Ağrı, Northeast Anatolia Region, Türkiye

🇹🇷 Ağrı is the capital of Ağrı Province in eastern Turkey, near the border with Iran. Formerly known as Karaköse (Qerekose) from the early Turkish republican period until 1946, and before that as Karakilise the city is now named after Ağrı, the Turkish name of Mount Ararat.

History The current town centre was founded around 1860 by a group of Armenian merchants from Bitlis with the name Karakilise (قره‌کلیسا,  'the black church') that became known to the local population as Karakise, and this version was turned officially to Karaköse at the beginning of the Republican era. This name was changed to Ağrı by 1946.

In the years of 1927 to 1931, the region was under the occupation of the Kurdish separatist movements, which gained to establish an unrecognized state named Republic of Ararat which was led by several Kurdish leaders, some of the Main were Ibrahim Heski and Ihsan Nuri.

In the medieval period, the district's administrative centre was located at Alashkert, once an important town. The "kara kilise" or "black church" that gave the town its name was a medieval Armenian church. In 1895 H. F. B. Lynch stayed in Karakilise and wrote that it had between 1500 and 2000 inhabitants, was nearly two-thirds Armenian, and that a barracks for a locally recruited Kurdish Hamidiye regiment had been recently located in the town.

The Armenian population of the town and surrounding valley was massacred by tribal Kurds during the Armenian Genocide: a New York Times report from March 1915 talks of the Alashkert valley being covered with the bodies of men, women, and children.

Economy and infrastructure Ağrı contains most of the industry in Ağrı Province where the main economic activity is Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. There is Ağrı Meat and Milk Factory and the ELDESAN leather factory is one of the biggest in the region. There is also a Sugar Factory, Shoe Factory Flour Mills, Agricultural Equipment manufacturing sites, brick factory, lime factory, furniture factory, dairy factory and textile mills.

In the south Ağrı counts with access to the Ağrı Ahmed-i Hani Airport in Yolluyazı. National and international flights arrive and depart from here.

North of Ağrı, there is a longwave broadcasting station with 2 250 metres tall guyed masts, broadcasting on 162 kHz with 1000 kW.

It is a very poor region with extremely cold winters. Most people live by grazing animals on the mountainside. Few people manage to attend university; people tend to marry in their teens and families with ten or more children are common. The local MP Fatma Salman Kotan has written of the need to erode the patriarchal nature of society in the region.

Demographics On the eve of the First World War, 8,180 Armenians lived in the kaza of Karakilise. The city itself had a total population of 4,500, half of them being Armenians. The town had two Armenian schools.

Composition There are 107 villages in Ağrı District: • Ağılbaşı • Ahmetbey • Akbulgur • Akçay • Altınçayır • Anakaya • Arakonak • Aslangazi • Aşağı Pamuktaş • Aşağıağadeve • Aşağıdürmeli • Aşağıkent • Aşağısaklıca • Aşağıyoldüzü • Aşkale • Badıllı • Balıksu • Balkaynak • Ballıbostan • Baloluk • Başçavuş • Başkent • Beşbulak • Beşiktepe • Bezirhane • Boztoprak • Bölükbaşı • Cumaçay • Çakıroba • Çamurlu • Çatalipaşa • Çayırköy • Çobanbeyi • Çukuralan • Çukurçayır • Dedemaksut • Doğutepe • Dönerdere • Dumanlı • Eğribelen • Eliaçık • Esenköy • Eskiharman • Geçitalan • Gümüşyazı • Güneysu • Güvendik • Güvenli • Hacısefer • Hanoba • Hıdır • Kalender • Karasu • Kavacık • Kavakköy • Kayabey • Kazlı • Kocataş • Koçbaşı • Konuktepe • Kovancık • Kumlugeçit • Mollaali • Mollaosman • Murat • Murathan • Oğlaklı • Ortakent • Ortayokuş • Otlubayır • Ozanlar • Özbaşı • Özveren • Sabuncu • Sağırtaş • Sarıca • Sarıdoğan • Sarıharman • Sarıtaş • Soğan Eleşkirt • Soğancumaçay • Söğütlü • Suçatağı • Taştekne • Taypınar • Tellisırt • Tezeren • Uçarkaya • Uzunveli • Yakınca • Yalnızkonak • Yaylaköy • Yazıcı • Yazılı • Yığıntepe • Yolluyazı • Yolugüzel • Yoncalı • Yorgunsöğüt • Yukarıağadeve • Yukarıdürmeli • Yukarıküpkıran • Yukarıpamuktaş • Yukarısaklıca • Yukarıyoldüzü • Yurtpınar • Ziyaret.

Districts Ağrı province is divided into eight districts: • Ağrı • Diyadin • Doğubayazıt • Eleşkirt • Hamur • Patnos • Taşlıçay • Tutak.