Azerbaijanis
Azerbaijanis or Azeris known as Azerbaijani Turks, are a Turkic people living in the Iranian region of Azerbaijan and the sovereign Republic of Azerbaijan. They are the second-most numerous ethnic group among the Turkic peoples after Anatolian Turks, they are predominantly Shi'i Muslims. They comprise the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Azerbaijan and the second-largest ethnic group in neighboring Iran and Georgia; the world's largest number of ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Iran, followed by the Republic of Azerbaijan. In spite of being speakers of a Turkic language, Iranian Azerbaijanis are believed to be descended from the earlier Iranian speakers of the region as historical research and genetic tests have proven, they are the possible descendants of the Medes, an Ancient Iranian ethnic group which inhabited the current region. Close genetics with the Kurds, an Iranian ethnic group, have supported this idea. Thus, due to their historical and cultural ties to the Iranians, Iranian Azerbaijanis are often associated with the Iranian peoples.
Genetic studies observed that they are genetically related to the Iranian peoples. The Azerbaijanis of the Republic of Azerbaijan are of Caucasian and Iranian origin and are said to be the descendants of inhabitants of Caucasian Albania. There is evidence that, despite repeated invasions and migrations, aboriginal Caucasians may have been culturally assimilated, first by Iranians, such as the Alans, Ancient Persians and by the Oghuz Turks. Considerable information has been learned about the Caucasian Albanians including their language, early conversion to Christianity, close ties to the Armenians. Many academics believe that the Udi language, still spoken in Azerbaijan, is a remnant of the Albanians' language. Genetic testing has proven that the region has a mixed population with relationships, in order of greatest similarity, with the Caucasus and Near Easterners and Turkmen. Following the Russo-Persian Wars of 1813 and 1828, the territories of the Sublime State of Iran in the Caucasus were ceded to the Russian Empire and the treaties of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828 finalized the borders between Russia and Qajar Iran.
The formation of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 established the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Differences in the Azerbaijani language have arisen after centuries of separation from Iran with there being significant differences in the grammatical and lexical structures of the language. Additionally and Azeri are mutually intelligible to a high enough degree that their speakers can have simple conversation without prior knowledge of the other, which prompted some Turkic linguists to classify their relationship as a Western Oghuz dialect continuum. Azerbaijan is believed to be named after Atropates, a Persian satrap who ruled in Atropatene circa 321 BC; the name Atropates is the Hellenistic form of Aturpat which means'guardian of fire'. Present-day name Azerbaijan is the Arabicized form of Azarbaigān; the latter is derived from Ādurbādagān, itself from Āturpātakān meaning'the land associated with Aturpat'. The modern ethnonym "Azerbaijani" or "Azeri" refers to the Turkic peoples of Iranian Azerbaijan and Republic of Azerbaijan.
They called themselves or were referred to by others as Muslims, Turkmens, Persians, or Ajams –, to say that religious identification prevailed over ethnic identification. When the Southern Caucasus became part of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century, the Russian authorities, who traditionally referred to all Turkic people as Tatars, defined Tatars living in the Transcaucasus region as Caucasian or Aderbeijanskie Tatars in order to distinguish them from other Turkic groups; the Russian Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, written in the 1890s referred to Tatars in Azerbaijan as Aderbeijans, but noted that the term had not been adopted. This ethnonym was used by Joseph Deniker: grouping coincide with the somatological grouping: thus the Aderbeijani of the Caucasus and Persia, who speak a Turkic language, have the same physical type as the Hadjemi-Persians, who speak an Iranian tongue. In Azerbaijani language publications, the expression "Azerbaijani nation" referring to those who were known as Tatars of the Caucasus first appeared in the newspaper Kashkul in 1880.
