa, Gargar, Samosata and Hisn Mansur formed part of the Byzantine defence system up to the 1060s when 200 Frankish horsemen were stationed there.[7] In the Ottoman Empire period, Siverek was within the Diyarbekir vilayet, and it had several Christian settlements.[8]