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(, Ghars; or , Kars) is a city in northeast
Turkey and the capital of the
Kars Province , formerly at the head of a
Sanjak in the
Turkish Vilayet of
Erzurum .
Population : 8,672 (1878); 20,891 (1897); 54,000 (1970); 142,145 (1990); 130,361 (2000).
The early history of Kars is little known, beyond the fact that it had its own dynasty of Armenian rulers and was the capital of a region known as
Vanand . At some point in the 9th century (at least by 888) it became part of the territory of the Armenian Bagratids. For a short time (from 928 to 961) Kars became the capital of their kingdom. It was during this period that the Cathedral, later known as the Church of the Apostles, was built.The Capitals of Armenia by Sergey Vardanyan
In 963, shortly after the Bagratid capital was transferred to
Ani , Kars became the capital of a separate independent kingdom, again called Vanand. However, the extent of its actual independence from the Kingdom of Ani is uncertain. For example, it was always held by relatives of the rulers of Ani, and after Ani's capture by the Byzantine Empire in 1045 the Bagratid royal 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 last Armenian king of Kars, Gagik II, paid homage to the victorious Turks to avoid them laying siege to his city. In 1065 Gagik ceded control of Kars to the
Byzantine Empire , but soon afterwards they lost it to the Seljuk Turks. In 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 was ruled by a series of petty Turkish emirs.
In 1387 the city surrendered to
Timur (Tamerlane) and its fortifications were slighted. More petty Turkish emirs 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. In 1807 it successfully resisted the
Russians , but after another siege in 1828 it was surrendered on
June 23 ,
1828 to the Russian general Count
Ivan Paskevich , 11,000 men becoming
Prisoners Of War . Although it was afterwards returned to Turkey, the new border between Turkey and Russia lay much closer to Kars. During the
Crimean War the Turkish garrison, led by General
William Fenwick Williams and other foreign officers, kept the Russians at bay during a
Protracted Siege ; but after the garrison had been devastated by cholera and food had utterly failed, nothing was left but to surrender 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 and on its conclusion was transferred to
Russia by the
Treaty Of San Stefano .
by an
Armenian . The river which led to
Erzurum can be seen on the upper left. On the upper right can be seen three red domed structures, marked by a number one, which are outdoor lavatories. The
Citadel can be seen on the right. Note the two large domed Armenian churches in the middle and lower section of the picture.]]
After the subjection to Russia more than 82000 Muslims emigrated to Turkey within the period of 1878-1881, of them more than 11 000 left the city itself. At the same time, many Armenians, Greeks and Russians migrated to the region from other regions of Turkey and Transcaucasia. According to the Russian census data, by 1892
Russians made 7%,
Greeks 13.5%,
Kurds 15%,
Armenians 21,5%,
Turks 24%,
Karapapak hs 14%, and
Turkmen 5% of the population of Kars oblast of the Russian empire.
Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary. "Kars oblast". St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890-1907
In the
First World War , the city became one of the main objectives of the Ottoman army during the
Battle Of Sarıkamış 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 effective control of Armenian and non-Bolshevik Russian forces. The Ottoman empire captured Kars on April 25, 1918 and the
Republic Of Southwest Caucasus was established in the zone, but when the
Armistice Of Mudros (October 1918) was established the Ottoman army was required to withdraw to the 1914 frontiers. The British occupied Batum but the Ottomans refused to relinquish Kars; its military governor instead constituting a provisional government led by Fahrettin Pirioglu that claimed Turkish sovereignty over Kars and the Turkish-speaking and Islamic neighbouring regions to Batum and
Alexandropol (Gyumri). The region was occupied by the
Democratic Republic Of Armenia (DRA) 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 , sending its leaders to
Malta . May 1919, Kars came under full administration of the DRA and became the capital of the Vanand province (named after the historic Armenian region that the city was once the capital of).
However, skirmishes between
Turkish Revolutionaries and Armenian border troops in
Oltu , led to an invasion of the DRA by four Turkish battalions under the command of General
Kazım Karabekir , thus triggering the
Turkish-Armenian War . The Turkish-Armenian War led to the collapse of the DRA and resulted in the
Treaty Of Alexandropol signed by the representatives of the DRA and Turkey on
December 2 ,
1920 . The treaty's terms forced the DRA 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 . However, with the
Bolshevik invasion of Armenia, the Alexandropol treaty was superseded by the
Treaty Of Kars (
October 23 ,
1921 ), signed between Turkey and the newly-established
Soviet Union . The treaty allowed for Soviet annexation of
Adjara in exchange for Turkish control over the regions of
Kars ,
Iğdır , 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, Ankara refused these attempts.
After who objected to these territorial claims as additional areas of where the Soviet government could exert its influence while
President Of The United States Harry S. Truman of the
United States felt that matter shouldn't concern other parties. The
Cold War was just beginning.
Since the
Nagorno-Karabakh War , the borders between Armenia and Turkey have been closed. Kars Mayor
Naif Alibeyoğlu , believes that the border should be opened again and that there should be no nationalist sentiment against the Armenians.
1
Kars Castle (Kars Kalesi) also known as the Kars
Citadel ) sits at the top a rocky hill overlooking Kars. Its walls date back to the Bagratid Armenian period (there is surviving masonry on the north side of the castle) but it probably took on its present form during the 13th century when Kars was ruled by the Zakarid 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 kastle was built by
Ottoman Sultan Murad III during the war with
Persia , at the close of the 16th century, is false. However, Sultan Murad probably did reconstruct much of the city walls (they are similar to those that the Ottoman army constructed at Ardahan).
Below the castle is an Armenian church known as the St. Arak'elos Cathedral, the Church of the
Apostles . Built in the 10th century, it constitutes a domed
Tetraconch atop a square base with four apses. The drum of the dome features bas relief depictions of The Twelve Apostles and the dome itself is covered by a conical roof. It housed a small museum in the 1960s and 1970s, then stood derelict for about two decades until its conversion into a mosque in 1998.
As a settlement at the juncture of
Armenian ,
Caucasian ,
Russian , and
Turkish cultures, the buildings of Kars come in a variety of architectural styles.