Ancient residents of the area spoke Old Azeri from the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. In the 11th century AD with Seljukid conquests, Oghuz Turkic tribes started moving across the Iranian plateau into the Caucasus and Anatolia; the influx of the Oghuz and other Turkmen tribes was further accentuated by the Mongol invasion. Here, the Oghuz tribes divided into various smaller groups, some of whom – Sunni – moved to Anatolia and became settled, while others remained in the Caucasus region and – due to the influence of the Safaviyya – converted to the Shia branch of Islam; the latter were to keep the name "Turkmen" or "Turcoman" for a long t
Assyrian people
Assyrian people, or Syriacs, are an ethnic group indigenous to Western Asia. Some of them self-identify as Chaldeans. Speakers of modern Aramaic and as well as the primary languages in their countries of residence, modern Assyrians are Syriac Christians who claim descent from Assyria, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating back to 2500 BC in ancient Mesopotamia; the tribal areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and, more northeastern Syria. The majority have migrated to other regions of the world, including North America, the Levant, Europe and the Caucasus during the past century. Emigration was triggered by events such as the Massacres of Diyarbakır, the Assyrian Genocide during World War I by the Ottoman Empire and allied Kurdish tribes, the Simele Massacre in Iraq in 1933, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Arab Nationalist Ba'athist policies in Iraq and Syria, the rise of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its takeover of most of the Nineveh plains.
Assyrians are predominantly Christian adhering to the East and West Syrian liturgical rites of Christianity. The churches that constitute the East Syrian rite include the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, whereas the churches of the West Syrian rite are the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church. Both rites use Classical Syriac as their liturgical language. Most the post-2003 Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, have displaced much of the remaining Assyrian community from their homeland as a result of ethnic and religious persecution at the hands of Islamic extremists. Of the one million or more Iraqis reported by the United Nations to have fled Iraq since the occupation, nearly 40% were Assyrians though Assyrians accounted for only around 3% of the pre-war Iraqi demography. According to a 2013 report by a Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council official, it is estimated that only 300,000 Assyrians remain in Iraq.
Because of the emergence of ISIL and the taking over of much of the Assyrian homeland by the terror group, another major wave of Assyrian displacement has taken place. ISIL was driven out from the Assyrian villages in the Khabour River Valley and the areas surrounding the city of Al-Hasakah in Syria by 2015, from the Nineveh plains in Iraq by 2017. Since the expulsion of ISIL, the Nineveh plains have been divided into Iraqi and Kurdish-controlled zones, with Assyrian militias on both sides. In northern Syria, Assyrian groups have been taking part both politically and militarily in the Kurdish-dominated but multiethnic Syrian Democratic Forces and Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Assyria is the homeland of the Assyrian people. In prehistoric times, the region, to become known as Assyria was home to Neanderthals such as the remains of those which have been found at the Shanidar Cave; the earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria belonged to the Jarmo culture c. 7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, the centre of the Hassuna culture, c. 6000 BC.
The history of Assyria begins with the formation of the city of Assur as early as the 25th century BC. The Assyrian king list records kings dating from the 25th century BC onwards, the earliest being Tudiya, a contemporary of Ibrium of Ebla. However, many of these early kings would have been local rulers, from the late 24th century BC to the early 22nd century BC, they were subjects of the Akkadian Empire. During the early Bronze Age period, Sargon of Akkad united all the native Semitic-speaking peoples and the Sumerians of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire; the cities of Assur and Nineveh, the oldest and largest city of the ancient Assyrian empire, together with a number of other towns and cities, existed as early as the 25th century BC, although they appear to have been Sumerian-ruled administrative centres at this time, rather than independent states. The Sumerians were absorbed into the Akkadian population. In the traditions of the Assyrian Church of the East, they are descended from Abraham's grandson, progenitor of the ancient Assyrians.
However, there is no historical basis for the biblical assertion whatsoever. Ashur-uballit I overthrew the Mitanni c. 1365 BC, the Assyrians benefited from this development by taking control of the eastern portion of Mitanni territory, also annexing Hittite, Babylonian and Hurrian territories. The Assyrian people, after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 609 BC were under the control of the Neo-Babylonian and the Persian Empire, which consumed the entire Neo-Babylonian or "Chaldean" Empire in 539 BC. Assyrians became front line soldiers for the Persian Empire under Xerxes I, playing a major role in the Battle of Marathon under Darius I in 490 BC. Herodotus, whose Histories are the main source of information about that battle, makes no mention of Assyrians in connection with it. Despite the influx of foreign elements, the presence of Assyrians is confirmed by the worship of the god Ashur; the Greeks and Romans had a rather low-level of integration with the local population in Mesopotamia, which allowed their cultures to survive.
