Batman, Turkey
Batman is a city and capital of Batman District in Batman Province, Turkey. It lies on a plateau, above sea level, near the confluence of the Batman River and the Tigris and had a population of 452,157 in 2021. It is populated by Kurds and considered to be part of Turkish Kurdistan.
The Batı Raman oil field, which is the largest oil field in Turkey, is located just outside the city. Batman has a local airport and a military airbase, which was used for transit of aircraft and helicopters in some search and rescue operations during the Gulf War.
Until the 1950s, Batman was a village, with a population of about 3,000. However, oil fields were discovered around it in the 1940s that resulted in a rapid development of the area and in the inflow of workforce from other parts of Turkey. In 1957, the village was renamed Batman, after the river namesake, received a city status and became a district center. Over the next 50 years, a significant amount of Batman's one-story buildings were rebuilt as multi-story buildings. As a result, its population grew to many times its previous size. A km long oil pipeline was built in 1967 from Batman to the port city of Dörtyol near the easternmost point of the Mediterranean coast in order to transport the crude oil from the Batman refinery. In 1990, the city became the capital of Batman Province.
Apart from oil, which is by far the dominant commodity of the region, Batman produces beverages, processed food, chemicals, furniture, footwear, machinery and transport equipment. A university was established in 2007, Batman University, and is part of the Erasmus Programme.
History
Elīḥā was historically inhabited by Syriac Orthodox Christians and Kurdish-speaking Armenians. In the Syriac Orthodox patriarchal register of dues of 1870, it was recorded that the village had 1 household, who paid 10 dues, and did not have a church or a priest. There were 15 Armenian hearths in 1880. There was an Armenian church of Surb Astvatsatsin. It was located in the kaza of Beşiri in the Diyarbakır sanjak in the Diyarbekir vilayet in. It is tentatively identified with the village of Yliga, which was populated by 100 Syriacs in 1914, according to the list presented to the Paris Peace Conference by the Assyro-Chaldean delegation. The Armenians were attacked by the Belek, Bekran, Şegro, and other Kurdish tribes in May 1915 amidst the Armenian genocide.The village became the capital of a sub-neighbourhood in 1937. It was renamed as Batman in 1957 and made a neighbourhood of Siirt Province. It became part of Batman Province upon its formation in 1990.
This administrative evolution reflected the rapid growth of the city owing to its oil extraction and refinement industries. Oil was found in the region in the 1930s and the oldest in Turkey refinery was built in 1955 to process crude oil of the Raman and Garzan areas. The refinery is operated by Tüpraş, it has a processing capacity of 1.1 million tonnes per year and storage capacity of 253 billion m3.
Development of the oil fields outside the city resulted in a rapid growth of Batman beginning in the 1950s. As a result, the city was declared a "Priority Region for Development". A high school was established in the city in 1975 and most one-story houses were rebuilt into multi-story buildings. However, the large inflow of labor for the oil industry resulted in construction of hundreds of unauthorized small buildings on the outskirts of the city. Because of the wind direction, most industrial complexes were located in the southern and south-eastern areas.
Kurdish–Turkish conflict
1990s
The oil-related development of Batman also resulted in relocation of ethnic Turks into the mostly Kurdish-populated Batman Province. This led to ethnic conflicts that escalated in the 1990s. More than 180 civilians were killed in the Batman city area by unidentified gunmen between 1992 and 1993.21st century
In June 2000, the then-Mayor Abdullah Akın attempted to rename up to 200 streets, and give them names of events from Kurdish history or of people who supported Kurdish culture. A Turkish court prohibited the renaming of some streets, but a few other names were allowed to be passed. In 2010, the city was the location for the first Kurdish film festival in Turkey. In the opening ceremony a letter of the imprisoned mayor Nejdet Atalay was read out in the Kurdish language, highlighting the struggles the Kurds have to go through in Turkey, which does not recognize the Kurdish language.2014–2015
During the 2014 Kobanî protests, which were part of the broader third phase of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict, local Kurdish youth affiliated with the YDG-H organized popular protests and riots in the city of Batman. This led to the arrest of several individuals, including children, accused of "spreading PKK propaganda." Furthermore, according to Amnesty International, several killings occurred during clashes between Kurdish youth affiliated with the YDG-H on one side, and Turkish police and members of the Sunni Islamist Hüda Par on the other.In November 2024, following the replacement of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party mayors with government-appointed trustees in Batman and several other Kurdish-majority towns, protests and riots erupted in the city.
Government
In the local elections in December 1977, a candidate who openly supported Kurdish rights, Edip Sönmez, won the elections. He was murdered in 1979. The Kurdish Mayors Abdullah Akın, Hüseyin Kalkan and Nejdet Atalay have all faced prosecutions and were in prison. The former mayor of Batman Nejdet Atalay, was a member of the Democratic Society Party until the Constitutional Court of Turkey banned that party on 11 December 2009 for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party. This decision banned him and 35 other members of the now-disbanded political party from joining any political party for five years. In 2014, Sabri Özdemir won the elections, but he was suspended as mayor in October 2015 for "self governance" remarks and later dismissed.In the local elections of March 2019, Mehmet Demir was elected Mayor of Batman, but on 23 February 2020, he was dismissed and a trustee was appointed. The kaymakam is Osman Bilici.
On 4 November, mayors from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party in the cities of Batman, Mardin and Halfeti were replaced with government-appointed administrators.
Demography
According to the national census data collected between 1990 and 2000, the population of Batman is growing at a rate of 5% per year. By 2008, it reached a population of 298,342, with a male to female ratio of 1.015. According to the 2000 census, about 50% of population is married and has about 5 children per family. About 5 people are living together in one house as family. The unemployment rate is about 20% for males and 10% for females. Kurdish is the main first-language in the city.Industry
Batman's primary commodity is oil, as there are multiple oil fields in the nearby area. These oil fields have spurred the creation of multiple pipelines to transmit oil to and from several important cities. Apart from oil, which is by far the dominant commodity of the region, Batman produces beverages, processed food, chemicals, furniture, footwear, machinery and transport equipment.Oil fields
Search for oil in the Batman Province started in 1935. On 20 April 1940, oil was found at a depth of at the Raman oil field, located south-east of Batman. The first experimental well began producing 10 tonnes of oil per day on 6 June 1940. The field was set to be expanded for commercial production by 1945, but the production was delayed to 1947 due to the lack of storage. To solve this, a small refinery was built at the site with a capacity of 9 tonnes/day in 1947, and in November 1948 a bigger refinery capable of processing up to 200 tonnes/day was completed in Batman. An even bigger refinery was completed in Batman in 1955. Several other oil fields were discovered later around Batman, the largest being Batı Raman oil field, which produces about of oil daily.Pipelines
A km long oil pipeline was built in 1967 from Batman to Dörtyol, a port city located near the easternmost point of the Mediterranean coast, to transport the crude oil from the Batman region. The pipeline has an annual capacity of 3.5 million tonnes and was transporting about in the 1990s and about twice less between 2003 and 2007. Another, short pipeline long connected Batman with Şelmo, which is the location of the second largest oil field in Turkey. It transferred between 1.5 and of oil per year between the years of 1990 and 2007. Both pipelines are operated by BOTAŞ.Culture
Education
According to the census of 2000, 15% males and 43% females of Batman were categorised as illiterate. Within the literate part, about 33% males and 29% females have not finished secondary school, 3.3% males and 0.9% females had university education, and about 13% males and 3.8% females had completed a high-school or an equivalent program. There are 71 elementary and 12 high schools in Batman.Batman University
The city also has a university, Batman University, which was founded on 27 May 2007. It employs about 140 staff members and has the faculties of Science and Letters, Technical Education, and Engineering, which mostly cover topics about engineering, business, and administration. About 2,500 students, who come from different parts of Turkey, study at the university. The university is part of the Erasmus foreign student exchange program.Sport
is the most popular sport in Batman. The city has a professional football club, Batman Petrolspor, which was formed in 1960 and plays in the third division TFF Third League. The club was named after the petroleum industry of the city. Another local football team, 72 Batmanspor, participates in the Amateur League. There is a football stadium in Batman, which has a seating capacity of 4,900 spectators.Another popular sport is wrestling. Freestyle wrestlers from Batman have won national competitions, and Ali Riza Alan won gold in 1970 and silver in 1974 in world championships in the weight category under. The major sport venue of Batman, Atatürk Sports Hall, can accommodate 1,000 spectators and supports many athletics, such as badminton, basketball, gymnastics, wrestling, folk dance, handball, martial arts, table tennis, volleyball and swimming.