Bitlis

Bitlis (Kurdish: Bilîs or Bedlîs) is a town in eastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. Kurds form the majority of the population, which was 38,130 as of 1990. [1] [The Encyclopaedia of Islam] [2]

A folk etymology explanation of the name Bitlis, is that it is derived from "Bedlis", the name of the commander who built a castle in the province, by the order of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia.

The history of Bitlis extends back to 2000 BC, and the city contains traces from the Urartian, Armenian, Persian, Roman, and Byzantine periods.

It was known as the Kurdish principality Badlis from the 12th to the 19th century. The city was also the home of the 16th century Kurdish historian, Sherefxan Bedlisi (also: Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi), who was also an appointed prince of the Persian and later Ottoman Empires.

Bitlis had a significant population of ethnic Armenians prior to 1915. During the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917, Turks and Kurds led by Jevdet Bey Pasha massacred some 15,000 Armenians until Russian troops, who were subsequently viewed as liberators by the survivors, moved into the area.^[1]

William Saroyan's parents were immigrants from Bitlis to Fresno, California. He wrote a play entitled "Bitlis" about his "return" to the city he considered his homeland.