Ardahan okrug Ардаганский округ | |
---|---|
Country | Russian Empire |
Viceroyalty | Caucasus |
Oblast | Kars |
Established | 1878 |
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk | 3 March 1918 |
Capital | Ardagan (present-day Ardahan) |
Area | |
• Total | 5,596.88 km2 (2,160.97 sq mi) |
Population (1916) | |
• Total | 89,036 |
• Density | 16/km2 (41/sq mi) |
• Urban | 3.56% |
• Rural | 96.44% |
The Ardahan okrug [lower-alpha 1] was a district ( okrug ) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative center, the town of Ardagan (present-day Ardahan), presently part of the Ardahan Province of Turkey. The okrug bordered with the Kars okrug to the south, the Olti okrug in the west, the Batum Oblast in the north, the Tiflis Governorate in the northeast, and from 1883 to 1903 the Kutais Governorate whilst the latter included the Artvin and Batum okrugs. [1]
The Ardahan okrug was one of the four territorial administrative subunits (counties) of the Kars oblast created after its annexation into the Russian Empire in 1878 through the Treaty of San Stefano, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. [2]
During the First World War, the Kars Oblast became the site of intense battles between the Russian Caucasus Army supplemented by Armenian volunteers and the Ottoman Third Army, the latter of whom was successful in briefly occupying Ardahan on 25 December 1914 before they were dislodged in early January 1915.
On 3 March 1918, in the aftermath of the October Revolution the Russian SFSR ceded the entire Kars Oblast including the Ardahan okrug through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to the Ottoman Empire, who had been unreconciled with its loss of the territory since 1878. Despite the ineffectual resistance of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic which had initially rejected the aforementioned treaty, the Ottoman Third Army was successful in occupying the Kars Oblast and forcefully expelling its 100,000 panic-stricken Armenian inhabitants. [3]
The Ottoman Ninth Army under the command of Yakub Shevki Pasha, the occupying force of the district by the time of the Mudros Armistice, were permitted to winter in Kars until early 1919, after which on 7 January 1919 Major General G.T. Forestier-Walker ordered their complete withdrawal to the pre-1914 Ottoman-frontier. Intended to hinder the westward expansion of the fledgling Armenian and Georgian republics into the Kars Oblast, Yukub Shevki backed the emergence of the short-lived South-West Caucasus Republic with moral support, also furnishing it with weapons, ammunition and instructors. [4]
The South-West Caucasus Republic administered the Ardahan okrug and neighboring formerly occupied districts for three months before provoking British intervention by order of General G.F. Milne, leading to its capitulation by Armenian and British forces on 10 April 1919. [5] [6] Consequently, the Kars Oblast largely came under the Armenian civil governorship of Stepan Korganian who wasted no time in facilitating the repatriation of the region's exiled refugees. [7]
Despite the apparent defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish agitators were reported by Armenian intelligence to have been freely roaming the countryside of Kars encouraging sedition among the Muslim villages, culminating in a series of anti-Armenian uprisings on 1 July 1919. [8]
The Kars Oblast for the third time in six years saw invading Turkish troops, this time under the command of General Kâzım Karabekir in September 1920 during the Turkish-Armenian War. The disastrous war for Armenia resulted in the permanent expulsion of the region's ethnic Armenian population, many who inexorably remained befalling massacre, resulting in the region being integrated into the Republic of Turkey through the Treaty of Alexandropol on 3 December 1920. Turkey's annexation of Kars and the adjacent Surmalu Uyezd was confirmed in the treaties of Kars and Moscow in 1921, by virtue of the new Soviet regime in Armenia. [9]
The prefectures (участки, uchastki ) of the Ardahan okrug were: [10] [11]
Name | Administrative centre | 1912 population | Area |
---|---|---|---|
Ardaganskiy prefecture (Ардаганский участок) | Ardagan (Ardahan) | 26,649 | 1,599.75 square versts (1,820.62 km2 ; 702.94 sq mi ) |
Gyolskiy prefecture (Гёльский участок) | Okam (Çayırbaşı) | 21,161 | 1,849.68 square versts (2,105.05 km2 ; 812.76 sq mi ) |
