Kars

Kars is a town of Turkey, Préfecture of the Province of the same name.

History

At the 10th century, the area surrounding Kars was a Armenian kingdom , directed by the family of the Bagratides. Later, Kars was taken by the Turkish seldjoukides, the Mongolian at the 12th century and by Timur (Tamerlan) in 1387. After that Kars remained under Othoman domination until 1877. The citadel built by the Sultan Murad III was enough solid to resist the seat of Nâdir Shâh of Perse in 1731, and it pushed back the Russian troops successfully in 1807. After a courageous defense, it went the June 23rd 1828 to a Russian general, the count Ivan Paskevich. Eleven thousand men were made prisoners of war. During the Crimean War, the Turkish garrison, ordered by the British general William Fenwick Williams and other officers foreign, undergoes a prolonged seat, the Siège of Kars, but after the garrison had been devastated by the Choléra and misses it provisions, it could only capitulate in November 1855. The fortress of Kars was also attacked at the time of the Russo-Turkish Guerre of 1877-1878 by troops under the command of the generals Loris-Melikov and Lazarev Ivan Davidovich and was finally transferred to the Russia by the Traité from San Stefano.

Russia lost Kars, Ardahan and Batum with the Traité of Brest-Litovsk on March 3rd, 1918. The Turks took the control of Kars the April 25th 1918 and the Republic of the Caucasus of South-west was established in the zone, but the armistice of Mudros (October 1918) obliged the Othoman army to be withdrawn behind the borders of 1914. The English occupied Batum but the Othomans refused to return Kars, its military governor constituted a provisional government carried out by Fahrettin Pirioglu which asserted Turkish sovereignty on Kars and the Turkish-speaking and Moslem areas surrounding with Batum and Gyumri (Alexandropol).

The area was occupied by the Arménie in January 1919 but the government pro-Turkish was constant in Kars until the arrival of the British troops, which dissolvèrent it on April 19th, 1919, and sent its leaders to Malta. Kars was given to Arménie with Iğdır in May 1919. The turco-Armenian war between September and December 1920 and the fall of the First Republic were at the origin of the treaty of Alexandropol signed by the representatives Turkish and Armenians on December 2nd, 1920. It stipulated the abandonment by Arménie of all the territories which had been granted to him by the Traité of Sevres as well as the passage with Turkey from approximately 60% of its territory of pre-war period, thus including Kars.

Following the war of Turkish independence, Turkey signed the Traité of Kars (October 23rd, 1921) with the Soviet Union by which Turkey renonça with its claims on Batum and obtained in return the recognition of its sovereignty on Kars and Ardahan. To date, the Armenian government does not recognize the current border. The borders defined by the Traité of Kars would be unjust from the point of view of the Armenian nationalists who for the majority consider the Traité of Sevres as the base of the solution of the problem turco-Armenian.

The Soviets tried to negotiate with Turkey in order to grant to them at least the access to the ruins of Ani since they do not have significances particulères for Turkey. Ankara refused to give its agreement and the border between Arménie and Turkey has remained unchanged for almost a century. Since the war of Nagorny-Karabakh, the border was closed in reprisal with the occupation of Karabakh by Arménie. The mayor of Kars, Naif Alibeyoğlu, is persuaded that the border will again be opened and that there will be no nationalist feelings against the Armenians.

The citadel of Kars

As a city with the junction of varied cultures, Armenian, Caucasian, Russian and Turkish, the buildings of Kars spreads out many different architectures. The castle of Kars (Kars Kalesi), also called citadel of Kars, is installed at the top of a rock hill overhanging Kars. Its walls go back to the Armenian period of the Bagratides (of the elements of masonry are still present at the north of the castle) but it is probable that they took their current form at the 13th century when Kars was under the domination of the Zakaride dynasty. The walls carry crosses in several places, as well as a Khatchkar with an inscription in Armenian on the lathe more in the east. Thus the belief which wants that the castle of Kars was built by the Othoman sultan Murad III during the war with the Perse, at the end of the 16th century, is false. However, it is probable that the Murad sultan rebuilt most of the walls of the city (they are similar to those built by the Othoman army with Ardahan). With the feet of the plate the cathedral Saint Arak' elos, or the church of the Apostles is. Built at the 10th century, it includes/understands tétraconque arched on a square basis with four Abside S. the plank of the dome incorporates Bas-relief S accounting for the twelve Apôtres and the dome is covered by a conical roof. It sheltered a small museum in the Sixties and Seventies, then was abandoned during two decades until its conversion into mosque in 1998.

Kars in the popular culture

Kars is the place of the action of the novel Neige of Orhan Pamuk (2004).
the Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents was born in Kars.
the philosopher and mystical Georges Gurdjieff grows in Kars.
the Turkish actress Hulya Avsar has a family relation with Kars.
the Turkish actor Tamer Karadagli was born in Kars.

References

This article includes/understands a translation of a text resulting from the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th ED., a publication which belongs now to the public domain.

See too

" Neige" of Orhan Pamuk

Internal bond

Kars is also a Canadian parish of the province of the New Brunswick

External bonds

Official site of the municipality of Kars
Official site of the prefecture of Kars

Simple: Kars

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