Eastern Anatolia Region

Excavation work has been continuing on Van's Çavu?tepe Castle, which dates back to the Urartian era and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the province.

Suspected militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) have opened fire on a police officer?s car in the eastern province of Tunceli, killing the officer and wounding his daughter.

Some 127 zones in 15 provinces in eastern Turkey have so far been declared "temporary military secure zones," amid tightened security measures against outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attacks.

While 15 of the zones have been reopened to civilian access after being closed, 111 areas continue to be out-of-bounds for civilians trying to enter.

A team of 40 scientists from various universities are set to conduct research to unearth the 5,000-year history of Van Fortress in southeast Turkey Excavations around the ancient fortress in the southeastern city of Van, led by the head of Istanbul University's Van Regional History and Archeology Research Center, Professor Erkan Konyar, have recently started to look into the site's 5,000

One soldier and four civilians were wounded in a late Aug. 13 bomb attack by suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) on a military post in the eastern province of Tunceli.

Excavation and restoration works at the Ho?ap Castle in the eastern province of Van's Gürp?nar district, have revealed 250-year-old cheese. 

Works have been carried out in the castle, which was built in the 16th century on the foundation of an Urartian castle and served as a palace for many years, by a team of people from Van Yüzüncü Y?l University's department of Art History. 

After 2700 years the walls of Urartu Castle have been unearthed in the Ayanis neighborhood of the eastern province of Van. 

Excavations at the Urartu Castle site, situated 38 kilometers from Van, have been ongoing for 25 years, leading to new discoveries every day. After the discovery of the temple, this year the walls, a defining part of the castle, have been unearthed. 

Tunceli Emek, a daily in the southeast province of Tunceli, has a feature that no other newspaper in Turkey has: All of its employees, from its owner to its reporters and from its editors to its page designers, are women.

Twelve Armenians from Dersim, an older name of the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli, were baptized in an Armenian church in Istanbul on May 9, daily Agos has reported. The baptized group came from families who had concealed their Christian and Armenian heritage out of fear of social prejudice.

In a city that has been home to various civilizations since the 9th century B.C., the historic Armenian churches in Turkey's eastern province of Van await visitors and hopefully restoration - in order to stop them from being forgotten.