Gürpınar ( ku, Payizawa/Xawesor, hy, Հայոց Ձոր, translit=Hayots' Dzor) is a village and district of

Van Province Van Province ( tr, Van ili, ku, Parezgêha Wanê, Armenian: Վանի մարզ) is a province in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,035,418 at ...

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 ...

. The administrative center is located south of the provincial capital

Van A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...

. With an area of 4,700 km², Gürpınar is the largest district of

. It has 79 villages and several places of historical interest. Much of the residents of this area speak

Kurmanji Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...

, the most commonly spoken dialect of the

Kurdish language Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...

. The current mayor is Hayrullah Tanış from the

Justice and Development Party Justice and Development Party may refer to several political parties, the best-known ones being: * Justice and Development Party (Morocco) * Justice and Development Party (Turkey) Justice and Development Party may also refer to: * Justice and Dev ...

(AKP). The current

kaymakam Kaymakam, also known by many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been retained an ...

Fatih Sayar was appointed in August 2019.

Name

The area's old Armenian name is Hayots Dzor ( hy, Հայոց Ձոր, meaning "Valley of the Armenians"). Its Kurdish name is Payizava; however, the Armenian-derived Xawesor is also used. The titular village of Gürpınar itself was also known to Armenians as Kghzi (, meaning "island", due to it being surrounded by the

Shamiram Canal The Shamiram canal, also known as the Semiramis canal and previously as the Menua canal, is a canal located to the east of Van, Turkey that runs 45 miles long, supplying a large region and flowing into Lake Van. King Menua of Urartu built the Semir ...

History

In Armenian mythology, Hayots Dzor is the valley where the Armenian progenitor

Hayk Hayk ( hy, Հայկ, ), also known as Hayk Nahapet (, , ), is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. His story is told in the '' History of Armenia'' attributed to the Armenian historian Moses of Chorene (Movses Khorenatsi ...

defeated the army of the invading Babylonian king

Bel BEL can be an abbreviation for: * The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Belgium * ''BEL'' or bell character in the C0 control code set * Belarusian language, in the ISO 639-2 and SIL country code lists * Bharat Electronics Limited, an Indian stat ...

and constructed a fortress (Haykaberd) nearby. In the Middle Ages, the area was a part of the Armenian kingdom of

Vaspurakan Vaspurakan (, Western Armenian pronunciation: ''Vasbouragan'') was the eighth province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered on Lake Van. Located in what is now southeaster ...

, ruled by the

Artsruni dynasty The Artsruni ( hy, Արծրունի; also transliterated as Ardzruni) were an ancient noble (princely) family of Armenia. Background and history The Artsruni's claimed descent from Sennacherib, King of Assyria (705 BC–681 BC). Although ...

of Armenian kings. The village of Kghzi had 241 Armenian and 11 Kurdish inhabitants in 1909 (the wider region of Hayots Dzor was home to about 10,000 Armenians before the

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 ...

). The Armenian population was massacred or displaced during the Armenian genocide; some of the inhabitants managed to flee and settle in

Eastern Armenia Eastern Armenia ( hy, Արևելյան Հայաստան ''Arevelyan Hayastan'') comprises the eastern part of the Armenian Highlands, the traditional homeland of the Armenian people. Between the 4th and the 20th centuries, Armenia was partitioned ...

Historical places

* Hoşap Castle * Sardurihinilli, Urartian castle * Surp Marinos Monastery *Zernek castle near Hamurkesen, Van *Dar Mariam Church *Tirishim plateau * Menua Canal

References

External links

*
www.gurpinar.gov.tr Gurpinar Government - Gurpinar
' *
www.van-gurpinar.bel.tr Gurpinar Municipality- Gurpinar
' Cities in Turkey Populated places in Van Province Western Armenia Districts of Van Province Kurdish settlements in Turkey {{Van-geo-stub cbk-zam:Gürpınar (District), Van hy:Հայոց Ձոր