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88-411: The settlement is mentioned by the 13th century Armenian historian Stephen Orbelian in the form of Evaylakh ( Armenian : Եւայլախ ). The name "Yevlakh" is derived from Old Turkic and means "wetland" according to 20th century Soviet geographer Evgeny Pospelov. The city of Yevlakh was initially established as a station in the 1880s and known as the "Vagzal" for a long time by the local population. In

176-523: A football club Kars S.K. Bandy , a sport which does not exist in Turkey today, was once played here. Kars hosts the Kafkas University , which was established in 1992. Kars is served by a main highway from Erzurum , and lesser roads run north to Ardahan and south to Igdir. The town has an airport ( Kars Harakani Airport ), with daily direct flights to Ankara and Istanbul. Kars is served by

264-731: A protracted siege , but after the garrison had been devastated by cholera and food supplies were depleted, the town was surrendered to General Mouravieff in November 1855. The city's significance increased as the Ottoman and Russian empires contested its possession. The fortress was stormed by the Russians in the Battle of Kars during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78 under generals Loris-Melikov and Ivan Lazarev . Following

352-730: A brief period, from 1918 to 1920, Armenia was an independent republic plagued by socio-economic crises such as large-scale Muslim uprisings . In late 1920, the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army ; in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian SFSR of the Soviet Union , later on forming the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1936 to 21 September 1991). In 1991, Armenia declared independence from

440-495: A common origin of the Armenian and Greek languages. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ) and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). This has led some scholars to propose a hypothetical Graeco-Armenian-Aryan clade within

528-637: A consequence of the treaty. After World War II, the Soviet Union attempted to annul the Kars treaty and regain the Kars region and the adjoining region of Ardahan. On June 7, 1945, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov told the Turkish ambassador to Moscow Selim Sarper that the regions should be returned to the Soviet Union , on behalf of the Georgian and Armenian republics. Turkey found itself in

616-562: A crushing defeat was inflicted upon the Ottoman army by the Persian conqueror, Nader Shah , not far from the city of Kars. By the nineteenth century the citadel had lost most of its defensive purpose and a series of outer fortresses and defensive works were constructed to encircle Kars – this new defensive system proved particularly notable during the Siege of Kars in 1855. Below the castle

704-559: A difficult position: it wanted good relations with the Soviet Union, but at the same time they refused to give up the territories. Turkey itself was in no condition to fight a war with the Soviet Union, which had emerged as a superpower after the second world war. By the autumn of 1945, Soviet troops in the Caucasus were ordered to prepare for a possible invasion of Turkey. Prime Minister Winston Churchill objected to these territorial claims, while President Harry Truman initially felt that

792-614: A few elements regarding identification of its pantheon with Greco-Roman deities). In the early years of the 4th century, likely 301 CE, partly in defiance of the Sassanids it seems. In the late Parthian period, Armenia was a predominantly Zoroastrian-adhering land, but by the Christianisation, previously predominant Zoroastrianism and paganism in Armenia gradually declined. This is the period that an Armenian community

880-637: A station on the Turkish Railways (TCDD) that links it to Erzurum. This line was originally laid when Kars was within the Russian Empire and connected the city to nearby Alexandropol and Tiflis , with a wartime, narrow-gauge extension running to Erzurum. Turkey's border crossings with Armenia, including the rail link, the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway , have regrettably been closed since April 1993. Turkey's border with Armenia

968-567: Is Türker Öksüz. The city had an Armenian ethnic majority until it was re-captured by Turkish nationalist forces in late 1920. The city's name may derive from the Armenian word hars , meaning 'bride'. According to another hypothesis, the name derives from the Georgian word kari , meaning 'gate'. Little is known of the early history of Kars beyond the fact that, during medieval times, it had its own dynasty of Armenian rulers and

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1056-533: Is a city in northeast Turkey . It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District . As of 2022, its population was 91,450. Kars, in classical historiography ( Strabo ), was in the ancient region known as Chorzene ( Greek : Χορζηνή ), part of the province of Ayrarat in the Kingdom of Armenia , and later the capital of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia from 929 to 961. Currently, the mayor of Kars

