Bingöl (Zazaki: Çewlig, or Çolig) is a city in Eastern Turkey. It is surrounded by mountains and a large number of glacier lakes, hence the name (Turkish for: a thousand lakes). Lately, the town has become a popular tourist destination. According to 2009 estimates, it has a population of 87,918 .

Bingöl is the capital of Bingöl Province, one of the 81 provinces of Turkey.

On May 1, 2003 the whole area suffered from a magnitude 6.4 earthquake, leaving 177 dead and 520 injured. On 8 March 2010, the area suffered another earthquake, of magnitude 5.9, with its epicenter in Elâzığ Province, 45 km (28 mi) west of Bingöl.

In the Middle Ages, Bingöl was known as Romanoupolis (Greek: Ῥωμανοῦπολις) after the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, who incorporated it permanently into the Byzantine Empire in 942. It initially formed a subdivision of the thema of Mesopotamia, but it was later (ca. 970) elevated into a separate theme.

Bingöl is 144 km east of Elâzığ and is situated in the high region of Eastern Anatolia. Bingöl is a mountainous area with heights reaching 10,000 feet.

Yavuz Bingöl (born 1964) is in the folk realm of Turkish music and is also an actor.

He was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1964.

He was in several miniseries on Turkish TV, including Bayanlar Baylar, Ah Be İstanbul and Yanık Koza. He also did the romance series Zerda and the sitcom Esref Saati. His 2008 films made both great success: Three Monkeys premiered in competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where its director Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the Award for Best Director and White Angel won the Special Jury Award and International Visionary Prize at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival. Bingöl's another film, released into English, He's in the Army Now was nominated for best Turkish film at the Istanbul International Film Festival.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (IPA: [ɾeˈd͡ʒep tajˈjip ˈæɾdoan]; born 26 February 1954) has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences. Erdoğan was also a semi-professional footballer from 1969 to 1982.

Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul in the local elections of 27 March 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to a prison term for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt on 12 December 1997. The poem was allegedly quoted from a book published by a state enterprise and one that had been recommended to teachers by the Ministry of Education. After six months in prison, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on August 14, 2001. From its first year, the AK Party became the largest publicly-supported political movement in Turkey. In the general election of 2002 the AK Party won nearly two-thirds of the seats in parliament, forming the first single-party government for 9 years.

Volkan Konak, (Born February 27, Maçka, Trabzon) is a Turkish folk singer. His song Cerrahpaşa has a been a great success and his album, [Mora], released in 2006, was awarded a gold plaque by the Turkish recording producers association, MÜ-YAP. Konak is known for his friendly, caring attitude in concert which he intersperses his highly emotional and sad songs with amusing anecdotes and life stories.