The kingdoms of Osrhoene, Adiabene and Assur, which were under Parthian overlordship, had an Assyrian identity. Emerging in Sumer c. 3500 BC, cuneiform writing began a
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south; the exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, has an 11 km long border with Turkey in the northwest. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic Muslim state. In 1920 the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic; the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, shortly before the dissolution of the USSR in the same year. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Republic of Artsakh; the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994.
These regions are internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh through negotiations facilitated by the OSCE. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, it is one of six independent Turkic states and an active member of the Turkic Council and the TÜRKSOY community. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations, including the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OSCE, the NATO Partnership for Peace program, it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Azerbaijan holds observer status in the World Trade Organization. While more than 89% of the population is Shia Muslim, the Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all major political forces in the country are secularist. Azerbaijan has a high level of human development that ranks on par with most Eastern European countries.
It has a high rate of economic literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. However, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. According to a modern etymology, the term Azerbaijan derives from that of Atropates, a Persian satrap under the Achaemenid Empire, reinstated as the satrap of Media under Alexander the Great; the original etymology of this name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta's Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, which translates from Avestan as "we worship the fravashi of the holy Atropatene." The name "Atropates" itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian Median, compounded name with the meaning "Protected by the Fire" or "The Land of the Fire". The Greek name was mentioned by Diodorus Strabo. Over the span of millennia, the name evolved to Āturpātākān to Ādharbādhagān, Ādharbāyagān, Āzarbāydjān and present-day Azerbaijan.
The name Azerbaijan was first adopted for the area of the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan by the government of Musavat in 1918, after the collapse of the Russian Empire, when the independent Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established. Until the designation had been used to identify the adjacent region of contemporary northwestern Iran, while the area of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was referred to as Arran and Shirvan. On that basis Iran protested the newly adopted country name. During the Soviet rule, the country was spelled in English from the Russian transliteration as Azerbaydzhan; the earliest evidence of human settlement in the territory of Azerbaijan dates back to the late Stone Age and is related to the Guruchay culture of Azokh Cave. The Upper Paleolithic and late Bronze Age cultures are attested in the caves of Tağılar, Damcılı, Yataq-yeri and in the necropolises of Leylatepe and Saraytepe. Early settlements included the Scythians in the 9th century BC. Following the Scythians, Iranian Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras.
The Medes forged a vast empire between 900–700 BC, integrated into the Achaemenid Empire around 550 BC. The area was conquered by the Achaemenids leading to the spread of Zoroastrianism, it became part of Alexander the Great's Empire and its successor, the Seleucid Empire. During this period, Zoroastrianism spread in the Atropatene. Caucasian Albanians, the original inhabitants of northeastern Azerbaijan, ruled that area from around the 4th century BC, established an independent kingdom; the Sasanian Empire turned Caucasian Albania into a vassal state in 252, while King Urnayr adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century. Despite Sassanid rule, Albania remained an entity in the region until the 9th century, while subordinate to Sassanid Iran, retained its monarchy. Despite being one of the chief vassals of the Sasanian emperor, the Albanian king had only a semblance of authority, the Sasanian marzban held most civil and military authority. In the first half of the 7th century, Caucasian Albania, as a vassal of the Sasanians, came under nominal Muslim rule due to the Muslim conquest of Persia.
The Umayyad Caliphate repulsed both the Sasanians and Byzantines from Transcaucasia and turned Caucasian Albania into a vassal state after Christian resistance led by Kin
Turkey
Turkey the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. East Thrace, located in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorous strait and the Dardanelles. Turkey is bordered by Bulgaria to its northwest. Istanbul is the largest city. 70 to 80 per cent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish. Kurds are the largest minority. At various points in its history, the region has been inhabited by diverse civilizations including the Assyrians, Thracians, Phrygians and Armenians. Hellenization continued into the Byzantine era; the Seljuk Turks began migrating into the area in the 11th century, their victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 symbolizes the start and foundation of Turkey. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish principalities. Beginning in the late 13th-century, the Ottomans started uniting these Turkish principalities.
After Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman expansion continued under Selim I. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent the Ottoman Empire encompassed much of Southeast Europe, West Asia and North Africa and became a world power. In the following centuries the state entered a period of decline with a gradual loss of territories and wars. In an effort to consolidate the weakening social and political foundations of the empire, Mahmut II started a period of modernisation in the early 19th century, bringing reforms in all areas of the state including the military and bureaucracy along with the emancipation of all citizens. In 1913, a coup d'état put the country under the control of the Three Pashas. During World War I, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian and Pontic Greek subjects. Following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states; the Turkish War of Independence, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues against occupying Allied Powers, resulted in the abolition of monarchy in 1922 and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, with Atatürk as its first president.
Atatürk enacted numerous reforms, many of which incorporated various aspects of Western thought and customs into the new form of Turkish government. The Kurdish–Turkish conflict, an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and Kurdish insurgents, has been active since 1984 in the southeast of the country. Various Kurdish groups demand separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. Turkey is a charter member of the UN, an early member of NATO, the IMF and the World Bank, a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC and G-20. After becoming one of the first members of the Council of Europe in 1949, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995 and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005 which have been stopped by the EU in 2017 due to "Turkey's path toward autocratic rule". Turkey's economy and diplomatic initiatives led to its recognition as a regional power while its location has given it geopolitical and strategic importance throughout history.
Turkey is a secular, unitary parliamentary republic which adopted a presidential system with a referendum in 2017. Turkey's current administration headed by president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the AKP has enacted measures to increase the influence of Islam, undermine Kemalist policies and freedom of the press; the English name of Turkey means "land of the Turks". Middle English usage of Turkye is evidenced in an early work by Chaucer called The Book of the Duchess; the phrase land of Torke is used in the 15th-century Digby Mysteries. Usages can be found in the Dunbar poems, the 16th century Manipulus Vocabulorum and Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum; the modern spelling "Turkey" dates back to at least 1719. The Turkish name Türkiye was adopted in 1923 under the influence of European usage; the Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world. Various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period.
Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated; the European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has been inhabited since at least forty thousand years ago, is known to have been in the Neolithic era by about 6000 BC. Göbekli Tepe is the site of the oldest known man-made religious structure, a temple dating to circa 10,000 BC, while Çatalhöyük is a large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately
Iğdır
Iğdır, is the capital of Iğdır Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The highest mountain in Turkey, Ağrı Dağı or Mount Ararat, is in Iğdır province; the city and province are named after a western Turkish clan called Iğdır that belonged to a branch of the Oghuz Turks. They spread throughout Anatolia and there are several towns and villages named Iğdır in Eskişehir Province and other parts of Turkey today; the city in Armenian is called Իգդիր, Igdir Ցոլակերտ, after an ancient settlement nearby. Iğdır went by the Armenian name of Tsolakert during the Middle Ages; when the Spanish traveler Ruy González de Clavijo passed through this region in the early 15th century, he stayed a night in a castle he called Egida, located at the foot of Mount Ararat. Clavijo describes it as being built upon a rock and ruled by a woman, the widow of a brigand Timurlane had put to death; because modern Iğdır has no such rock, is a considerable distance from the Ararat foothills, it is believed that medieval Iğdır was located at a different site, at a place known as Tsolakert, now called Taşburun.
Russian excavations there at the end of the 19th century discovered the ruins of houses and what was identified as a church, as well as traces of fortifications. The settlement may have been abandoned after an earthquake in 1664. In 1555 the town became a part of the Safavid Empire, remaining under Persian rule until it fell into the hands of the Russian Empire after the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828. Iğdır was taken by the Russian Empire from Persia after the latter's defeat in the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828, it was organized as part of the Armenian Oblast in 1828 and made a part of the Georgia-Imeretia Governorate in 1840, the Surmalu Uyezd of the Erivan Governorate in 1850. According to the Russian family lists accounts from 1886, of the total 71,066 inhabitants of the districts 34,351 were Azerbaijanis, 22,096 Armenians and 14,619 Kurds. Under Russian rule, two primary schools, one for boys and the other for girls, three churches were opened and 100 Armenian families were allowed to move to Iğdır.
