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Kars
Panaromic view of Kars city from the fortress.
Country	Turkey
Region	Eastern Anatolia
Province	Kars
Government
• Mayor	Nevzat Bozkuş (AKP)
Population
• Total	130,361
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Kars (Template:Lang-hy Kars or Ղարս Ghars) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province.

History

As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography (Strabo) as part of ancient Armenia. For the etymological origin of the name "Kars", some sources claim it is derived from the Georgian word ყარსი ("kari"), meaning "the gate" while other sources claim it is from the Armenian word "հարս" ("hars") which means bride.

Medieval period

Little is known of the early history of Kars beyond the fact that it had its own dynasty of Armenian rulers and was the capital of a region known as Vanand. Medieval Armenian historians referred to the city by a variety of names, including "Karuts' K'aghak'" (Kars city), "Karuts' Berd", "Amrots'n Karuts'" (both meaning Kars Fortress) and "Amurn Karuts'" (Sturdy Kars). At some point in the ninth century (at least by 888) it became part of the territory of the Armenian Bagratunis. For a short time (from 928 to 961) Kars became the capital of their kingdom. It was during this period that the town's cathedral, later known as the Church of the Holy Apostles, was built.

In 963, shortly after the Bagratuni capital was transferred to Ani, Kars became the capital of a separate independent kingdom, again called Vanand. The extent of its actual independence from the Kingdom of Ani is uncertain: it was always held by relatives of the rulers of Ani, and after Ani's capture by the Byzantine Empire 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 the Seljuk Turks, the Armenian king of Kars, Gagik-Abas, paid homage to the victorious Turks, so that they would not lay siege to his city. In 1065 Gagik-Abas ceded control of Kars to the Byzantine Empire, but soon after they lost it to the Seljuk Turks.

In 1206/1207 the city was captured by the Georgians and given to the same Zakarid family who ruled Ani. They retained control of Kars until the late 1230s, after which it had Turkish rulers. In 1387 the city surrendered to Timur (Tamerlane) and its fortifications were damaged. Anatolian beyliks followed until 1534, when the Ottoman army captured the city. The fortifications of the city were rebuilt by the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and were strong enough to withstand a siege by Nadir Shah of Persia, in 1731. It became the head of a sanjak in the Ottoman Erzurum Vilayet.

Russian administration

In 1807 Kars successfully resisted an attack by the Russian Empire. After another siege in 1828 the city was surrendered on June 23, 1828 to the Russian general Count Ivan Paskevich, 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war. Although it later returned to Ottoman control, the new border between the Ottoman Empire and Russia was now much closer to Kars. During the Crimean War a Ottoman garrison led by British officers including General William Fenwick Williams kept the Russians at bay during a protracted siege; but after the garrison had been devastated by cholera and food supplies had failed, the town was surrendered to General Mouravieff in November 1855.

The fortress was again stormed by the Russians in the Battle of Kars during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78 under generals Loris-Melikov and Ivan Lazarev. Following the war, Kars was transferred to Russia by the Treaty of San Stefano. Kars became the capital of Kars Oblast (province), comprising the districts of Kars, Ardahan, Kaghisman, and Olti.

From 1878-1881 more than 82,000 Muslims from formerly Ottoman-controlled territory migrated to the Ottoman Empire. Among those there were more than 11,000 people from the city of Kars. At the same time, many Armenians and Pontic Greeks migrated to the region from the Ottoman Empire and other regions of Transcaucasia. According to the Russian census data, by 1892 Russians formed 7% of the population, Greeks 13.5%, Kurds 15%, Armenians 21.5%, Turks 24%, Karapapakhs 14%, and Turkmen were 5% of the population of Kars Oblast of Russian Empire.

World War I

In the First World War, the city was one of the main objectives of the Ottoman army during the Battle of Sarikamish in the Caucasus Campaign. Russia ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. However, by then Kars was under the effective control of Armenian and non-Bolshevik Russian forces. The Ottoman empire captured Kars on April 25, 1918, but under the Armistice of Mudros (October 1918) was required to withdraw to its 1914 frontier. The Ottomans refused to relinquish Kars, its military governor instead constituting a provisional government, the Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus, led by Fahrettin Pirioglu, that claimed Turkish sovereignty over Kars and the Turkish-speaking and Islamic neighboring regions as far as Batumi and Alexandropol (Gyumri). Much of the region fell under the administrative control of Armenia in January 1919 but the pro-Turkish government remained in the city until the arrival of the British troops, who dissolved it on April 19, 1919, arresting its leaders and sending them to Malta. In May 1919 Kars came under the full administration of the Armenian Republic and became the capital of its Vanand province.

Skirmishes between Turkish revolutionaries and Armenian border troops in Olti led to an invasion of the Armenian Republic by four Turkish divisions under the command of General Kâzım Karabekir, triggering the Turkish-Armenian War. The war led to the capture of Kars by Turkish forces on October 30, 1920. The terms of the Treaty of Alexandropol, signed by the representatives of Armenia and Turkey on December 2, 1920, forced Armenia to cede more than 50% of its pre-war territory and to give up all the territories granted to it at the Treaty of Sèvres.

