Hakkâri kıris
Meat stew with raisins and walnuts
Bone-in mutton, tiny bulgur meatballs, rice, chickpeas, raisins and walnuts cooked with onion and tomato paste and soured with sumac berries; made for weddings and honoured guests.
Eastern Anatolia
Hakkâri
In Hakkari, yogurt, wheat and butter are the shared language of everyday cooking, and following those three ingredients leads you from one pot to the next, each with its own character. Doğaba brings pearled wheat together with yogurt thinned to the consistency of ayran, bone-in meat and small meatballs, and it is finished with butter, thyme and chilli. Gulol thickens that same yogurt with rice and is known for the butter in its center and the roasted flour scattered around it. Keledoş gathers cracked wheat, bone-in meat, chickpeas, beans and wild mountain herbs. Kıris, made for weddings and honoured guests, combines bone-in mutton with tiny bulgur meatballs, raisins, walnuts and sumac berries. Two local products sit beside these pots. One is Çukurca tahini, a deep brown paste of sesame roasted over an oak-wood fire and ground in stone mills. The other is Yüksekova çirek peyniri, a sheep’s-milk cheese known for its spiral shape. Get to know Hakkari through a table that starts with a bowl of yogurt and carries on to Çukurca’s tahini and Yüksekova’s cheese.
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A mountain table of wheat, yogurt and walnuts
High mountains, summer pastures and a table of herb cheese.
Signature dishes
Explore wheat, yogurt and lamb alongside distinct district dairy and sesame products.
Doğaba
Wheat and yogurt stew
Pearled wheat cooked in yogurt thinned to ayran, with bone-in meat and small meatballs, finished with thyme and chilli butter.
Hakkari girara huluga
Meat stew with dried fruit
Roasted meat cooked with dried fruit, walnuts, rice and chickpeas, made for festivals, weddings and guests.
Hakkari gulol
Yogurt and rice dish
Yogurt thinned to ayran and boiled with rice until thick, then served with butter in the center and roasted flour around it.
Hakkari kepaye
Tripe and minced meat dish
A dish of intestine, tripe and minced meat.
Hakkari lalaped tatlısı
Syrup-soaked dough rings
Doughnut-like pastries of butter, yogurt, egg and milk dough, soaked in syrup and topped with ground walnut; sold in bakeries especially during Ramadan.
Keledoş
Wheat and wild herb stew
Cracked wheat, bone-in meat, chickpeas, beans, potatoes, garlic and wild mountain herbs, with sizzling butter poured into the center.
Doleme
Pumpkin with tiny meatballs
Pumpkin cooked with tiny hand-rolled meatballs, broken rice, onion, basil and spices.
Hakkari kebabı
Herbed fried meatballs
Minced meat kneaded with mint, wild thyme, parsley, dill and garlic, shaped into small köfte, fried and served with fried potatoes and peppers.
Locally cooked
Recipes from this city are coming soon.
Local ingredients
Çukurca tahini
Sesame roasted over an oak-wood fire and ground in stone mills into a deep brown, thick tahini.
Guide not written yetYüksekova çirek peyniri
Sheep’s-milk curd boiled, stretched thin, spread with curd and rolled into a spiral; made in spring and summer.
Guide not written yetOtlu peynir
Cheese made with milk and wild mountain herbs, eaten especially at breakfast.
Guide not written yetŞemdinli balı
Honey produced in the Şemdinli district.
Guide not written yet
Walnuts
Raw shelled walnut kernels that give body to sauces.
Food culture
Kilim weaving provides a material route into Hakkari’s cultural life. The Ministry describes geometric compositions arranged in different directions, with names and motifs referring to plants, animals and communities. Wool and dye work are part of the craft’s documented practice. The province’s heritage includes different communities and ways of life. Textile making, pastoral work and food preparation can be introduced together without claiming that one tradition represents every household.
Dishes for guests
Kıris and girara huluga combine meat with rice, chickpeas, walnuts and dried fruit for weddings and guests.
Yogurt and wheat
Yogurt, wheat and butter run through daily cooking, from doğaba to gulol.
What to bring home
- Çukurca tahini
- Şemdinli honey
- Walnuts
- Herb cheese
- Hand-woven Hakkari kilims
History & landscape
A good way into Hakkari’s geography is to follow the Zab. The largest river in the province, it crosses Hakkari roughly from north to south before carrying its water to the Tigris south of Mosul. The surrounding mountains were formed within the Alpine-Himalayan folding system, which gives this part of the Southeast Taurus range its uneven, broken relief. In Cilo-Sat Mountains National Park, in Yüksekova district, there are glaciers and glacial lakes. In summer, local people move up to plateaus such as Berçelan to feed their animals, living in traditional black tents.
In the city center, the standing stelae on the northwest slope of Çölemerik Castle are covered with engraved figures of people, animals and weapons, and who made them is still a mystery. In a valley at Konak (Koçanis) village stands a church that once served as the patriarchate of the Assyrians; it fell out of use when it was left behind as Assyrians migrated away from Hakkari. The Meydan Madrasa, meanwhile, is one of Hakkari’s important monumental buildings from the Ottoman period.