The town's population rose to 10,000 in 1914 and busied itself with agriculture and commerce. Following the Russian Revolution of October 1917, the area came under the control of a temporary administrative committee created by the three main ethnic groups in the Caucasus. Though it attempted to negotiate a truce with the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman forces launched an eastward offensive and took Iğdır on May 20, 1918, they occupied it until the signing of the Armistice of Mudros in November 1918. The Republic of Armenia assumed control over Iğdır; the Armenian population suffered during the grueling winter of 1918-19, as famine and the cold killed many. In May 1919, its status was elevated to that of a city. Based on the boundaries drawn by US State Department in November 1920, Iğdır was envisaged as an integral part of the Armenian republic. However, in September 1920 the Government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey led by Mustafa Kemal launched a war to eliminate the republic and overran Iğdır.
Turkish General Kâzım Karabekir commanded the armies but his forces were unable to take Iğdır due to strong Armenian resistance. However, within a few days, on October 20, 1920, the Turkish army managed to drive the Armenian forces out of Iğdır. According to official Turkish documents, after their defeat in the Shahtahti area, Armenian forces abandoned Iğdır, they burned the Markara Bridge which spanned the Araxes river and retreated to the northern bank on November 13, 1920. Turkey annexed the region of Iğdır after the conclusion of several peace treaties, its territorial gains were formalized under the 1921 Treaty of Kars. In the early years of the Republic of Turkey, Iğdır was a district of the province of Bayazıt, it was made a part of the Kars Province in 1934 and remained part of it until it became the seat of the newly formed Iğdır Province on 27 May 1992. The city of Iğdır sits on a plain at a lower altitude than most of Turkey's eastern provinces; this allows agricultural production including apples, cucumbers, pears, sugar beet and melons.
However, the most famous produce of Iğdır apricots. Iğdır has a temperate cold semi-arid continental climate with hot and dry summers and cold and snowy winters. Iğdır is one of the driest cities in Turkey. On a peninsula close to the closed border with Armenia, within a military zone, near the village of Sürmeli, stands the ruins of the medieval city of Surmari, with a citadel whose surviving walls date from 1224. A ruinous 13th century Armenian caravanserai known as the "Caravanserai of Zor" is another historical structure near Iğdır. In August 1997, construction started on the "Iğdır Soykırım Anıt-Müzesi". Turkish authorities erected the monument to commemorate massacres of Turks by Armenians during World War I and the Turkish–Armenian War during the Turkish War of Independence; the Turkish argument states that "A need was expressed for the erection of this monument and this opinion was stated as follows in the final declaration of the International Symposium on Historical Realities and Armenians, held in Iğdır from 24 to 26 April 1965.
The Symposium resolved that a monument of martyrs should be erected in Iğdır and a cemetery for martyrs should be established in Oba Village in order to eternalise the memories of more than one million Turks that fell in Eastern Anatolia and to
Nakhchivan (city)
Nakhchivan is the capital of the eponymous Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, located 450 km west of Baku. The municipality of Nakhchivan consists of the city of Nakhchivan, the settlement of Əliabad and the villages of Başbaşı, Haciniyyət, Qaraçuq, Qaraxanbəyli, Qarağalıq, Daşduz, it is spread over the foothills of Zangezur Mountains, on the right bank of the Nakhchivan River at an altitude of 873 m above sea level. Since June 9, 2009, by the decree of the President of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Bulqan, Garakhanbeyli and Haciniyyət villages of the Babek Rayon are included in the scope of the administrative territorial unit of the Nakhchivan city. Heinrich Hübschmann argued that Nakhichevan was named Naxcavan, the result of the combination of the name Naxc and avan, thus translates to "Naxc's town", evolved into Nakhichevan. According to Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, Nakhichevan derives from the composition of nakh and ichevan, thus translates to "first resting-place" or "first descent".
