Arapgir ( hy, Արաբկիր; ku, Erebgir) is a town and district of

Malatya Province Malatya Province ( tr, ; ku, Parezgêha Meletîyê) is a province of Turkey. It is part of a larger mountainous area. The capital of the province is Malatya. The area of Malatya province is 12,313 km². Malatya Province had a population of ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. As of 2000 it had a population of 17,070 people. It is situated at the confluence of the eastern and western

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

, but some miles from the right bank of the combined streams. Arapgir is connected with

Sivas Sivas (Latin and Greek: ''Sebastia'', ''Sebastea'', Σεβάστεια, Σεβαστή, ) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province. The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is a ...

by a ''chaussée'', prolonged to the Euphrates river. The present town was built in the mid-19th century, but about 2 miles north-east is the old town, now called Eskişehir ("old city" in Turkish).

Demographics

Arapgir town is populated by

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ir ...

. In descending order of population, the district is populated by

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

and

and also historically had an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

population.

Composition

History

Arapgir is a market town and received significant Seljuk Turkish arrivals in the 12th century.

Population

According to

Donald Quataert Donald George Quataert (September 10, 1941 – February 10, 2011) was a historian at Binghamton University. He taught courses on Middle East/Ottoman history, with an interest in labor, social and economics, during the early and modern periods. H ...

, Arapgir in the 1880s was made up of 4,802 Muslim and 1,200 Armenian households, with a total population of about 29,000 persons. According to a

METU Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering a ...

study citing Nejat Göyünç, the city population was about 20,000 in 1911, of which more than half of the population was

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and the rest were

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. Differing sources present differing pictures for the respective shares of ethnicities within the weavers' community. The Armenian population is reported to have suffered severely during the

Hamidian massacres The Hamidian massacres also called the Armenian massacres, were massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the mid-1890s. Estimated casualties ranged from 100,000 to 300,000, Akçam, Taner (2006) '' A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide an ...

of 1895, although, in this regard, Donald Quataert notes, with textile exports back to normal levels a year after the turmoil, in 1896, either all weavers were Muslims after all, or few Armenian weavers were killed, displaced or disrupted during the troubles. On the eve of World War I, there were about 9,523 Armenians (1,300 houses) and 6,774 Turks living in Arapgir. After the 1915

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

, most of the Armenian population of Arapgir was killed or deported.

Churches, Mosques and other buildings

Before the

Arapgir had seven Armenian Apostolic churches: Surp Astvadzadzin (Holy Mother of God) Church, not to be confused with the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

, Grigor Lusavorich (Gregory the Illuminator) Church, Surp Kevork Church, Surp Hagob Church, Surp Nshan Church, Surp Pilibos Arakel (St. Philip the Apostle) Church, Surp Sarkis Church, There were, also, one Catholic Surp Prgich (Holy Saviors) Church and one Protestant Cuğran Church.Kévorkian and Paboudjian, ''Les Arméniens dans l’Empire Ottoman'', p. 376. There were also more than 10 schools in the town. Little is left of pre-war Arapgir, but there are still some old houses that have survived, which are Armenian origin. The town also contains the ruins of a castle, several Seljuk mosques, old cemetery and silver mines.

People from Arapgir

Abdullah Cevdet Abdullah Cevdet ( ota, عبدالله جودت‎; tr, Abdullah Cevdet Karlıdağ; 9 September 1869 – 29 November 1932) was a Kurdish intellectual and physician in the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the founders of the Committee of Union and ...

* Aram Achekbashian (1867-1915),

Hnchak The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) ( hy, Սոցիալ Դեմոկրատ Հնչակյան Կուսակցություն; ՍԴՀԿ, translit=Sots’ial Demokrat Hnch’akyan Kusakts’ut’yun), is the oldest continuously-operating Armenian ...

politician * Cemal Azmi (1868-1922), Ottoman politician *

Vahagn Davtyan Vahagn Davtyan () (August 15, 1922, Arabkir, Turkey – February 21, 1996, Yerevan) was an Armenian poet, translator, publicist and public activist. Biography He was born in the town of Arapgir in Turkey. Davtyan was a Renowned activist of ...

, (1922-1996), an Armenian writer *

Khajag Barsamian Khajag Barsamian ( hy, Խաժակ Արքեպիսկոպոս Պարսամեան; born July 4, 1951) is an Armenian religious figure. He is the Pontifical Legate of the Western Europe and Representative of the Armenian Church to the Holy See. Former ...

, born 1951, the primate of Diocese of Armenian Church of Eastern America * Zehra Bilir (1913-2007), famous singer of Turkish folk songs known as "Türkü Ana" (Mother of Folk Songs). After her death, it was revealed she was born Armenian by the name of Eliz Surhantakyan.

References

External links

Arapgir Towns Official Web Page

Arapgir Town VideoArapgir Nazar Hotel
{{Authority control Populated places in Malatya Province Districts of Malatya Province Kurdish settlements in Turkey Cittaslow