Lice (pronounced ), ( ku, Licê, ota, ليجه,) is a Kurdish-populated town in

Diyarbakır Province Diyarbakır Province ( tr, Diyarbakır ili, Zazaki: Suke Diyarbekır ku, Parêzgeha Amedê) is a province in southeastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km2 and its population is 1,528,958. The provincial capital is the cit ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

. The population was 9,644 in 2010. It is located from the capital,

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortres ...

. In the local elections in March 2019 Tarık Mercan from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was elected mayor. As the current District Governor was appointed Cevdet Bakkal.

History

Lice was the headquarters of the 5th Army Corps of the Turkish army during the Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925 and it was a focal point at the beginning of the rebellion. The town was captured on the 20 February by the troops loyal to

Sheikh Said Sheikh Said of Palu, Elazığ, Palu ( ku, شێخ سەعید, translit=Şêx Seîd, 1865 – June 29, 1925) was a Kurds, Kurdish sheikh, the main leader of the Sheikh Said rebellion and a Sheikh of the Naqshbandi Tariqa, order. He was born in ...

. The Kurdish Zirki tribe in the Lice district also supported the Sheik Said rebellion and as a reprisal, the tribes villages Çaylarbaşı, Kurlu, Alataş, Mat-bur and Çağlayan have been demolished and the residing population was killed by troops of the Turkish army. It was reported that the troops of the Turkish Major Ali Haydar have wiped out the majority of the Sheikhs. On 6 September 1975, Lice was struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7. Around 1.500 people were killed in Lice according to the mayor. The

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

or PKK, was founded in the village of Fis, in Lice district on November 27, 1978. The Lice massacre, during which the

Turkish army The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

demolished large parts of the town in reprisal of the death of an Jandarma officer, took place from October 20–23, 1993. Between 2018 and 2019 localities in the Lice district have often been targeted with

curfews A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...

declared by the Turkish authorities, which wanted to execute security operations in the district. The Kurdish castle of

Ataq Ataq ( ar, عتق), alternately spelled Attaq, is a small city and the capital of Shabwah Governorate in Yemen. Ataq is 458 km south east of Sanaa. The difference in elevation of the city is about 70 m with generally partially flat topography ...

used to exist near the modern Lice.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Diyarbakır Province Districts of Diyarbakır Province Kurdish settlements in Turkey