Local tradition states that Nakhichevan was founded by Noah after the Flood, was his place of death and burial. According to Saint Movses Khorenatsi, King Tigranes I of Armenia settled Median prisoners of war at Nakhichevan in the second century BC. Nakhichevan is first mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia as Naxouana. Nakhichevan was destroyed by Shahanshah Shapur II in 363 and its Armenian and Jewish population was deported to Iran. Emperor Heraclius travelled through the city en route to Atropatene in 623 during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628; the Arab siege of Nakhichevan in 650 led Theodore Rshtuni to conclude a truce. After the rebellion of 703, Muhammad ibn Marwan had the rebel nobles burnt alive in churches in Nakhichevan and Goghtn in 705. Nakhichevan temporarily came under the control of the Kingdom of Armenia in c. 900, but was swiftly taken by Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Saj. The city was the temporary refuge of Atabeg Nusrat al-Din Abu Bakr after his defeat at the Battle of Shamkor in 1195, Nakhichevan was conquered by the Kingdom of Georgia in 1197.
In 1225, Nakhichevan was ruled by daughter of Atabeg Muhammad Jahan Pahlavan. Genoese merchants were known to trade in the city by 1280; the city was conquered by Timur in 1401, but was taken by King George VII of Georgia in 1405. Nakhichevan was conquered by Shahanshah Ismail I in 1503. Shahanshah Abbas I of Persia reconquered Nakhichevan from the Ottoman Empire in 1603-1604. Nakhichevan was annexed to the Russian Empire per the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828; the city became the centre of the Nakhichevansky Uyezd in the Erivan Governorate in 1849. In 1896, Nakhichevan had a population of 7,433 two-thirds of which were Azeri-speaking Muslims and one-third Armenian Christians. After the February Revolution of 1917, a soviet was formed in Nakhichevan, but the city was under the control of the Special Transcaucasian Committee from March to November 1917, its successor the Transcaucasian Commissariat from November 1917 to March 1918. Turkey occupied Nakhichevan from June until November, after which the city was occupied by British soldiers in January 1919, a military governor was appointed to administer Nakhichevan.
It was decided that Nakhichevan would be granted to Armenia on 6 April 1919, the city was annexed on 6 June 1919. Britain, France and the US, with approval from Armenia and Azerbaijan, agreed on 25 October 1919 to appoint American Colonel Edmond D. Daily as General-Governor of Nakhichevan, elections would be held, both Armenia and Azerbaijan would withdraw its forces from the territory. However, in March 1920, Turkish forces led by Kâzım Karabekir occupied Nakhichevan. Soviet Russia took control of Nakhichevan on 28 July 1920, the city became part of the newly formed Nakhichevan Soviet Socialist Republic; the Treaty of Moscow of 16 March 1921, the Treaty of Kars of 21 October 1921, between Russia and Turkey agreed that Nakhichevan would be an autonomous territory under the protection of Azerbaijan and delimited its borders with Turkey. In February 1923, the city formed part of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Krai within the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, but became the capital of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the ASSR in March 1924.
The bishop of Mardpetakan resided at Nakhichevan, the Armenian historian Tovma Artsruni records Sahak Vahevuni as bishop of Nakhichevan and Mardpetakan and brother of Apusahak Vahevuni. The city is spread over the foothills of Zangezur chain, on the right bank of the Nakhchivan River at an altitude of 1,000 m; the floods and soil erosion spiked because of the decreased forest cover along riverbanks. As a result, reforestation projects implemented in the city to encourage tree planting. Nakhchivan has a continental semi-arid climate with short but cold, snowy winters and long, dry hot summers. According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, the number of population of city was 63,8 thousand in 2000. Traditionally, Nakhchivan was home to trade industry, handicraft and hatmaking; these industries have been replaced. The restoration enterprises and development industry, liberalization of foreign trade and the extension of the customs infrastructure, responsible for Nakchivan's growth in the last two decades, are now major parts of Nakchivan's economy.
The city has a wide range of cultural activities and museums. Heydar Aliyev Palace, which has a permanent local painting exhibition and a theatre hall for an audience of 1000 people, a re
Iğdır Province
Iğdır Province is a province in eastern Turkey, located along the borders with Armenia and Iran. Its adjacent provinces are Kars to the northwest and Ağrı to the south, it occupies an area of 3,587 km2 and population of 184,418, it was 168,634 in 2000. It was created from southeastern part of former Kars Province in 1993. Armenia’s highest mountain, Mount Ararat is in now day Iğdır, but much of the land is a wide plain far below the mountain; the climate is the warmest in this part of Turkey, cotton can be grown in Iğdır. Iğdır is; the closed border with Armenia follows the Aras River. The provincial capital is the city of Iğdır; the majority of the province's population is Kurdish, with Azerbaijanis making up the remainder. Iğdır province is divided into 4 districts: Aralık Iğdır Karakoyunlu Tuzluca Archaeological research has uncovered Hurrian settlements in the Iğdır region going back to 4000 BC; the area was part of the Urartu kingdom circa 800 BC. There is a Urartu statuary in the area, it remained under Urartian control until its transition to the Median Empire, Persian Empire, Alexander The Great, Orontid Dynasty of the Kingdom of Armenia.