1144-599: Is a mosque, formerly the Armenian church known as Surb Arak'elots, the Church of the Holy Apostles . Built in the 930's, it has a tetraconch plan (a square with four semicircular apses) surmounted by a spherical dome on a cylindrical drum. On the exterior, the drum contains bas-relief depictions of twelve figures, usually interpreted as representing the Twelve Apostles . The dome has a conical roof. The church

1232-408: Is also rich with natural resources like clay mixture sand deposits, as well as clay, sand and gravel deposits needed for brick making. In the city of Yavlakh, there are 45 libraries that serve the population of the district. Ten of them are located in the city center and 35 in the villages. There are 552300 copies of books in the book fund of the libraries. Currently, there are 18 culture houses (2 in

1320-527: Is dry subtropical. Yevlakh has a semi-arid climate ( Köppen climate classification : BSk ). As of 2016, the population increased in the city in comparison with the previous years by about 7.1 thousand people. According to the population census data in 2009, urban population accounted for 55.04% and rural was 44.96%. Number of population There are agricultural processing enterprises, manufacturing and industrial complexes within Yevlakh city. Yevlakh city

1408-555: Is scheduled for completion in 2015. The completed branch will connect Yevlakh with Tbilisi in Georgia, and from there, trains will continue to Akhalkalaki , and Kars in Turkey. The city's notable residents include: Orthodox theologian Pavel Florensky , human rights activist Anar Mammadli and government civilian Elmar Valiyev . Armenians Armenians ( Armenian : հայեր , romanized :  hayer , [hɑˈjɛɾ] ) are an ethnic group and nation native to

1496-736: The Armenian Highland . Each of the aforementioned nations and tribes participated in the ethnogenesis of the Armenian people. Under Ashurbanipal (669–627 BCE), the Assyrian empire reached the Caucasus Mountains (modern Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan ). Luwianologist John D. Hawkins proposed that "Hai" people were possibly mentioned in the 10th century BCE Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from Carchemish . A.E. Redgate later clarified that these "Hai" people may have been Armenians. The first geographical entity that

1584-599: The Armenian highlands of West Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and constituted the main population of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh until the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and the subsequent flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians . There is a wide-ranging diaspora of around five million people of full or partial Armenian ancestry living outside modern Armenia. The largest Armenian populations today exist in Russia ,

1672-523: The Armenian language is classified as an Indo-European language , its placement within the broader Indo-European language family is a matter of debate. Until fairly recently, scholars believed Armenian to be most closely related to Greek and Ancient Macedonian . Eric P. Hamp placed Armenian in the "Pontic Indo-European" (also called Graeco-Armenian or Helleno-Armenian) subgroup of Indo-European languages in his 2012 Indo-European family tree. There are two possible explanations, not mutually exclusive, for

1760-806: The Armistice of Mudros (October 1918) was required to withdraw to the pre-war frontier and Kars came under control of the First Republic of Armenia . The Ottomans refused to relinquish Kars; its military governor instead established a government, the Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus , led by Fahrettin Pirioglu, that claimed Turkish sovereignty over Kars and Turkic-speaking regions as far as Batumi and Alexandropol (Gyumri). Much of

1848-625: The Azerbaijanis . The present day ethnic make-up of Kars is also reflected in politics, with the Turks and Azerbaijanis often voting for the nationalist MHP and the Kurds often voting for the pro-Kurdish HDP . On 30 March 2014, Murtaza Karaçanta ( MHP ) was elected mayor. During the June 2015 elections, Kars was won by the pro-Kurdish HDP , becoming the largest political party in both the city and

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1936-693: The Bronze Age Trialeti-Vanadzor culture and sites such as the burial complexes at Verin and Nerkin Naver are indicative of an Indo-European presence in Armenia by the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. The controversial Armenian hypothesis , put forward by some scholars, such as Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov , proposes that the Indo-European homeland was around the Armenian Highland. This theory

2024-661: The Bronze Age , several states flourished in the area of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire (at the height of its power in the 14th century BCE), ( Mitanni (South-Western historical Armenia, 1500–1300 BCE), and Hayasa-Azzi (1500–1200 BCE). Soon after Hayasa-Azzi came Arme-Shupria (1300s–1190 BCE), the Nairi Confederation (1200–900 BCE), and the Kingdom of Urartu (860–590 BCE), who successively established their sovereignty over

2112-674: The Byzantine Empire in 1045, the Bagratuni title "King of Kings" held by the ruler of Ani was transferred to the ruler of Kars. In 1064, just after the capture of Ani by Alp Arslan (leader of the Seljuk Turks ), the Armenian king of Kars, Gagik-Abas , paid homage to the victorious Turks so that they would not lay siege to his city. In 1065 Gagik-Abas ceded his kingdom to the Byzantine Empire, but soon after Kars

2200-575: The Citadel , sits at the top a rocky hill overlooking Kars. Its walls date back to the Bagratuni Armenian period (there is surviving masonry on the north side of the castle) but it probably took on its present form during the thirteenth century when Kars was ruled by the Zak'arid dynasty. The walls bear crosses in several places, including a Khachkar with a building inscription in Armenian on

2288-674: The First World War , the city was one of the main objectives of the Ottoman army during the lost Battle of Sarikamish in the Caucasus Campaign . Russia ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. However, by then Kars was under the effective control of Armenian and non-Bolshevik Russian forces. The Ottoman Empire captured Kars on 25 April 1918, but under

2376-663: The Government of the Grand National Assembly and by the Soviet republics of Armenia , Azerbaijan and Georgia , established the current north-eastern boundaries of Turkey. The treaty included de jure provisions guaranteeing the Armenian residents right to relinquish Turkish nationality, leave the territory freely and take with them either their goods or the proceeds of their sale, but by some accounts formerly Armenian lands had de facto become state property as

2464-463: The Kars River , built in 1725. Close to the bridge are three old bath-houses, none of them operating any longer. As a settlement at the juncture of Turkish , Armenian , Georgian , Kurdish and Russian cultures, the buildings of Kars come in a variety of architectural styles. Most Russian-era buildings in Kars are identical in architectural style to those of Gyumri in Armenia. Orhan Pamuk in

2552-583: The Kelbajar district of Azerbaijan by Armenian forces during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War . Since then the land border between Armenia and Turkey has remained closed. In 2006, former Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu said that opening the border would boost the local economy and reawaken the city. Despite unsuccessful attempts to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2009, there remained opposition and pressure from

2640-744: The Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Summers are generally brief and quite warm with cool nights. The average high temperature in August is 27  °C (81  °F ). Winters are very cold. The average low January temperature is −15  °C (5  °F ), and temperatures can plummet to −30 °C (−22 °F) during the winter months. Kars experiences frequent and sometimes heavy snowfall, with four months of snow cover on average. Highest recorded temperature:37.1  °C (98.8  °F ) on 24 August 2022 Lowestrecorded temperature:−37.0  °C (−34.6  °F ) on 4 February 1947 The town has

2728-584: The Mushki and the Kaskians . The Urumu apparently settled in the vicinity of Sason , lending their name to the regions of Arme and the nearby lands of Urme and Inner Urumu. The location of the older site of Armani is a matter of debate. Some modern researchers have placed it in the same general area as Arme, near modern Samsat , and have suggested it was populated, at least partially, by an early Indo-European-speaking people . The relationship between Armani and

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2816-684: The Ottoman–Persian War of 1743–1746 . As a result, the Turks fled westwards, raiding their own lands as they went. In 1807, Kars successfully resisted an attack by the Russian Empire . During a break between the Russian campaigns in the region conducted against the Ottomans, in 1821, commander-in-chief Abbas Mirza of Qajar Iran occupied Kars, further igniting the Ottoman–Persian War of 1821–1823 . After another Russian siege in 1828

2904-525: The Peace of Amasya of 1555 that followed the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1533–1555 , the city was declared neutral, and its existing fortress was destroyed. In 1585, during the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1579–1590 , the Ottomans took the city alongside Tabriz . On June 8, 1604, during the next bout of hostilities between the two archrivals, the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1603–1618 , Safavid ruler Abbas I retook

2992-454: The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who was elected in 2019, and arrested and deposed in 2020. He was replaced by the governor of Kars Province , Eyüp Tepe, as a government-appointed trustee. According to Turkey's 2011 Statistical Yearbook, the area has been depopulating because of migration to bigger cities. In Istanbul alone, there are 269,388 people from Kars, more than three times

3080-848: The Proto Indo-European words póti (meaning "lord" or "master") or *h₂éyos / *áyos (meaning "metal"). Khorenatsi wrote that the word Armenian originated from the name Armenak or Aram (the descendant of Hayk). Khorenatsi refers to both Armenia and Armenians as Hayk‘ (Armenian: Հայք) (not to be confused with the aforementioned patriarch, Hayk). Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European While

3168-588: The Qara Qoyunlu . In 1387 the city was leveled and the surrounding countryside was devastated by Timur (Tamerlane). Anatolian beyliks followed for some time after that, until it firstly fell into the hands of the Qara Qoyunlu and subsequent Aq Qoyunlu . After the Ak Koyunlu, as it went naturally for almost all their former territories, the city fell into the hands of the newly established Safavid dynasty of Iran , founded by king Ismail I . Following

3256-491: The Russian Empire following Iran's forced ceding of the territories after its loss in the Russo-Persian War (1826-1828) and the outcoming Treaty of Turkmenchay . Western Armenia however, remained in Ottoman hands. The ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is widely considered a genocide , resulting in an estimated 1.2 million victims. The first wave of persecution

3344-402: The Soviet Union . The treaty allowed for Soviet annexation of Adjara in exchange for Turkish control of the regions of Kars , Igdir , and Ardahan . The Treaty of Kars established peaceful relations between the two nations, but as early as 1939, some British diplomats noted indications that the Soviet Union was not satisfied with the established border. The Treaty of Kars , signed in 1921 by

3432-720: The Turkish revolutionaries and Armenian border troops in Olti took place during the summer of 1920. In the autumn of that year four Turkish divisions under the command of General Kâzım Karabekir invaded the Armenian Republic, triggering the Turkish-Armenian War . Kars had been fortified to withstand a lengthy siege but, to the astonishment of all, was taken with little resistance by Turkish forces on 30 October 1920, in what some modern scholars have called one of

3520-570: The USSR and established the second Republic of Armenia. Also in 1991, the ethnic Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (later the Republic of Artsakh ), declared independence from Azerbaijan which lasted until 2023. Armenians are believed to have had a presence in the Armenian Highland for over 4,000 years. According to legend, Hayk , the patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation, led Armenians to victory over Bel of Babylon and settled in

3608-593: The United States , France , Georgia , Iran , Germany , Ukraine , Lebanon , Brazil , Argentina , Syria , and Turkey. The present-day Armenian diaspora was formed mainly as a result of the Armenian genocide with the exceptions of Iran, former Soviet states , and parts of the Levant . Armenian is an Indo-European language . It has two mutually intelligible spoken and written forms: Eastern Armenian , today spoken mainly in Armenia, Artsakh, Iran , and

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3696-679: The 4th century in the Holy Land , and one of the quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem is called the Armenian Quarter . An Armenian Catholic monastic community of 35 founded in 1717 exists on an island near Venice , Italy. The region of Western Armenia was an influential part of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was absorbed by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The Armenian population of

3784-399: The Armenian Highland. Today, with a population of 3.5 million (although more recent estimates place the population closer to 2.9 million), they constitute an overwhelming majority in Armenia, Armenians in the diaspora informally refer to them as Hayastantsi s ( Armenian : հայաստանցի ), meaning those that are from Armenia (that is, those born and raised in Armenia). They, as well as

3872-488: The Armenians of Iran and Russia, speak the Eastern dialect of the Armenian language. The country itself is secular as a result of Soviet domination, but most of its citizens identify themselves as Apostolic Armenian Christian. While the largest Armenian diaspora populations reside in Russia , the United States , France , and other countries, small Armenian trading and religious communities have existed outside Armenia for centuries. A prominent community has continued since

3960-538: The Azerbaijani primary rail lines running east–west connecting the capital, Baku , with the rest of the country. The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway will run along the line through the city. The railway provides both human transportation and transport of goods and commodities such as oil and gravel. Yevlakh's Central Railway Station is the terminus for national and international rail links to the city. The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway , which will directly connect Turkey , Georgia and Azerbaijan , began to be constructed in 2007 and

4048-410: The Eastern Mediterranean world suddenly and violently collapsed. Armenians have since remained isolated and genetic structure within the population developed ~500 years ago when Armenia was divided between the Ottomans and the Safavid Empire in Iran. A genetic study (Wang et al. 2018) supports the indigenous origin for Armenians in a region south of the Caucasus which he calls "Greater Caucasus". In

4136-486: The Great of Persia refers to Urashtu (in Babylonian ) as Armina ( Old Persian : 𐎠𐎼𐎷𐎡𐎴) and Harminuya (in Elamite). In Greek , Armenios ( Αρμένιοι ) is attested from about the same time, perhaps the earliest reference being a fragment attributed to Hecataeus of Miletus (476 BC). Xenophon , a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and hospitality in around 401 BC. Some have linked

4224-457: The Great , a member of the Artaxiad (Artashesian) dynasty , the Kingdom of Armenia extended from the Caucasus all the way to what is now central Turkey , Lebanon , and northern Iran . The Arsacid Kingdom of Armenia , itself a branch of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia , was the first state to adopt Christianity as its religion (it had formerly been adherent to Armenian paganism , which was influenced by Zoroastrianism , while later on adopting

4312-502: The Indo-European language family from which the Armenian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, and possibly Phrygian languages all descend. According to Kim (2018), however, there is insufficient evidence for a cladistic connection between Armenian and Greek, and common features between these two languages can be explained as a result of contact. Contact is also the most likely explanation for morphological features shared by Armenian with Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages . It has been suggested that

4400-407: The Ottoman Empire is estimated to have been between 1.5 and 2.5 million in the early 20th century. Most of the modern Armenian diaspora consists of Armenians scattered throughout the world as a direct consequence of massacres and genocide in the Ottoman Empire . However, Armenian communities in Iran , Georgia ( Tbilisi ), and Syria existed since antiquity . During the Middle Ages and

4488-417: The Ottoman Empire. Among those there were more than 11,000 people from the city of Kars. At the same time, many Armenians and Pontic Greeks (here usually called Caucasus Greeks ) migrated to the region from the Ottoman Empire and other regions of Transcaucasia. According to the Russian census data, by 1897 Armenians formed 49.7%, Russians 26.3%, Caucasus Greeks 11.7%, Poles 5.3% and Turks 3.8%. In

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4576-455: The Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Yevlakh was referred to as a city. The Yevlakh region was abolished by the decision of the tenth session of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic on December 26, 1962, and its territory was transferred to Agdash, Barda and Gasim Ismayilov districts, and it became the industrial city in Azerbaijan SSR. In 1965, Yevlakh again turned into an independent region. By

4664-448: The biggest square within the city: Heydar Aliyev Square, Heydar Aliyev Alley, Dede Gorgud, Samad Vurgun, Nizami, Friendship, Independence parks have been established lately. In September 2023, the town was chosen as the site for meetings with representatives of Armenian residents of Nagorno-Karabakh after the 2023 Nagorno-Karabakh clashes . Yevlakh is located in the Central Aran Economic Region . The climate that common for this region

4752-534: The centuries prior to the genocide, additional communities were formed in Greece , Bulgaria , Hungary , Kievan Rus' and the territories of Russia, Poland , Austria , and Lebanon . There are also remnants of historic communities in Turkey ( Istanbul ), India , Myanmar , Thailand , Belgium , the Netherlands , Portugal , Italy , Israel-Palestine , Iraq , Romania , Serbia , Ethiopia , Sudan and Egypt . Kars Kars ( Armenian : Կարս or Ղարս ; Azerbaijani : Qars ; Kurdish : Qers )

4840-405: The city from the Ottomans. The fortifications of the city were rebuilt by the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and were strong enough to withstand a siege by Nader Shah of Persia , in 1731. It became the head of a sanjak in the Ottoman Erzurum vilayet . In July 1744, the city was again besieged by Nader Shah. Later, in August 1745, a huge Ottoman army was routed at Kars by Nader Shah during

4928-410: The city was surrendered by the Ottomans on June 23, 1828, to the Russian general Count Ivan Paskevich , 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war . At the end of the war it returned to Ottoman control for diplomatic reasons, Russia gaining only two border forts. During the Crimean War , an Ottoman garrison led by British officers, including General William Fenwick Williams , kept the Russians at bay during

5016-413: The city's population. Today, Kars has a mixed population of Azerbaijanis , Kurds and Turks . The Azerbaijanis are mainly composed of the Terekeme and Qarapapaq sub-ethnic groups. The Shia Azerbaijanis make up 20% of the city's population. Most of the population in Kars is Sunni Muslim , mainly made up by the population of Kurds and Turks , and the minority is Shia Muslim , mainly among

5104-411: The city, 16 in the villages), 22 clubs and 6 music schools in the city. Yevlakh History and Ethnography Museum (2005) and Heydar Aliyev Museum (2006) are two main museums in Yevlakh. The regional channel EL TV is headquartered in the city. Yevlax Airport is the only airport in the city. The airport is connected by bus to the city center. There are domestic flights to Baku . Yevlakh sits on one of

5192-411: The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijani SSR on January 6, 1965, Yevlakh was included in the list of cities in Azerbaijan SSR and started the construction of industrial enterprises in the city. Nowadays, the city has 4200 meters long Heydar Aliyev, Nizami avenues, 5500 meters long and 168 streets. The monument dedicated to Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev that locates in

5280-414: The easternmost tower, so the much repeated statement that Kars castle was built by Ottoman Sultan Murad III during the war with Persia , at the close of the sixteenth century, is inaccurate. However, Murad probably ordered the reconstruction of much of the city walls (they are similar to those that the Ottoman army constructed at Ardahan ). During the eighteenth century, at the Battle of Kars (1745) ,

5368-478: The efforts of two of his apostles, St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew . In the early 4th century, the Kingdom of Armenia became the first state to adopt Christianity as a state religion, followed by the first pilgrimages to the Holy Land where a community established the Armenian Quarter of Old Jerusalem . The earliest attestations of the exonym Armenia date around the 6th century BC. In his trilingual Behistun Inscription dated to 517 BC, Darius I

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5456-475: The former Soviet republics; and Western Armenian , used in the historical Western Armenia and, after the Armenian genocide, primarily in the Armenian diasporan communities. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented in 405 AD by Mesrop Mashtots . Most Armenians adhere to the Armenian Apostolic Church , a non-Chalcedonian Christian church, which is also the world's oldest national church . Christianity began to spread in Armenia soon after Jesus' death, due to

5544-534: The later Arme-Shupria, if any, is undetermined. Additionally, their connections to Armenians is inconclusive as it is not known what languages were spoken in these regions. It has also been speculated that the land of Ermenen (located in or near Minni ), mentioned by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III in 1446 BCE, could be a reference to Armenia. Armenians call themselves Hay ( Armenian : հայ , pronounced [ˈhaj]; plural: հայեր, [haˈjɛɾ]). The name has traditionally been derived from Hayk ( Armenian : Հայկ ),

5632-440: The legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah , who, according to Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khorene) , defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2492 BC and established his nation in the Ararat region. It is also further postulated that the name Hay comes from, or is related to, one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states— Hayasa -Azzi (1600–1200 BC). Ultimately, Hay may derive from

5720-403: The local population against the re-opening of the border. Under pressure from Azerbaijan, and the local population, including the 20% ethnic Azerbaijani minority, the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu reiterated in 2010 and 2011 that opening the border with Armenia was out of the question. As of 2014 , the border remains closed. The last elected mayor of Kars was Ayhan Bilgen of

5808-402: The matter should not concern other parties. With the onset of the Cold War , however, the United States came to see Turkey as a useful ally against Soviet expansion and began to support it financially and militarily. By 1948 the Soviet Union dropped its claims to Kars and the other regions. In April 1993, Turkey closed its Kars border crossing with Armenia, in a protest against the capture of

5896-417: The name Armenia with the Early Bronze Age state of Armani (Armanum, Armi) or the Late Bronze Age state of Arme (Shupria) . Armini , Urartian for "inhabitant of Arme" or "Armean country", referring to the region of Shupria, to the immediate west of Lake Van. The Arme tribe of Urartian texts may have been the Urumu, who in the 12th century BC attempted to invade Assyria from the north with their allies

5984-431: The next few centuries, Djenghis Khan , Timurids , and the tribal Turkic federations of the Ak Koyunlu and the Kara Koyunlu ruled over the Armenians. From the early 16th century, both Western Armenia and Eastern Armenia fell under Iranian Safavid rule . Owing to the century long Turco-Iranian geo-political rivalry that would last in Western Asia, significant parts of the region were frequently fought over between

6072-411: The official documents and sources of the 19th century and early 20th century the city is referred to as Yevlakh station of Yelizavetpol province, then Yevlakh village of Yelizavetpol province, and in 1920, it took the name of Yevlakh village located in the Javanshir region. The Yevlakh region first was organized on February 20, 1935, by the decision of Azerbaijan SSR, on February 1, 1939, by the decision of

6160-412: The province of Kars. The last elected mayor was Ayhan Bilgen from the HDP until he was deposed in October 2020. Kars has a humid continental climate ( Köppen : Dfb, Trewartha : Dcb ). It experiences significant seasonal and diurnal temperature variation , due to its location away from large bodies of water, its high elevation and location, where the high plateau of Eastern Anatolia converges with

6248-422: The region fell under the administrative control of Armenia in January 1919 but the pro-Turkish government remained in the city until a joint operation launched by British and Armenian troops dissolved it on 19 April 1919, arresting its leaders and sending them to Malta . In May 1919, Kars came under the full administration of the Armenian Republic and became the capital of its Vanand province. Skirmishes between

6336-637: The rivaling Byzantine and Sassanid Persian empires, until the Muslim conquest of Persia overran also the regions in which Armenians lived. In 885 CE the Armenians reestablished themselves as a sovereign kingdom under the leadership of Ashot I of the Bagratid Dynasty . A considerable portion of the Armenian nobility and peasantry fled the Byzantine occupation of Bagratid Armenia in 1045, and

6424-550: The subsequent invasion of the region by Seljuk Turks in 1064. They settled in large numbers in Cilicia , an Anatolian region where Armenians were already established as a minority since Roman times. In 1080, they founded an independent Armenian Principality then Kingdom of Cilicia , which became the focus of Armenian nationalism. The Armenians developed close social, cultural, military, and religious ties with nearby Crusader States , but eventually succumbed to Mamluk invasions. In

6512-471: The town's cathedral, later known as the Church of the Holy Apostles , was built. In 963, shortly after the Bagratuni seat was transferred to Ani , Kars became the capital of a separate independent kingdom, again called Vanand. However, the extent of its actual independence from the Kingdom of Ani is uncertain: it was always in the possession of the relatives of the rulers of Ani, and, after Ani's capture by

6600-510: The two rivalling empires. From the mid 16th century with the Peace of Amasya , and decisively from the first half of the 17th century with the Treaty of Zuhab until the first half of the 19th century, Eastern Armenia was ruled by the successive Iranian Safavid, Afsharid and Qajar empires, while Western Armenia remained under Ottoman rule. In the late 1820s, the parts of historic Armenia under Iranian control centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan (all of Eastern Armenia) were incorporated into

6688-618: The war, Kars was transferred to Russia by the Treaty of San Stefano . Kars became the capital of the Kars Okrug and larger Kars Oblast ("region"), comprising the okrugs ("districts") of Kars, Ardahan , Kagizman , and Olti , which was the most southwesterly extension of the Russian Transcaucasus . In the following years the Russians supported the fortification of Kars. From 1878 to 1881 more than 82,000 Muslims from formerly Ottoman-controlled territory migrated to

6776-422: The way of a war, or that killings of Armenians were justified by their individual or collective support for the enemies of the Ottoman Empire. Passage of legislation in various foreign countries, condemning the persecution of the Armenians as genocide, has often provoked diplomatic conflict. (See recognition of the Armenian genocide ) Following the breakup of the Russian Empire in the aftermath of World War I for

6864-477: The worst military fiascoes in Armenian history. The terms of the Treaty of Alexandropol , signed by the representatives of Armenia and Turkey on 2 December 1920, forced Armenia to give back all the Ottoman territories granted to it in the Treaty of Sèvres . After the Bolshevik advance into Armenia, the Treaty of Alexandropol was superseded by the Treaty of Kars (October 23, 1921), signed between Turkey and

