Midyat

Following restoration efforts, 3,000-year-old underground cave dwellings in the country's eastern province of Mardin's Midyat have been transformed into a captivating tourist attraction.

The Midyat region, which has hosted numerous civilizations throughout history, attracts thousands of visitors annually from both domestic and international destinations.

Through a basement door in southeastern Türkiye lies a sprawling underground city — perhaps the country's largest — which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century B.C.

Archaeologists stumbled upon the city-under-a-city "almost by chance" after an excavation of house cellars in Midyat, near the Syrian border, led to the discovery of a vast labyrinth of caves in 2020.

The southern province of Mardin, renowned for its rich cultural allure and historical sites, saw a surge in both local and foreign tourists during the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

With over 60 hotels boasting 22,000 beds reaching a 90 percent occupancy rate, and Midyat district welcoming 10,000 daily visitors, the region hosted a bustling atmosphere.

Returning to her hometown after 36 years abroad, a Syriac nun, who speaks 14 languages and has written 22 books, started farming in the southeastern province of Mardin.

Hatune Doğan, who emigrated from Mardin's Midyat district with her family in 1985 and settled in Germany, is now engaged in agriculture in her hometown.

Christians in Istanbul gathered yesterday in the Aya Yorgi Greek Orthodox Church for a ceremony officiated by Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew.

In a speech he delivered at the mass, the patriarch wished peace in Ukraine and the world.

A 1,300-year-old historic rock monastery near the Barıştepe village in the southeastern province of Mardin's Midyat district is waiting to be discovered. 

Also known as the Mor Barsavmo Monastery, where Syriac priests are estranged, some of its outer walls collapsed because of negligence and some of the historic inscriptions were destroyed. 

Thousands of Christians have started celebrating Easter across Turkey, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Religious ceremonies were conducted mostly in the southern provinces of Hatay and Mersin, the Marmara province of Edirne and the southeastern province of Mardin.  

An indefinite curfew has been declared in the southeastern Anatolian district of ?dil amid an exodus that has lowered the town's population by nearly one tenth, days after the interior minister signaled an expansion of military operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

An indeterminate curfew has been declared in the southeastern Turkish town of ?dil days after the country's interior minister signaled an expansion of military operations against militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Two civilians have been killed while another two have been wounded after a house was raked with bullets in the southeastern province of Mardin's Dargeçit district amid a continuing curfew in the area.

The house was attacked by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) at 9:15 p.m. on Dec. 23, 12 days after a curfew was imposed by the military.