Tunceli

Tunceli Province formerly Dersim Province is located in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The least densely-populated province in Turkey, it was originally named Dersim Province then demoted to a district (Dersim kazası) and incorporated into Elazıg Province in 1926.The province is considered part of Turkish Kurdistan and has Zazas and Kurdish majority. It is moreover the only province in Turkey with an Alevi majority.

The history of the province stretches back to antiquity. It was mentioned as Daranalis by Ptolemy, and seemingly, it was referred to as Daranis before him. One theory as to the origin of the name associates with Darius the Great. Another, more likely hypothesis, considering the region’s Armenian background, says the name Daranalis or Daranaghis comes from the historical Armenian province of Daron, of which Dersim belonged.They are named Daranaghi in what is today Dersim, that in Mamigonian times was part of Daron.
The area that would become Dersim province formed part of Urartu, Media, the Achaemenid Empire, and the Greater Armenian region of Sophene. Sophene was later contested by the Roman and Parthian Empires and by their respective successors, the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. Arabs invaded in the 7th century, and Seljuq Turks in the 11th.