6952-673: Was called Armenia by neighboring peoples (such as by Hecataeus of Miletus and on the Achaemenid Behistun Inscription) was the Satrapy of Armenia , established in the late 6th century BCE under the Orontid (Yervanduni) dynasty within the Achaemenid Persian Empire . The Orontids later ruled the independent Kingdom of Armenia . At its zenith (95–65 BCE), under the imperial reign of Tigran

7040-868: Was closed down after local Armenian forces occupied the Kalbajar District (adjacent to disputed Nagorno Karabakh ) in Azerbaijan. (As of September 2018, Turkey maintains that the border will remain closed until Armenia ends its occupation). Construction on a new line, the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway , intended to connect Turkey with Georgia and Azerbaijan , began in 2010. The line became operational on October 30, 2017. The line connects Kars to Akhalkalaki in Georgia, from where trains will continue to Tbilisi , and Baku in Azerbaijan . The Castle of Kars ( Turkish : Kars Kalesi ), also known as

7128-512: Was converted into a mosque in 1993. In the same district of Kars are two other ruined Armenian churches . A Russian church from the 1900s was converted to a mosque in the 1980s after serving as a school gymnasium. The Grand Mosque of Kars is the largest historic mosque in the city. Built by the Seljuks , it was restored by the Ottomans in 1579. The Taşköprü (Stone Bridge) is a bridge over

7216-413: Was converted to a mosque in 1579, and then converted into a Russian Orthodox church in the 1880s. The Russians built porches in front of the church's three entrances, and an elaborate clocktower (now demolished) next to the church. The church was used as a warehouse from the 1930s, and it housed a small museum from 1963 until the late 1970s. Then the building was left to itself for about two decades, until it

7304-532: Was established in Judea (modern-day Palestine -Israel), leading to the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem . Later on, to further strengthen Armenian national identity, Mesrop Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet , in 405 CE. This event ushered the Golden Age of Armenia , during which many foreign books and manuscripts were translated to Armenian by Mesrop's pupils. Armenia lost its sovereignty again in 428 CE to

7392-575: Was in the years 1894 to 1896, the second one culminating in the events of the Armenian genocide in 1915 and 1916. With World War I in progress, the Ottoman Empire accused the (Christian) Armenians as liable to ally with Imperial Russia , and used it as a pretext to deal with the entire Armenian population as an enemy within their empire. Governments of the Republic of Turkey since that time have consistently rejected charges of genocide, typically arguing either that those Armenians who died were simply in

7480-660: Was only in 1206 that Zakare of the Zakarids–Mkhargrdzeli succeeded in capturing Kars, joining it to their fiefdom of Ani. It was conquered in 1242 by the Mongols and later Kars fell under Georgian influence. During the reign of David IX of Georgia , the Ilkhanate occupied the southern territories of the Kingdom of Georgia , which included Kars. By 1358, the city was ruled by the Jalayirids and in 1380 it fell to

7568-684: Was partially confirmed by the research of geneticist David Reich (et al. 2018), among others. Similarly Grolle (et al. 2018) supports not only a homeland for Armenians on the Armenian highlands, but also that the Armenian highlands are the homeland for the "pre-proto-Indo-Europeans". A large genetic study in 2022 showed that many Armenians are "direct patrilineal descendants of the Yamnaya ". Genetic studies explain Armenian diversity by several mixtures of Eurasian populations that occurred between 3000 and 2000 BCE. But genetic signals of population mixture cease after 1200 BCE when Bronze Age civilizations in

7656-585: Was taken by the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks quickly relinquished direct control over Kars and it became a small emirate whose territory corresponded closely to that of Vanand, and which bordered the similarly created but larger Shaddadid emirate centered at Ani. The Kars emirate was a vassal of the Saltukids in Erzurum, whose forces were effective in opposing Georgian attempts at seizing Kars. Thus, it

7744-595: Was the capital of a region known as Vanand . Medieval Armenian historians referred to the city by a variety of names, including Karuts’ k’aghak’ ('Kars city'), Karuts’ berd , Amrots’n Karuts’ , Amurn Karuts’ (all meaning 'Kars Fortress'). At some point in the ninth century (at least by 888) it entered into the domains of the Armenian Bagratunis . Kars was the capital of the Bagratid kingdom of Armenia between 929 and 961. During this period,

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