Poskhovskiy prefecture (Посховский участок) | Damavliya (Yurtbekler) | 15,586 | 506.45 square versts (576.37 km2 ; 222.54 sq mi ) |
Chaldyrskiy prefecture (Чалдырский участок) | Zurzuna (Çıldır) | 15,511 | 962.02 square versts (1,094.84 km2 ; 422.72 sq mi ) |
According to the Russian Empire Census, the Ardahan okrug had a population of 65,763 on 28 January [ O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 34,930 men and 30,833 women. The plurality of the population indicated Turkish to be their mother tongue, with significant Kurdish, Karapapakh, Greek, and Turkmen speaking minorities. [12]
Language | Native speakers | % |
---|---|---|
Turkish | 28,047 | 42.65 |
Kurdish | 12,565 | 19.11 |
Karapapakh | 7,874 | 11.97 |
Greek | 7,839 | 11.92 |
Turkmen | 4,328 | 6.58 |
Russian | 1,966 | 2.99 |
Armenian | 1,918 | 2.92 |
Ukrainian | 383 | 0.58 |
Polish | 207 | 0.31 |
Persian | 137 | 0.21 |
Georgian | 137 | 0.21 |
Jewish | 113 | 0.17 |
Ossetian | 47 | 0.07 |
Lithuanian | 45 | 0.07 |
Tatar [lower-alpha 2] | 37 | 0.06 |
German | 30 | 0.05 |
Avar-Andean | 20 | 0.03 |
Belarusian | 8 | 0.01 |
Dargin | 7 | 0.01 |
Bashkir | 1 | 0.00 |
Other | 54 | 0.08 |
TOTAL | 65,763 | 100.00 |
According to the 1917 publication of Kavkazskiy kalendar , the Ardahan okrug had a population of 89,036 on 14 January [ O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 44,387 men and 44,649 women, 82,260 of whom were the permanent population, and 6,376 were temporary residents. The statistics indicated the town Ardahan to be overwhelmingly Armenian with a significant Sunni Muslim minority. Conversely, the rest of the okrug was mainly Sunni Muslim, with sizeable Kurdish, Roma, and Yazidi minorities: [15]
Nationality | Urban | Rural | TOTAL | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
Sunni Muslims [lower-alpha 3] | 778 | 24.57 | 45,348 | 52.81 | 46,126 | 51.81 |
Kurds | 28 | 0.88 | 18,136 | 21.12 | 18,164 | 20.40 |
Roma | 361 | 11.40 | 11,700 | 13.63 | 12,061 | 13.55 |
Yazidis | 0 | 0.00 | 6,543 | 7.62 | 6,543 | 7.35 |
Armenians | 1,708 | 53.93 | 1,036 | 1.21 | 2,744 | 3.08 |
Russians | 270 | 8.53 | 2,240 | 2.61 | 2,510 | 2.82 |
Asiatic Christians | 0 | 0.00 | 755 | 0.88 | 755 | 0.85 |
Shia Muslims [lower-alpha 4] | 0 | 0.00 | 82 | 0.10 | 82 | 0.09 |
Georgians | 18 | 0.57 | 13 | 0.02 | 31 | 0.03 |
North Caucasians | 0 | 0.00 | 8 | 0.01 | 8 | 0.01 |
Other Europeans | 0 | 0.00 | 8 | 0.01 | 8 | 0.01 |
Jews | 4 | 0.13 | 0 | 0.00 | 4 | 0.00 |
TOTAL | 3,167 | 100.00 | 85,869 | 100.00 | 89,036 | 100.00 |
According to the 1897 census, there were 12 settlements in the Ardahan okrug with a population over 500 inhabitants. The religious composition of the settlements was as follows: [17]
Name | Armenian Apostolic | Muslim | Eastern Orthodox | Male | Female | TOTAL |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ardahan (Ардаган, Ardagan) | 1,317 [lower-alpha 5] | 879 | 1,334 | 2,962 | 1,180 | 4,142 |
Süngülü (Арила, Arila) | 732 | 388 | 344 | 732 | ||
Çetinsu (Беберек (Беберяк), Beberek (Beberyak)) | 543 | 248 | 299 | 547 | ||
Binbaşak (Гюгюба, Gyugyuba) | 501 | 264 | 237 | 501 | ||
Çamlıçatak (Гюляберт, Gyulyabert) | 764 | 394 | 394 | 788 | ||
Doğruyol (Джала, Dzhala) | 737 | 385 | 363 | 748 | ||
Kenarbel (Канарбель, Kanarbel) | 500 | 275 | 233 | 508 | ||
Ortakent (Накалакеви (Накалакей)) | 736 | 390 | 346 | 736 | ||
Yanlızçam (Синдизгем (Синдисгем), Sindizgem (Sindisgem)) | 793 | 391 | 411 | 802 | ||
Aşıkşenlik (Сухара, Sukhara) | 955 | 497 | 466 | 963 | ||
Aşıkzülali (Цурцкаб, Tsurtskab) | 826 | 419 | 407 | 826 | ||
Çatalköprü (Шадеван, Shadevan) | 562 | 265 | 297 | 562 | ||
TOTAL | 1,317 | 6,428 | 3,434 | 6,878 | 4,977 | 11,855 |
The Kars oblast was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in Turkey. The oblast bordered the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Batum Oblast to the north, the Tiflis Governorate to the northeast, and the Erivan Governorate to the east. The Kars oblast included parts of the contemporary provinces of Kars, Ardahan, and Erzurum Province of Turkey, and the Amasia Community of the Shirak Province of Armenia.
The Borchaly uezd was a county (uezd) of the Tiflis Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, and later of the independent and Soviet republics of Georgia. Its administrative center was the town of Shulavery. The area of the county roughly corresponded to the contemporary Lori Province of Armenia and the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia.
