KARS, Karuts town, a town in Western Armenia, in Vanand province of Greater Armenia. 

After falling under the rule of the Ottoman Turkey in the 16th century and, by the end of the 70s of the 19th century the administrative center of the homonymous province was annexed to Russia as a center of Kars province in 1878. At the beginning of the 19th century, 650 residents out of 600 homes were Armenians. The Armenian population of Kars significantly reduced because of the emigration of the thousands of residents of Kars to Caucasus (mainly Shirak region) in 1829-30, 1854-1855. 

The Sultanic government resettled many Turkish and Iranian-speaking (Kurds) ethnicKars elements in Kars. Becoming the part of Russia the number of the Armenian population in Kars reached 1250 by 1913 (in total 12175). Thousands of Armenians who escaped from different provinces of Western Armenia established in Kars in 1914-17.   

Kars that was once the most impregnable fortress and had a well-armed garrison on April 25, 1918 was passed to Turkey without any fight because of the treacherous policy of Transcaucasian Sejm and the Christian population, particularly the Armenians emigrated to Shirak. Most of the Armenians who stayed in Kars were massacred, the others paid heavy taxes. In different parts of Kars resistance was organized by certain groups. Kars was given to Turkey by the Treaty of Batumi in 1918. 

After the departure of Turks in April 1919 the British troops entered Kars and the city passed to the Republic of Armenia in May. Soon many Armenians returned their homes. Not receiving the support of masses the Bolshevik's rebellion in Kars in May, 1920 was defeated. On October 30, 1920 Kemalist troops occupied Kars. According to Turkish eye-witnesses 8000 Armenians were massacred in Kars, almost the whole personal property of the population was derived from the city. 

Those who survived the massacres suffered from starvation. In Mid-November many Armenians and the prisoners of war were deported to Erzrum by Kemalists. Kars was given to Turkey by the Treaty of Moscow on March 16, 1921. Under the pressure of Russia ASSR recognized the annexation of Kars to the Turkish Republic by the agreement signed on October 13, 1921.

Nowadays Kars is a provincial town in Turkey with 65,000 inhabitants (mainly Kurds and Turks).  


A. Melkonyan

Source – Encyclopedia “The Armenian Issue”, Yerevan, 1996. 

 

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