Ağrı (; ) is a city in eastern

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 ...

, near the border with

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. It is the seat of

Ağrı Province Ağrı Province () is located in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran to the east and the Provinces of Turkey, provinces of Kars Province, Kars to the north, Erzurum Province, Erzurum to the northwest, Muş Province, Muş and Bitlis Province, Bitlis to ...

and Ağrı District.İl Belediyesi
Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 12 January 2023. Its population is 120,390 (2021). It was formerly known as Karaköse. In the early Turkish republican period and until 1946, it was officially known as Karakilise. the city is now named after Ağrı, the Turkish name of

Mount Ararat Mount Ararat, also known as Masis or Mount Ağrı, is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in Eastern Turkey, easternmost Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest p ...

''.''

History

Ağrı has old settlements such as Doğubeyazıt and Patnos, whose origins date back to the Middle Ages and the Islamic period. Over a long period of time, the region became part of the Urartians, the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

, the

Macedonian Empire Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

founded by

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

, the

Seleucids The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, ...

, and the Armenian Kingdom, which recognized Persian and Roman domination for many years. With the Islamic conquests that began after the death of

Prophet Muhammad In Islam, Muhammad () is venerated as the Seal of the Prophets who transmitted the Quran, eternal word of God () from the Angels in Islam, angel Gabriel () to humans and jinn. Muslims believe that the Quran, the central religious text of Isl ...

in 632, the region came under Muslim rule. The Muslims took this region from the

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 ...

and the Iranians (Sassanid Empire) and attached it to their own caliphate, and managed to have a say in the region for a long time. The first Muslims to settle in the region were settled in 872 during the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

period. The city came under Seljuk rule from the Byzantine rule for a short time after the 1048 Battle of Kaperton. The Mongols conquered all of Anatolia including Ağrı in the Battle of Kose Dağ in 1243 and the city was later included in the Ilkhanate Khanate established in 1256. Shah Ismail founded the Safavid state in 1501 and conquered Ağrı and its surroundings in his eastern Anatolian campaign in 1503. With the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, the city under Safavid control came under Ottoman rule. In the 17th century, the famous Kurdish astronomer, geographer, philosopher and Islamic scholar Ehmede Xani came to this city. He received education in the Beyazıt Palace and developed his ideas there. DefenceOfBayazet

The Dogubayazit district in the 19th century he town witnessed conflicts in the Ottoman–Persian War, when Abbas Mirza, commander-in-chief of

Qajar Iran The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic peoples, Turkic origin,Cyrus G ...

, occupied the town in 1821, and later in 1856, when it was attacked by Russia and taken by the Russians during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). When the Russians retreated, most of the local Armenians left with them to build Yeni Beyazıt (now Gavar in Armenia) on the shores of Lake Sevan. The current town center was founded around 1860 by a group of

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 ...

merchants from

Bitlis Bitlis ( or ; ) is a city in southeastern Turkey. It is the seat of Bitlis District and Bitlis Province.Kurdish separatist movements, which gained to establish an unrecognized state named

Republic of Ararat The Republic of Ararat, also known as the Kurdish Republic of Ararat,Abbas Vali, ''Essays on the origins of Kurdish nationalism'', Mazda Publishers, 2003, p. 199./ref> was a self-proclaimed Kurdish people, Kurdish state from 1927 to 1931. It w ...

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" or "black church" 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 by the Ottoman troops, assisted by tribal

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 ...

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 ...

: a ''New York Times'' report from March 1915 mentions 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. The ELDESAN leather factory is one of the biggest in the region. There are also a sugar factory, shoe factory, flour mills, agricultural equipment manufacturing sites, brick factory, lime factory, furniture factory, dairy factory and textile mills. 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. Despite being home to a

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, few people manage to attend; 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.

Demographics

On the eve 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 ...

, 8,180

lived in the

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

of Karakilise. The city itself had a total population of 4,500, half of them being Armenians. The town had two Armenian schools. Today, the city is majority Kurdish.

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 cold ...

(Dsb) under

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 ...

and a warm summer continental climate (Dcb) under Trewartha 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 city receives an average of 537 millimetres of rain per year. The rainiest months are April and May, while the driest is August. The highest recorded snow thickness was 225 cm ( 88.6 inches) on 21 February 1985.

Notable people

* Selahattin Beyazıt, (1931–2022) was a Turkish businessman * Şakiro (1936-1996), Kurdish Dengbêj singer *

Yaşar Ören Turkey competed at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South A ...

(1942*), cross-country skier * Celal Adan (1951*), politician * Nizamettin Ariç (1956*), contemporary Kurdish singer, composer and director * Hasan Murat Mercan (1959*), Turkish politician and diplomat * Abdullah Yilmaz (1961*), cross-country skier * Erhan Dursun (1962*), cross-country skier * Cemal Kaya (1962*), politician * Cesim Gökçe (1968*), politician * Fatma Salman Kotan (1970*), Member of Parliament for Ağrı * Savci Sayan (1971*), politician and current mayor of Ağrı * Şahe bedo (1976*), Kurdish Singer * Mehmet Emin İlhan (1979*), politician * Berdan Öztürk (1980*), politician * Dirayet Taşdemir (1982*), politician * Türkan Erişmiş (1984*), middle distance runner * Adem Kılıçcı (1986*), amateur boxer in the middleweight division * Nejla Demir (1988*) Turkish engineer and politician * Nesim Turan (1992*), para table tennis player * Bayram Malkan (1994*), boxer in the light heavyweight * Zeynep Çelik (1996*), Paralympic judoka * Kader Çelik (2001*), Paralympian goalball player *

Abdullah Şahindere Abdullah Şahindere (born 9 June 2003) is a Turkish association football, footballer who plays as a Defender (association football), defender for TFF Third League club Hacettepe 1945 SK on loan from Gençlerbirliği S.K., Gençlerbirliği. Caree ...

(2003*), Turkish footballer

References

External links

Ağrı
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agri Kurdish settlements in Ağrı Province Provincial municipalities in Turkey Former Armenian communities in Ağrı Province