Urmia


Urmia is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. In the Central District of Urmia County, it is capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is situated near the borders of Iran with Turkey and Iraq.
The city lies at an altitude of above sea level along the Shahar River on the Urmia Plain. Lake Urmia, one of the world's largest salt lakes, lies to the east of the city, and the border with Turkey lies to the west.
The city is the trading center for a fertile agricultural region where fruits and tobacco are grown. Even though the majority of the residents of Urmia are Muslims, the Christian history of Urmia is well preserved and is especially evident in the city's many churches and cathedrals.
An important town by the 9th century, the city has had a diverse population which has at times included Muslims, Christians, Jews, Baháʼís and Sufis. Around 1900, Christians made up more than 40% of the city's population; however, in the next decades most of the Christians were either killed by the advancing Ottoman troops or in raids by Kurdish tribes or fled shortly after the end of the war.
Urmia, Takab and Piranshahr respectively have the highest number of registered provincial sites in the list of national sites.
Urmia is a historically diverse city where Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Persians, Assyrians, and Armenians have long lived side by side. It has also been home to Jewish and Baháʼí communities, reflecting its longstanding multicultural and multireligious character.

Etymology

suggested Urartian origin for the name, while T. Burrow connected the origin of the name Urmia to Indo-Iranian urmi- "wave" and urmya- "undulating, wavy".
The name could also derive from the combination of the Assyrian Aramaic words Ur and Mia, "City of Water" referring to the great Lake Urmia nearby. Compare Urhay, Ur of the Chaldees.

Variants and alternatives

As of 1921, Urmia was also called, Urumia and Urmi. During the Pahlavi dynasty, the city was called Rezaiyeh after Reza Shah, the dynasty's founder, whose name ultimately derives from the Islamic concept of rida via the Eighth Imam in Twelver Shia Islam, Ali al-Ridha.
In his seyahatname, Evliya Çelebi referred to the city as Rûmiyye, also mentioning that the Mongols called the city Urumiye, Persians Rûmiyye-i Kübrâ, and some historians Türkistân-ı İrân, which he justified by the considerable amount of Turkoman awliya in the city.
Due to the city's contact with many ethnic groups and cultures throughout its history, the name of the city has many linguistic variants:
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    History

According to Vladimir Minorsky, there were villages in the Urmia Plain as early as 2000BC, with their civilization under the influence of the Kingdom of Van. Excavations of the ancient ruins near Urmia led to the discovery of utensils that date to the 20thcentury BC. In ancient times, the west bank of Urmia Lake was part of Gilzan, and in the 9thcentury BC an independent government ruled there, which later joined the Urartu or Manna empire; in the 8thcentury BC, the area was a vassal of the Asuzh government until it joined the Median Empire.
Assyrians who did survive the invasion of Baghdad by Timur fled through northern Iraq up into the Hakkari Mountains to the west of Lake Urmia and the area remained as their homeland until the 19th century.
During the Safavid era, the neighboring Ottoman Turks, who were the archrivals of the Safavids, made several incursions into the city and captured it on more than one occasion, but the Safavids successfully regained control over the area. When in 1622, during the reign of Safavid king AbbasI Qasem Sultan Afshar was appointed governor of Mosul, he was forced to leave his office shortly afterwards due to the outbreak of a plague. He moved to the western part of Azerbaijan, and became the founder of the Afshar community of Urmia. The city was the capital of the Urmia Khanate from 1747 to 1865. The first monarch of Iran's Qajar dynasty, Agha Muhammad Khan, was crowned in Urmia in 1795.
Due to the presence of a substantial Christian minority at the end of the 19thcentury, Urmia was also chosen as the site of the first Christian missionaries from the United States in Iran in 1835 led by Justin Perkins with Asahel Grant ; and followed by Fidelia Fiske, Joseph Gallup Cochran, and Joseph Plumb Cochran. Another mission was soon underway in nearby Tabriz as well. During World War I, the population was estimated by Dr.Caujole to be 30,000 people, a quarter of which were Assyrians and 1,000 Jews.
During the 19th century, the region became the center of a short-lived Assyrian renaissance with many books and newspapers being published in Syriac. Urmia was also the seat of a Chaldean diocese.
During late 1914 Ottoman forces under the command of Enver Pasha stepped up clandestine activity in the region with the aim of committing the Ottoman Empire to war. During World War I, the city changed hands several times between the Russians and the Ottoman troops and their Kurdish allies in the following two years. In 1914, before the declaration of war against Russia, Ottoman forces crossed the border into Persia and destroyed Christian villages. Large-scale attacks in late September and October 1914 targeted many Assyrian villages, and the attackers neared Urmia. Due to Ottoman attacks, thousands of Christians living along the border fled to Urmia.
Many Christians fled during the Russian withdrawal from Azerbaijan at the beginning of January 1915, and 20,000 to 25,000 refugees were left stranded in Urmia. Nearly 18,000 Christians sought shelter in the city's Presbyterian and Lazarist missions. Although there was reluctance to attack the missionary compounds, many died of disease. Between February and May, there was a campaign of mass execution, looting, kidnapping, and extortion against Christians in Urmia. More than 100 men were arrested at the Lazarist compound, and dozens were executed on 23 and 24 February.
The Russian army advanced later in 1915. After Russia's withdrawal as a result of the 1917 Russian Revolution, about 5,000 Assyrian and Armenian militia policed the area, but they frequently abused their power and killed Muslims without provocation.
From February to July 1918, the region was engulfed by ethnic violence. On 22 February, local Muslims and the Persian governor began an uprising against the Christian militias in Urmia. The better-organized Christians, led by Agha Petros, brutally crushed the uprising; hundreds were killed. On 16 March, Mar Shimun and many of his bodyguards were killed by the Kurdish chieftain Simko Shikak, probably at the instigation of Persian officials fearing Assyrian separatism, after they met to discuss an alliance. Assyrians went on a killing and looting spree; unable to find Simko, they murdered Persian officials and inhabitants. The Kurds responded by massacring Christians, regardless of denomination or ethnicity. Christians were massacred in Salmas in June and in Urmia in early July, and many Assyrian women were abducted.
Christian militias in Azerbaijan were no match for the Ottoman army when it invaded in July 1918. Tens of thousands of Ottoman and Persian Assyrians fled south to Hamadan, where the British Dunsterforce was garrisoned, on 18 July to escape Ottoman forces approaching Urmia under Ali İhsan Sâbis. The Ottoman invasion was followed by killings of Christians, including Chaldean archbishop Toma Audo, and the sacking of Urmia.
On March 22, 2025, large-scale demonstrations were held in the city. Slogans against Kurdistan were chanted during the demonstrations. Anadolu Agency reported that there was ethnic tension between Turks and Kurds in the city and that Turks were protesting the Nowruz celebrations held by Kurds living in the city a few days ago. Some protesters stated that the Iranian government was trying to change the demographics by bringing Kurds to the city. It was reported that those who participated in the demonstration chanted Turkish slogans such as "Urumiyah is Turkish and will remain Turkish" and "Urumiyah's Turkish identity is not negotiable". 2 days after the protest, 22 people were arrested.

Demographics

Ethnic composition

The city has been home to various ethnic groups during its history. The population of Urmia in the early Islamic period was Christian. In late 19th century, George Curzon reported a population of 30 to 40 thousand people, chiefly Afshars, Nestorians, Jews, and Armenians, while other sources also referred to an additional Persian community. At the beginning of the 20thcentury, the city had a significant Christian minority. According to Macuch, and Ishaya, the city was the spiritual capital of the Assyrians, who were influenced by four Christian missions that had been established in the city in the period from 1830 to the end of World War I. A large number of the Assyrians and Armenians were killed in 1914 during the Armenian and Assyrian genocides, which resulted in a change in the city's demographics. In the fourteenth edition of Encyclopædia Britannica from 1929, the town's population was roughly estimated to be 45 thousand before the war, mainly being Turkish with Armenian and Nestorian minorities. During the era of Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iranian Assyrians were invited to return to the region, and several thousand did return. There are around 5,000 Assyrians remaining in the city.
Until the Iran crisis of 1946 and the Establishment of the State of Israel in 1947, several thousand Jews also lived Urmia, and their language is still spoken by an ageing community in Israel.
According to the Federal Research Division of Library of Congress, ethnic Azeris form around 40% of the population of Urmia region. The majority of the city's residents are Azerbaijanis, with a large minority of Kurds, and a smaller number of Assyrians, and Armenians, as well as Persian-speakers who moved to the city mostly for employment.
The majority of the population can speak the official language of Iran, Persian, in addition to their own native tongue.