Kingdom of Kars ( hy, Կարսի թագավորություն), alternatively known as the Kingdom of Vanand ( hy, Վանանդի թագավորություն), was a medieval

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

n kingdom formed in the year 963 by the son of

Abas I of Armenia Abas (, died 953) was king of Bagratid Armenia from 928 to 953. He was a member of the Bagratid ( Bagratuni) royal dynasty. He was the son of Smbat I and the brother of Ashot II the Iron, whom he succeeded. In contrast to the reign of his predec ...

, Mushegh Bagratuni (d. 984). The capital of the kingdom was Kars, currently part of modern-day

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 in ...

. In 963, shortly after the Bagratuni seat was transferred to

Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...

, Kars became the capital of a separate independent kingdom called Vanand. However, the extent of its actual independence from the

Kingdom of Ani The Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia, also known as Bagratid Armenia ( xcl, Բագրատունեաց Հայաստան, or , , 'kingdom of the Bagratunis'), was an independent Armenian state established by Ashot I Bagratuni of the Bagratuni dynasty ...

is uncertain: it was always in the possession of the relatives of the rulers of Ani, and, after Ani's capture by the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

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 Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

), the Armenian king of Kars, Gagik, paid homage to the victorious Turks so that they would not lay siege to his city. In 1065 Gagik ceded his kingdom to the Byzantine Empire, but soon after Kars was taken by the Seljuk Turks.

Rulers

References

See also