Ağrı Province


Ağrı Province is located in eastern Turkey, bordering Iran to the east and the provinces of Kars to the north, Erzurum to the northwest, Muş and Bitlis to the southwest, Van to the south, and Iğdır to the northeast. Its area is 11,099 km2, and its population is 511,238. The provincial capital is Ağrı, situated on a high plateau. Doğubayazıt was the capital of the province until 1946. The current governor is Mustafa Koç.
The province is considered part of Western Armenia and was part of the ancient province of Ayrarat of Kingdom of Armenia. Before the Armenian genocide, modern Ağri Province was part of the six Armenian vilayets. The province is part of Turkish Kurdistan and has a Kurdish majority.
WWW agri.gov.tr

Districts

Ağrı province is divided into eight districts :Ağrı

Geography

Ağrı province is surrounded by the Aras Mountains from the north. Ağrı is named after the nearby Mount Ararat, a high stratovolcano, the highest mountain in Turkey and a national symbol to Armenians. It can be climbed from here and can be seen from parts of Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, and Armenia. The nearest town to the mountain is Doğubayazıt.
46% of the province is mountainous, 29% is plain, 18% is plateau, and 7% high meadow. As well as Ararat there are many other peaks over 3,000m, including Mount Kösedağ, Aladağlar and Tendürek. The plains are fertile, being covered in volcanic deposits, and are used for growing grains and grazing. Various tributaries of the Murat River flow through the area and water these plains. The high meadows are used for grazing.
The weather here is very cold and the mountainsides are mainly bare. There are a number of important passes and routes through the mountains.

History

The plateau of Ağrı was controlled by the Kingdom of Urartu until its transition to the Kingdom of Armenia. The area was coveted by many as a gateway between east and west. It was conquered numerous times by Assyrians, Achaemenid Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Georgians, Mongols, different Persian Empires, and finally by the Seljuq and Ottoman Turks.
The first Muslims in the area were the Abbasids in 872. The Turkish tribes began to pass through in huge numbers following the defeat of the Byzantine armies at Malazgirt in 1071, sometimes pursued by Mongols. The land was brought into the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Selim I following the Battle of Chaldiran. The region was part of the Erzurum Vilayet during the Ottoman Empire.During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the province was the scene of the Armenian–Kurdish Conflicts in Ağrı, which reflected the tensions between Kurdish tribal groups, Armenian nationalists, and the weakening Ottoman authority.

Inspectorates-General

In the late 1920s, in an attempt to curb the Ararat rebellion, the province was included into the First Inspectorate-General comprising the provinces of Mardin, Diyarbakır, Van, Elazıĝ, Bitlis, Hakkari, Şanlıurfa and Siirt.
In September 1935 the province was transferred into the third Inspectorate General. The third UM span over the provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Rize, Trabzon, Kars Gümüşhane, Erzincan and Ağrı. It was governed by an Inspector General seated in the city of Erzurum. The Inspectorate General was dissolved in 1952 during the Government of the Democrat Party.

Recent events

On August 19, 2006, the Tabriz–Ankara gas pipeline exploded in the province. Turkish authorities suspected that Kurdish PKK rebels were behind the incident.

Ağrı today

The economy is mainly agricultural. People also live by breeding animals. Ağrı attracts tourists to the mountains, for climbing and trekking in summers, and skiing in winters. Places of interest include: