Diyarbakır

Prosecutors in the capital Ankara have demanded a total of 13 years of jail sentences for six people over the death of a six-year-old Turkish boy who died after choking on the lid of an edible chocolate-filled syringe.

On Dec. 10, 2019, Mert Yağız Köksal died while eating a tube of chocolate he bought from the canteen of his school in Ankara's Keçiören district.

A couple from Istanbul have visited 40 provinces in six months with their caravan after their theatre hall was closed due to the pandemic measures taken by the government.

"We are from Istanbul, and we were going to visit a province only for a week, and then return back to Istanbul. But then we decided to continue our trip," said İbrahim Yakut, a 39-year-old theatre artist.

An official application has been made to include the Assyrian Castle and the King Tombs in the southeastern Anatolian province of Diyarbakır's Eğil district to the UNESCO World Heritage Temporary List.

The Çermik district in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, known for thermal tourism, aims to attract tourists looking for an isolated tourism site amid pandemic with its Twin Waterfalls and beautiful walking tracks.

Several artifacts have been unearthed in archaeological excavations carried out in Amida Mound in the historical Sur district, known widely as the heart of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, becoming the latest trove of finds that will shed light on the history of Mesopotamia.

A 1,800-year-old sewer system was discovered during archaeological excavations in Amida Mound, described as
"heart of the old city", in the historical Sur district in southeastern Turkey.

Excavations in the Amida Mound, which hosted many civilizations, including Urartians, Persians, Romans, Umayyads, Abbasids, Seljuks, Artuqids and Ottomans, were concluded this year.

Archaeologists have unearthed the 1800-year-old entrance of the Castle of Zerzevan, situated in the Çınar district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and is on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.

"We have found the most important point to examine the architecture of the defense of the castle," said Aytaç Coşkun, the head of the excavation team.

Turkey has made it mandatory for people to wear face masks in public in five more provinces as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, the country's health minister said early on June 16. 

Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that wearing masks is mandatory in Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Kayseri, Rize and Şanlıurfa provinces. The mask rule is applied in 42 provinces.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has been declining in Istanbul and İzmir, two of Turkey's most populous cities, but there has been an increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in certain provinces in the country's Central Anatolia as well as eastern and southeastern regions, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

The Turkish president on May 30 extended condolences for the two soldiers and a police officer killed in southeastern Turkey.