Ardanuç ( ka, italic=yes, არტანუჯი, Artanuji; ) is a town in
Artvin Province
Artvin Province (; Armenian language, Armenian: Արտվինի նահանգ ''Artvini nahang''; ka, , ''Artvinis p'rovintsia''; Laz language, Laz: ართვინიშ დობადონა ''Artvinish dobadona;'') is a Provinces of Turke ...
in
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 ...
's
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
region of
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 ...
, 32 km east of
Artvin
Artvin (Laz language, Laz and ; ; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in northeastern Turkey about inland from the Black Sea. It is the seat of Artvin Province and Artvin District.Lazuri language and Armenian (; lit. "edge of
Ardahan
Ardahan ( ka, არტაანი, tr; ; Russian: Ардаган) is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. It is the seat of Ardahan Province and Ardahan District.Ardanuç District
Ardanuç District is a district of Artvin Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town Ardanuç. ...
.İlçe Belediyesi Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 12 January 2023. Its population is 5,470 (2021).
History
The history of this area goes back to the settlement of the banks of the
Çoruh River
The Chorokh ( ka, ჭოროხი ''Ch'orokhi'' , , ''Chorokh'', , , ''Akampsis'') is a river that rises in the Mescit Mountains in north-eastern Turkey, flows through the cities of Bayburt, İspir, Yusufeli, and Artvin, along the Kelkit Rive ...
by the
Hurri
The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria, upper Mesopotamia and southeaste ...
and
Mitanni
Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian language, Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria (region), Syria an ...
branches of the
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
in 2000 BC. The first mention of Ardanuç was in a
Urartu
Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...
monument to the defeat of the local people in battle by King
Sarduri II
Sarduri II (ruled: 764–735 BC) was a King of Urartu, succeeding his father Argishti I to the throne. The Urartian Kingdom was at its peak during his reign, campaigning successfully against several neighbouring powers, including Assyria.
Reig ...
in 753 BC. Then in the 7th century BC the
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
or
Scythians
The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian noma ...
are known to have settled and they dominated Artanuj.The castle of Artanuj was built by Georgian king Vakhtang Gorgasali (5th century AD). The castle was besieged by Arab caliph Marwan II (688–750)
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
in 744 AD. and was restored by Ashot I Bagrationi in the 8th century. He also founded a city, which became the center of the "Kingdom of Georgians" of
Tao-Klarjeti Tao-Klarjeti may refer to:
* Tao-Klarjeti, part of Georgian historical region of Upper Kartli
* Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti, AD 888 to 1008
{{set index article
Kingdom of Iberia
Historical regions of Georgia (country) ...
Anatolian beyliks
Anatolian beyliks (, Ottoman Turkish: ''Tavâif-i mülûk'', ''Beylik''; ) were Turkish principalities (or petty kingdoms) in Anatolia governed by ''beys'', the first of which were founded at the end of the 11th century. A second and more exte ...
began in 1080. Artanuj being a mountain stronghold was hard to capture, although it did fall to the
Mongols
Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...
during their wars with the Turks and Georgians in the 13th century and was brought into the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
in 1551 by
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
following yet another siege, this time to overturn the local ruler,
Atabeg
Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic language, Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the ti ...
of
Samtskhe
Meskheti ( ka, მესხეთი ) or Samtskhe ( ka, სამცხე ), also known as Moschia in ancient sources, is a mountainous area in southwestern Georgia.
History
Ancient tribes known as the Mushki (or Moschi) and Mosiniks (or Mo ...
Jakeli.
Following the
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and a coalition led by the Russian Empire which included United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, Romania, Principality of Serbia, Serbia, and Principality of ...
Artanuj/Ardanuç was ceded to
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. During the early stages of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Ottoman irregular forces carried out massacres of the local Armenian and other members of the Christian population.Candan Badem, “The War at the Caucasus Front: A Matrix for Genocide,” in ''The End of the Ottomans: The Genocide of 1915 and the Politics of Turkish Nationalism'', eds. Hans-Lukas Kieser et al. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2019), 47-66.
After the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
Artanuj became part of
Democratic Republic of Georgia
The Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG; ka, საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკა, tr) was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia (country), Georgia, which exist ...
. The young state placed itself under German protection and ceded its largely
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 ...
-inhabited regions (including the cities of
Batum
Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the second-largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest, north of the border ...
,
Ardahan
Ardahan ( ka, არტაანი, tr; ; Russian: Ардаган) is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. It is the seat of Ardahan Province and Ardahan District.Artvin
Artvin (Laz language, Laz and ; ; ) is a List of cities in Turkey, city in northeastern Turkey about inland from the Black Sea. It is the seat of Artvin Province and Artvin District.Akhaltsikhe
Akhaltsikhe ( ka, ახალციხე ), formerly known as Lomsia ( ka, ლომსია ), is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region () of Samtskhe–Javakheti. It is the administrative center of the Akhaltsikhe Municipality and ...
and
Akhalkalaki
Akhalkalaki ( ka, ახალქალაქი, tr ; ) is a town in Georgia (country), Georgia's southern region of Samtskhe–Javakheti and the administrative centre of the Akhalkalaki Municipality. Akhalkalaki lies on the edge of the Javakheti ...
) to the Ottoman government (
Treaty of Batum
The Treaty of Batum was signed in Batumi on 4 June 1918, between the Ottoman Empire and the three Transcaucasian states: the First Republic of Armenia, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of Georgia. It was the first ...
, June 4). Following the end of the war, in 1920 Georgia regained control over Artvin, Ardahan, Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki. However, after the Red Army's invasion of Georgia, the region was occupied by the newly formed Republic of Turkey.
Iskender Pasha Mosque
The Iskender Pasha Mosque and Tombs (''İskender Paşa Camii ve Türbeleri'') was commissioned by Iskender Pasha and opened in 1553. It is built in a classical Ottoman style and has four domes. It also contains the tombs of Hatice Hanım, Ali Pasha and Süleyman Pasha.
Geography
Ardanuç is a mountainous district, rising from in the Şavşat River basin (
Şavşat
Şavşat ( ka, შავშეთი, tr) is a town in Artvin Province in the Black Sea region, between the cities of Artvin and Kars on the border with Georgia at the far eastern end of Turkey. It is the seat of Şavşat District.
Bulanık
Bulanık, formerly Gop or Kop (; ), is a town in Muş Province, in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey. It is the seat of Bulanık District.Aydın
Aydın ( ''EYE-din''; ; formerly named ''Güzelhisar; Greek: Τράλλεις)'' is a city in and the seat of Aydın Province in Turkey's Aegean Region. The city is located at the heart of the lower valley of Büyük Menderes River (ancient ...
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(
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 ...