Abstract

This chapter draws attention to the particular adherence to local models of
architecture, decoration, building materials and techniques in Armenian churches built in
the south-east of present-day Turkey, grouped together under the geographical term of Upper
Mesopotamia. It looks to examples from the cities of Diyarbakır, and Mardin, which were situated
in the Ottoman provincial unit (vilayet) of Diyarbakır, and the cities of Urfa and Antep, which
were in the vilayet of Aleppo. These cases show how the usage of local styles was prevalent not just in
one province but in the region of Upper Mesopotamia as a whole. Each one of these cities expresses
a different identity through its particular architecture, which is adopted by the late-nineteenthcentury
Armenian churches in place of historical models provided by Armenian architecture.