After the Bolshevik advance into Armenia, the Alexandropol treaty was superseded by the Treaty of Kars (October 23, 1921), signed between Turkey and the Soviet Union. The treaty allowed for Soviet annexation of Adjara in exchange for Turkish control of the regions of Kars, Igdir, and Ardahan. The treaty established peaceful relations between the two nations, but as early as 1939, some British diplomats noted indications that the Soviet Union was not satisfied with the established border. On more than one occasion, the Soviets attempted to renegotiate with Turkey to at least allow the Armenians access to the ancient ruins of Ani. However, the government in Ankara refused these attempts.

Recent history

After World War II, the Soviet Union attempted to annul the Kars treaty and regain the Kars region and the adjoining region of Ardahan. On June 7, 1945, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov told the Turkish ambassador to Moscow Selim Sarper that the regions should be returned to the Soviet Union, in the name of both the Georgian and Armenian republics. Turkey found itself in a difficult position: it wanted good relations with the Soviet Union, but at the same time they refused to give up the territories. Turkey itself was in no condition to fight a war with the Soviet Union, which had emerged as a superpower after the second world war. By the autumn of 1945, Soviet troops in the Caucasus were already assembling for a possible invasion of Turkey. The British prime minister Winston Churchill objected to these territorial claims, while President Harry S. Truman of the United States felt that this matter shouldn't concern other parties. The Cold War was just beginning.

In April 1993, Turkey closed its Kars border crossing with Armenia, in a protest against the capture of Kelbajar district of Azerbaijan by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Since then the land border between Armenia and Turkey has remained closed. Although national politicians have shown little inclination to change this policy, and Azerbaijan together with Turkish nationalist groups have campaigned for the closure to remain, there has been increasing local pressure for the border to be re-opened. In 2006, former Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu said that opening the border would boost the local economy and reawaken the city. But there is also an increasing opposition and pressure by the local population against the re-opening of the border. Along with intense pressure from Azerbaijan and the local population, including the 20% ethnic Azerbaijani minority, the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has reiterated that opening the border with Armenia is out of question.

Population

Population: 8,672 (1878); 20,891 (1897); 12,175 (January 1913); 129,789 (1922) ; 54,000 (1970); 142,145 (1990) ; 130,361 ; (2000) 76,729 (2009) Its mayor is Nevzat Bozkuş, whose party is AKP.

Kars Citadel

Kars Castle (Kars Kalesi), also known as the citadel, sits at the top a rocky hill overlooking Kars. Its walls date back to the Bagratuni Armenian period (there is surviving masonry on the north side of the castle) but it probably took on its present form during the thirteenth century when Kars was ruled by the Zak'arid dynasty. The walls bear crosses in several places, including a khachkar with a building inscription in Armenian on the easternmost tower, so the much repeated statement that Kars castle was built by Ottoman Sultan Murad III during the war with Persia, at the close of the sixteenth century, is inaccurate. However, Murad probably did reconstruct much of the city walls (they are similar to those that the Ottoman army constructed at Ardahan).

By the nineteenth century the citadel had lost most of its defensive purpose and a series of outer fortresses and defensive works were constructed to encircle Kars - this new defensive system proved particularly notable during the Siege of Kars in 1855.

Other historical structures

Below the castle is an Armenian church known as Surb Arak'elots, the Church of the Apostles. Built in the 930s, it has a tetraconch plan (a square with four semicircular apses) surmounted by a spherical dome on a cylindrical drum. On the exterior, the drum of contains bas-relief depictions of twelve figures, usually interpreted as representing the Twelve Apostles. The dome has a conical roof. The church was converted to a mosque in 1579, and then converted into a Russian Orthodox church in the 1880s. The Russians constructed porches in front of the church's 3 entrances, and an elaborate belltower (now demolished) next to the church. The church was used as a warehouse from the 1930s, and it housed a small museum from 1963 until the late 1970s. Then the building was left to itself for about two decades, until it was converted into a mosque in 1998. In the same district of Kars are two other ruined Armenian churches. A Russian church from the 1900s was converted to a mosque in the 1980s after serving as a school gymnasium.

The "Tashköprü" (Stone Bridge) is a bridge over the Kars river, built in 1725. Close to the bridge are three old bath-houses, none of them still operating.

As a settlement at the juncture of Turkish, Caucasian, Kurdish, Russian, and Armenian cultures, the buildings of Kars come in a variety of architectural styles. Orhan Pamuk in the novel Snow, which takes place in Kars, makes repeated references to "the Russian houses", built "in a Baltic style", whose like cannot be seen anywhere else in Turkey, and deplores the deteriorating condition of these houses.

Kars in popular culture

• Kars is the setting of the novel Kar (Snow) by Orhan Pamuk.
• Modest Mussorgsky composed the march "The Capture of Kars" to commemorate Russia's victory there in 1855.
• The film Kosmos (Cosmos) by Reha Erdem was filmed in and around Kars.

