“Kurdish Place” Population: 36,000
Old name: Garzan
Let’s be honest – there’s absolutely no reason why you would want to stop in Kurtalan, a grim small town on the road from Batman to Siirt.
I did stop there, however, and was taken to the unsigned village of Ankisisir (its Kurdish name), a few km back towards Batman where a path leads over the hills to what sounds a bit like a cave settlement with a fine church. It was too far to walk on my own that day but I was interested to find that the path kicked off from behind a magnificent, if abandoned, example of the sort of cas evleri (plaster-faced houses) for which Siirt is best known.
Sleeping
There are no hotels in Kurtalan and few in Siirt so your best base has to be Batman.
Transport info
There are frequent buses from Batman and Siirt to Kurtalan as well as twice-weekly train services from Ankara (27 hours) – Kurtalan is the southern terminus of the Kurtalan Ekspresi. There are also train services to Diyarbakır (4 hours)
Day trip destinations
