City Detail

Silopi (Kurdish: Silopî) is a city and district of Şırnak Province in Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region, close to the borders of Iraq and Syria. The majority of its people are of ethnic Kurds. The district, composed of Silopi center, three townships with their own municipalities, and 23 villages, has an urban population of 73,400 (2009 census). The mayor Adalet Fidan of the HDP, who was elected in 2019, was deposed the same year and replaced by the sub-governor (kaymakam) Sezer Işiktaş as a "state-appointed caretaker" (acting mayor).The Habur frontier gate, the only major crossing between Turkey and Iraq, is in the district of Silopi and is a decisive factor in the region's economy. Queues of lorries waiting for customs and security clearance that sometimes reach a few dozen kilometers on the motorway connecting the two countries are a common sight. The Khabur River, which carries the same name as the frontier gate, crosses in the district territory and joins the Tigris here.