Ağrı ( ku, Agirî; ) is the capital of
Ağrı Province
The Ağrı Province ( tr, Ağrı ili, ku, Parêzgeha Agiriyê) is a province in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran to the east, Kars to the north, Erzurum to the northwest, Muş and Bitlis to the southwest, Van to the south, and Iğdır to the n ...
in eastern
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
, near the border with
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. Formerly known as Karaköse ( ku, Qerekose) from the early Turkish republican period until 1946, and before that as Karakilise ( ota, قرهکلیسا, Karakilisa, lit=Black Church; ), the city is now named after Ağrı, the Turkish name of
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat or , ''Ararat''; or is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in the extreme east of Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest peak in Turkey and th ...
''.''
History
In the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...
era, the area was called Karakilisa (). The current town center was founded around 1860 by a group of
Armenian merchants from
Bitlis
Bitlis ( hy, Բաղեշ '; ku, Bidlîs; ota, بتليس) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of Bitlis Province. The city is located at an elevation of 1,545 metres, 15 km from Lake Van, in the steep-sided valley of the Bitlis R ...
with the name Karakilise () that became known to the local population as Karakise, and this version was turned officially to Karaköse at the beginning of the Republican era. This name was changed to Ağrı by 1946.
In the years of 1927 to 1931, the region was under the occupation of the
Kurdish separatist movements, which gained to establish an unrecognized state named
Republic of Ararat which was led by several
Kurdish leaders, some of the Main were
Ibrahim Heski and
Ihsan Nuri.
In the medieval period, the district's administrative centre was located at
Alashkert, once an important town. The "kara kilise" that gave the town its name was a medieval Armenian church. In 1895
H. F. B. Lynch stayed in Karakilise and wrote that it had between 1500 and 2000 inhabitants, was nearly two-thirds Armenian, and that a barracks for a locally recruited
Kurdish Hamidiye regiment had been recently located in the town.
The Armenian population of the town and surrounding valley was massacred during the
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...
: a New York Times report from March 1915 talks of the Alashkert valley being covered with the bodies of men, women, and children.
Economy and infrastructure
Ağrı contains most of the industry in Ağrı Province where the main economic activity is Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. There is Ağrı Meat and Milk Factory and the ELDESAN leather factory is one of the biggest in the region. There is also a Sugar Factory, Shoe Factory Flour Mills, Agricultural Equipment manufacturing sites, brick factory, lime factory, furniture factory, dairy factory and textile mills.
In the south Ağrı counts with access to the
Ağrı Ahmed-i Hani Airport in Yolluyazı. National and international flights arrive and depart from here.
North of Ağrı, there is a longwave broadcasting station with 2 250 metres tall guyed masts, broadcasting on 162 kHz with 1000 kW.
It is a very poor region with extremely cold winters. Most people live by grazing animals on the mountainside. Few people manage to attend university; people tend to marry in their teens and families with ten or more children are common. The local MP
Fatma Salman Kotan has written of the need to erode the patriarchal nature of society in the region.
Climate
Ağrı has a Mediterranean-influenced warm-summer
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...
(Dsb) under
Köppen and a warm summer continental climate (Dcb) under
Trewartha
Trewartha and Andrewartha are Cornish family names (and placename, Dexter). There are places called Trewartha in the parishes of Merther, St Agnes, St Neot and Veryan.
According to the ''Handbook of Cornish Names'' by G. Pawley White, "Tre ...
classification. Summers are generally brief but warm with cool nights. The average high temperature in August is roughly . Winters are very cold. The average low January temperature is . It snows a lot in winter, staying for an average of four months in the city. The highest recorded temperature was on 10 August 1961. The lowest recorded temperature in Ağrı was on 20 January 1972. The highest recorded snow thickness was 225 cm ( 88.6 inches) on 21 February 1985.
Notable People
*
Şakiro
Şakir Deniz also known as Şakiro (born in 1936 in Eleşkirt–1996, Izmir, Turkey), was a Kurdish Dengbêj singer. His songs were often recorded on cassettes and distributed illegally, when the Kurdish language faced limitations in cultural exp ...
(1936-1996), Legendary Kurdish
Dengbêj singer
*
Yaşar Ören (1942*), cross-country skier.
*
Celal Adan
Celal Adan (born 10 September 1951 in Ağrı) is a Turkish politician. He was elected in 2011 to the 24th Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Adan had previously represented the True Path Party (DYP) in th ...
(1952*), Politician
*
Nizamettin Ariç (1956*), contemporary Kurdish singer, composer and director.
*
Abdullah Yilmaz (1961*), cross-country skier.
*
Erhan Dursun (1962*), cross-country skier.
*
Cesim Gökçe (1968*), Politician
*
Fatma Salman Kotan (1970*), Member of Parliament for Ağrı
*
Savci Sayan (1971*), Politician and currently Mayor of Ağrı
*
Şahe bedo (1976*),
Kurdish Singer
*
Mehmet Emin İlhan (1979*), Politician
*
Berdan Öztürk
Berdan Öztürk is a Turkish politician from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who has served as a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Ağrı since 7 June 2015.
Early life and career
Öztürk graduated from Marmara Univers ...
(1980*), Politician
*
Dirayet Taşdemir (1982*), Politician
*
Türkan Erişmiş (1984*), middle distance runner
*
Adem Kılıçcı (1986*), amateur boxer in the middleweight division.
*
Nesim Turan
Nesim Turan (born March 2, 1992) is a Turkish para table tennis player of class 4 and Paralympian.
In 2014, he won the gold medal in the Individual C4 event and silver medal along with his teammates Abdullah Öztürk and Ali Öztürk in the ...
(1992*), para table tennis player
*
Bayram Malkan (1994*), boxer in the light heavyweight
*
Zeynep Çelik
Zeynep Çelik (born 7 April 1996) is a Turkish world and European champion Paralympic judoka with visual impairment.
Sport career
Çelik is tall at . She is a member of Kocaeli BB Kağıt SK and is coached by Ahmet Ömre Türe. She has a vis ...
(1996*), Paralympic judoka.
*
Kader Çelik (2001*), Paralympian goalball player
References
External links
Ağrı
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agri
Districts of Ağrı Province
Kurdish settlements in Turkey