Diyarbakır readies to host new culture center

DİYARBAKIR - Anatolia News Agency

A plan for a new culture center in Diyarbakır, enabling the city to take its place among those with considerable culture centers in Turkey in 2010, is already being implemented.

Diyarbakır, a city of culture and history, is known as the �cradle of civilizations.� The city was considered relevant in history due to its location at the major crossroads between Anatolia and Mesopotamia, as well as between Europe and Asia. In the past it was known by various names, such as Amida, Amid, Kara-Amid, Diyar-Bekr, Diyarbekir.

The first step toward a new culture center was the purchase of a former Agricultural Combat Research Institute Office building, located in the city center, by the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Construction work is already underway. The culture center will cost YTL 7 million.

The culture center will consist of concert and exhibition halls, cafes, as well as conference rooms.

Diyarbakır administrative culture and tourism manager, Tevfik Arıtürk, said the complex will include three main halls with 137 balconies, where the smallest one will contain 136 seats. �The culture center will have an international character,� Arıtürk said.

Apart from events held in the culture center, tourists and visitors will also have a chance to see the historical sites of the city, including caravansaries, palaces, fountains and arches. Since 3000 B.C. the city was controlled by different ethnic groups (e.g. Assyrians, Arameans, Persians, Macedonians, Selucians, Byzantines, Omayyads, Abbasids and Mongols), however the civilizations contributing the most to the city's heritage were the Roman, Abbasid, Mervani, Seljuk, Artukid, Christian and Ottoman. Archaeological studies have revealed signs of cavemen living in the region in the Stone and Mesolithic ages.

Inform,29.05.08