Seleucid, Roman and Byzantine forces were prominent from the 4th century BC, followed by the Arab armies of Islam in 646. Turks and Mongols fought through here for 400 years from 1064 onwards until the area was settled by Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu Turkic tribes in the early 15th century. For centuries, a constant warfare ensued between the two arch rivals, the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Empire from 1534 until 1746; the region, most of the time remaining in Persian hands, was ceded once again in 1746, when subsequently most of its land within the province of Iğdır today became part of the Erivan khanate, a Muslim principality in Persia. The northern part of the province remained in Persian hands until after the Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828 when it became part of the Russian Empire under the Treaty of Turkmenchay. Under Russian administration, the area became the Surmali uyezd of the Armenian Oblast and the Erivan Governorate; the southern half of the province remained in Ottoman hands through most of the 19th century but was incorporated into the Russian Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.
Towards the end of World War I, the whole area came under the administration of the First Republic of Armenia as part of Ararat province. After an attack into the territory by the Turkish army, Iğdır was ceded to Turkey by the Soviet Union under the Treaty of Kars. A substantial Armenian population remained in the area throughout this history of struggle between great powers. Armenians formed the ethnic majority in the city of Iğdır itself until 1919–1920 when most either died or fled due to starvation and Turkish–Armenian War, it was part of Beyazıt Province between 1922 and 1927, part of Ağrı Province between 1927 and 1934, part of Kars Province between 1934 and 1993 before becoming separate province. According to 1886 census, Iğdır Province had 30,647 people. 49.6% of them Armenians, 38.7% of them are Azerbaijanis and 11.7% of them are Kurds. Karakoyunlu had 20,520 people. 11.0% of them Armenians, 63.5% of them are Azerbaijanis and 25.4% of them are Kurds. Tuzluca had 19,899 people. 23.3% of them Armenians, 47.5% of them are Azerbaijanis and 29.3% of them are Kurds.
Today, Iğdır has a mixed population of Azerbaijanis and Kurds, both of whom comprise half of the population, the former inhabiting the north and east of the province and the latter inhabiting the south and west of the province. Political scientist Nicole Watts suggests; the Kurds are Sunni Muslims belonging to the Shafi school while Azerbaijanis are Shia Muslims belonging to Ithnā‘ashariyyah school. The rural areas of Iğdır province have a higher population density than those of neighbouring provinces; the caravanserai of Zor, believed to have been built by an Armenian architect in the 13th or 14th century, is located 35 km south-west of the city of Iğdır, is named after the nearby village of Zor. It was one of halting places along the trade route between northern Georgia. Caravans used to stay over-here before passing over the Çilli pass. Restoration works have begun on the structure, put under protection since 1988; the ruins of an Armenian church was once located in the same area. Surmari castle, 25 km west of the city of Iğdır, on the road to Tuzluca, in the village of Sürmeli, is the site of the medieval Armenian town of Surmari.
However, it is inaccessible due to border restrictions. Statues with Ram Heads, Cementer stones with ram heads existing in all old cementers in Iğdır Plain are remnants from Kara Koyunlu period; these cementers of heroic persons and young persons who had died in youth age. Aras Bird Research and Education Center, One of only four active bird research and banding stations in Turkey. 204 bird species have been recorded so far in the wetlands along Aras River, Yukari Ciyrikli, Tuzluca. Bird enthusiasts can volunteer or visit to experience the diverse birdlife and traditional village life. From Kars to Igdir, turn right 10 meter before the Aras bridge and drive 4 km to Yukari Ciyrikli village. List of populated places in Iğdır Province
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