Climate

Kars has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfb), with a wide range of temperature between the summer and winter, due to its high elevation and relatively high latitude. Summers are generally brief and warm with cool nights. The average high temperature in August is 26 °C (79 °F). Winters are very cold. The average low January temperature is −18 °C (0 °F). However, temperatures usually plummet to −40 °C (−40.0 °F) during the winter months. It snows a lot in winter, staying for an average of four months in the city.

Education

Kars hosts the Kafkas University, which was established in 1992.

Transport

Kars is served by a main highway from Erzurum, and lesser roads run north to Ardahan and south to Igdir. The town has an airport, with daily direct flights to Ankara and Istanbul. Kars is served by a station on the Turkish Railways (TCDD) that links it to Erzurum. This line was originally laid when Kars was within the Russian Empire and connected the city to nearby Alexandropol and Tiflis, with a wartime, narrow-gauge extension running to Erzurum. Turkey's border crossings with Armenia, including the rail link, have been closed since 1993. Construction on a new line, the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway, intended to connect Turkey with Georgia and Azerbaijan, began in 2010 and is scheduled for completion by 2012. The line will connect Kars to Akhalkalaki in Georgia, from where trains will continue to Tbilisi, and Baku in Azerbaijan.

Notable individuals

• İbrahim Aydın (1874-1948), military leader and civil servant
• Yeghishe Charents (1897-1937), Armenian poet born in Kars.
• Tuğba Ekinci (1974-), pop singer
• G. I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949), Greek-Armenian philosopher and mystic.
• Hayran-î-Dil Kadınefendi (1846–1898), wife of Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz and mother of Sultan Abdülmecid II.
• Babayan Hmayak, Major General, Hero of the Soviet Union. who grew up in Kars.
• Hovhannes Stepani Isakov (1894–1967), Soviet Armenian military commander, chief of staff and Admiral of the Fleet in the Soviet Navy.
• Neşerek (Nesrin) Haseki Kadın Efendi (1848–1876), fifth wife of Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz
• Turgut Polat (1993- ), Table tennis player
• Gülsüm Şeyma Tatar (1983- ), world and European champion female boxer

External links

• Pictures of the city and the nearby city of Ani
• Kars Governor's Office
• Kars News
• Kars Guide and Photo Album by Luc Wouters
• Kars Weather Forecast Information
• Treaty of Kars
• Atlas of Conflicts: The Treaty of Kars and Its Geopolitical Implications on Armenia by Dr. Andrew Andersen, Ph.D.
• VirtualANI - A history and description of the city of Kars
• Armenian History and Presence in Kars
• 3D Model of the Cathedral
• Kars preservation project summary at Global Heritage Fund
• Explore Kars with Google Earth on Global Heritage Network
• Awarded "EDEN - European Destinations of Excellence" non traditional tourist destination 2009

Notes

1. Ring, Trudy (1996). International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe. Taylor & Francis. p. 357. ISBN 1884964028, ISBN 9781884964022. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
2. Room, Adrian (2003). Placenames of the World. McFarland. p. 178. ISBN 0786418141.
3. ^ Template:Hy icon Arakelyan, Babken, Vrezh Vardanyan, and Hovhannes Khalpakhchyan. «Կարս» (Kars). Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia. vol. v. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1979, pp. 342-344.
4. Template:Hy icon Harutyunyan, Varazdat M. "Ճարտարապետություն" ("Architecture"). History of the Armenian People. vol. iii. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1976, pp. 374-375.
5. Template:Ru icon Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. "Kars oblast". St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890-1907.
6. Hovannisian, Richard G. (1971). The Republic of Armenia, Vol. I: The First Year, 1918-1919. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 197–227. ISBN 0-5200-1984-9.
7. Hovannisian, Richard G. (1996). The Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV: Between Crescent and Sickle, Partition and Sovietization. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 182ff. ISBN 0-5200-8804-2.
8. Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 253-261.
9. Template:Hy icon Zohrabyan, E. (1979). Սովետական Ռուսաստանը և հայ-թուրքական հարաբերությունները, 1920-1922 (Soviet Russia and Armenian-Turkish Relations, 1920-1922). Yerevan: Yerevan State University Press, pp. 277-280.
10. Panico, Christopher (1994). Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Watch. p. 74. ISBN 1564321428, ISBN 9781564321428. Turkey cut all routes to Armenia in April 1993, after the Karabakh Armenian army - with alleged support from Russian and Armenian armies - seized Kelbajar province of Azerbaijan. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
11. "Kars battles for access to Armenia and beyond", Turkish Daily News, July 30th 2006.
12. "Border Turks Want Door to Armenia Kept Shut." Hetq. 7 May 2009.
13. "Armenia border opening out of question, says Davutoğlu." Today's Zaman. July 19, 2010.
14. "Two vast and ugly blocks of stone." The Economist. January 13, 2011.
16. "THE CATHEDRAL OF KARS: Holy Apostles Church (Surb Arak'elots)." VirtualANI. December 7, 2000.
17. Railway Gazette International February 2009 p54 with map

Further reading

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

v t e Kars in Kars Province of Turkey
Districts	Akyaka Arpaçay Digor Kağızman Kars Sarıkamış Selim Susuz
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• Cities in the Ottoman Empire
• Populated places in Kars Province