Arapgir (; ) is a municipality and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Malatya Province Malatya Province (; ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 12,259 km2, and its population is 812,580 (2022). It is part of a larger mountainous area. Th ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its area is 987 km², and its population is 9,964 (2022). It is situated at the confluence of the eastern and western

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

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

Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...

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).

History

This territory is a part of historical

Lesser Armenia Lesser Armenia (; ; ), also known as Armenia Minor and Armenia Inferior, comprised the Armenian-populated regions primarily to the west and northwest of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia (also known as Kingdom of Greater Armenia), on the western sid ...

. The old town of Arapgir was founded by the Armenian King

Senekerim-Hovhannes Artsruni Senekerim-Hovhannes Artsruni (), also known variously as Senekerim-John, Sennecherim or Sennacherib-John, known in Byzantine sources simply as Senachereim (), was the sixth and last King of Vaspurakan, from the Artsruni dynasty. In 1021/22, he s ...

in 1021, who had exchanged his

kingdom of Vaspurakan The Kingdom of Vaspurakan (; also transliterated as Vasbouragan from Western Armenian) was a medieval Armenian kingdom centered on Lake Van, located in what is now eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran. It was named after Vaspurakan, a province o ...

for estates in the central lands of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

Composition

There are 63

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

in Arapgir District: * Aktaş * Alıçlı * Aşağıçörenge * Aşağıulupınar * Aşağıyenice * Berenge * Boğazlı * Bostancık * Budak * Çakırsu * Çarşı * Çaybaşı * Çiğnir * Çimen * Çobanlı * Cömertli * Deregezen * Düzce * Esikli * Eskiarapkir * Eynir * Gebeli * Göz * Gözeli * Günyüzü * Hezenek * Hocaali * Kayakesen * Kaynak * Kazanç * Kılıçlı * Konducak * Koru * Köseoğlu * Mehmet Akif * Meşeli * Onar * Ormansırtı * Osmanpaşa * Pacalı * Pirali * Şağıluşağı * Sekizsu * Selamlı * Serge * Şıhlar * Sinikli * Sipahiuşağı * Suçeyin * Sugeçti * Tarhan * Taşdelen * Taşdibek * Ulaçlı * Yaylacık * Yazılı * Yeni * Yeşilyayla * Yukarı Ulupınar * Yukarı Yenice * Yukarıçörenge * Yukarıyabanlı * Zohrap

Climate

Arapgir has a dry-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 cold ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Dsa''), transitioning to a

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

: ''Csa'') with hot, dry summers and cold, frequently snowy winters.

Demographics

Arapgir town is populated by

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

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

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

, and

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

. Armenians used to be the second largest ethnic group after Turks, constituting one third of the population, but most of the population was wiped out during the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, 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 t ...

. Ethnic composition of the villages in Arapgir District: *Turkish: Aktaş, Alıçlı, Boğazlı, Budak, Çiğnir, Çimen, Düzce, Eski Arapgir, Eynir, Gözeli, Günyüzü, Kayakesen, Koruköy, Onar, Ormansırtı, Selamlı, Yeşilyayla, Yukarı Yabanlı *Kurdish: Bostancık, Çakırsu, Deregezen, Esikli, Gebeli, Kaynak, Kazanç, Kılıçlı, Konducak, Pacalı, Pirali, Şağıluşağı, Sinikli, Sipahiuşağı, Sugeçti, Tarhan, Ulaçlı, Yaylacık, Yazılı *Kurdish and Turkish: Suçeyin, Taşdelen

History

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. ...

, 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 prestigious public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. As Turkey’s top ranked university, they focus on r ...

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

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 around the ...

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

and the rest were

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

. 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 a ...

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

, 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 (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

, 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 Bey (‎9 September 1869 – 29 November 1932) was a Young Turk intellectual and physician of Kurdish origin. He was one of the founders of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and wrote articles with pen name of "Bir Kür ...

Aram Achekbashian Aram Achekbashian (, 1867 in Arapgir – 1915 in Constantinople) was an Armenian politician who became a member of Social-Democrat Hunchakian Party Central Committee in 1903. Biography In 1886, Achekbashian entered the Faculty of Law at Is ...

(1867–1915),

Hnchak The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) (), is the oldest continuously-operating Armenian political party, founded in 1887 by a group of students in Geneva, Switzerland. It was the first socialist party to operate in the Ottoman Empire and i ...

politician *

Cemal Azmi Cemal Azmi (1868 – April 17, 1922), also spelled Jemal Azmi, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish politician and governor of the Trebizond Vilayet, Trebizond (now Trabzon) Vilayet (province) during World War I and the fina ...

(1868–1922), Ottoman politician *

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

, (1922–1996), an Armenian writer * Khajag Barsamian, born 1951, the primate of Diocese of Armenian Church of Eastern America * Zehra Bilir (1913–2007), born Eliz Surhantakyan, Turkish folk singer of Armenian origin, known as "Türkü Ana" (Mother of Folk Songs)

References

External links

Arapgir Towns Official Web Page

Arapgir Town VideoArapgir Nazar Hotel
{{Authority control Populated places in Malatya Province Districts of Malatya Province Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey Kurdish settlements in Turkey Cittaslow Armenian communities in Turkey

History

Composition

Climate

Demographics

History

Churches, mosques and other buildings

People from Arapgir

See also

References

External links