The Dagestan Oblast was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day southeastern Dagestan within the Russian Federation. The Dagestan oblast was created in 1860 out of the territories of the former Caucasian Imamate, bordering the Terek Oblast to the north, the Tiflis Governorate and Zakatal Okrug to the west, the Elizavetpol Governorate to the south, and Baku Governorate to the east. The administrative center of the oblast was Temir-Khan-Shura.
The Batum oblast was a province (oblast) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with the Black Sea port of Batum as its administrative center. The Batum oblast roughly corresponded to the present-day Adjara autonomous region of Georgia, and most of the Artvin Province of Turkey.
The Zakatal okrug was a special administrative district (okrug) of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, part of the Tiflis Governorate from 1893 to 1905. The administrative centre of the district was Zakataly, and it corresponded to most of the contemporary districts of Balakan, Zaqatala and Qax of Azerbaijan. The Zakatal okrug was established from the territories of the erstwhile Free Jamaats of Jar-Balakan, bordering the Tiflis Governorate to the west, the Elizavetpol Governorate to the south and the Dagestan Oblast to the north. The district was the smallest independent administrative unit of the Russian Empire, similarly to the Sukhumi okrug.
The Etchmiadzin uezd was a county (uezd) of the Erivan Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The uezd bordered the Alexandropol uezd to the north, the Nor Bayazet uezd to the east, Erivan uezd to the north, the Surmalu uezd to the south, and the Kars Oblast to the west. It included all of the Armavir Province and most of the Aragatsotn Province of present-day Armenia. The administrative centre of the county was Vagorshapat (Vagharshapat), also referred to as Etchmiadzin—the administrative capital of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The Kars okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently part of the Kars Province of Turkey and the Amasia District of Armenia. The okrug bordered with the Ardahan okrug in the north, the Kagizman okrug in the south, the Olti okrug in the west, and the Erivan Governorate to its east.
The Olti okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire existing between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the town of Olty, presently part of the Erzurum Province of Turkey. The okrug bordered with the Kars okrug to the southeast, the Ardahan okrug to the northwest, the Kagizman okrug to its south, the Batum Oblast to the north, and the Erzurum vilayet of the Ottoman Empire to the west.
The Kagizman okrug was a district (okrug) of the Kars Oblast of the Russian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the town of Kagyzman, presently in the Kars Province of Turkey. The okrug bordered with the Kars okrug to the north, the Olti okrug to the northwest, the Erivan Governorate to the east, and the Erzurum Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire to the west.
The Akhalkalaki uezd was a county (uezd) of the Tiflis Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, and then of Democratic Republic of Georgia, with its administrative centre in Akhalkalak. The county bordered the Gori uezd to the north, the Borchaly uezd to the east, the Alexandropol uezd of the Erivan Governorate and the Kars and Ardahan okrugs of the Kars Oblast to the south, and the Akhaltsikhe uezd to the west. The area of the county roughly corresponded to the contemporary Samtskhe–Javakheti region of Georgia.
The Akhaltsikhe uezd was a county (uezd) of the Tiflis Governorate of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, and then of Democratic Republic of Georgia, with its administrative center in Akhaltsikh. The uezd bordered the Gori uezd and the Kutaisi Governorate to the north, the Akhalkalaki uezd to the east, the Ardahan Okrug of the Kars Oblast to the south, and the Batum Okrug of the Batum Oblast to the west. The area of the uezd roughly corresponded to the contemporary Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia.
The Artvin okrug was a district (okrug) of the Batum Oblast of the Russian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative centre, Artvin, presently part of the Artvin Province of Turkey. The district bordered with the Olti okrug to the south, the Ardahan okrug to the east, the Batumi okrug to the north, and the Ottoman Empire to the west. Between 1883 and 1903, the Artvin okrug formed a part of the Kutaisi Governorate.
The Batumi okrug was a district (okrug) of the Batum Oblast of the Russian Empire existing between 1878 and 1918. The district was eponymously named for its administrative center, the town of Batum, now part of Adjara within Georgia. The okrug bordered with the Artvin okrug in the south, the Ardahan okrug of the Kars Oblast to the southeast, the Tiflis Governorate to the northeast, the Kutaisi Governorate to the north, and the Trebizond Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire to the west.
The Avarskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Avarskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Khunzakh.
The Andiyskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Andiyskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Botlikh.
The Gunibskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Gunibskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's centre was Gunib.
The Kazikumukhskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Kazikumukhskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Kumukh.
The Kaytago-Tabasaranskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Kaytago-Tabasaranskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Madzhalis.
The Samurskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Samurskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Akhty.
The Temir-Khan-Shurinskiy okrug was a district (okrug) of the Dagestan Oblast of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. The area of the Temir-Khan-Shurinskiy okrug is included in contemporary Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The district's administrative centre was Temir-Khan-Shura.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)