“Kars”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

For a brief period of time it served as the capital of the medieval Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia.^[4]^[5] The seat of an independent Armenian Kingdom of Vanand during the 9th and 10th centuries.^[6] Its significance increased in the 19th century, when the Ottoman and Russian empires contested the possession of the city, with the Russians gaining control as a result of the 1877-78 war. During World War I, the Ottomans took control of the city in 1918 and declared the Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus (promulgated 1 December 1918), but ceded it to the First Republic of Armenia following the Armistice of Mudros (signed 30 October 1918). During the war in 1915, Turkish revolutionaries captured Kars for the last time. The

History

Etymology

As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography (Strabo) as part of ancient Armenia.^[9] For the origin of the name "Kars", some sources claim it to be derived from the Georgian word კარი (kari), meaning "the gate" as was the case for other border region strongholds^[10] while other sources claim it is from the Armenian word հարս (hars), meaning "bride",^[11] or rather from կառուց բերդ (kaṛuts berd), "Kaṛuts Fortress".{{Citation needed|date=April 2012}} The Turkish etymology offered by M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu (that the name came from the "Karsak", a Turkish tribe), has been dismissed as unsustainable by scholars.^[12]

Medieval period

Little is known of the early history of Kars beyond the fact that, during medieval times, it had its own dynasty of Armenian rulers and was the capital of a region known as Vanand. Medieval Armenian historians referred to the city by a variety of names, including "Karuts' K'aghak'" (Kars city), "Karuts' Berd", "Amrots'n Karuts'" (both meaning Kars Fortress) and "Amurn Karuts'" (Impenetrable Kars).^[2] At some point in the ninth century (at least by 888) it became part of the territory of the Armenian Bagratunis. Kars was the capital of Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia between 928 and 961.^[5] During this period the town's cathedral, later known as the Church of the Holy Apostles, was built.^[13]

In 963, shortly after the Bagratuni seat was transferred to Ani, Kars became the capital of a separate independent kingdom, again called Vanand. However, the extent of its actual independence from the Kingdom of Ani is uncertain: it was always in the possession of the relatives of the rulers of Ani, and, after Ani's capture by the Byzantine Empire in 1045, the Bagratuni title "King of Kings" held by the ruler of Ani was transferred to the ruler of Kars. In 1064, just after the capture of Ani by Alp Arslan (leader of the Seljuk Turks), the Armenian king of Kars, Gagik-Abas, paid homage to the victorious Turks so that they would not lay siege to his city. In 1065 Gagik-Abas ceded his kingdom to the Byzantine Empire, but soon after Kars was taken by the Seljuk Turks.^[2]

The Seljuks quickly relinquished direct control over Kars and it became a small emirate whose territory corresponded closely to that of Vanand, and which bordered the similarly created but larger Shaddadid emirate centered at Ani. The Kars emirate was a vassal of the Saltukids in Erzurum, whose forces were effective in opposing Georgian attempts at seizing Kars. Thus, it was only in 1206 that Zakare of the Zakarids-Mkhargrzeli succeeded in capturing Kars, joining it to their fiefdom of Ani.^[14] It was conquered in 1242 by the Mongols; was regained by Georgian Kingdom during the reign of George V the Brilliant (1314–1346), it remained part of the Kingdom before its disintegration, which then passed into the hands of Georgian Atabegs belonging to the House of Jaqeli.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}} In 1387 the city surrendered to Timur (Tamerlane) and its fortifications were damaged. Anatolian beyliks followed for some time after that, until it firstly fell into the hands of the Kara Koyunlu and subsequent Ak Koyunlu. After the Ak Koyunlu, as it went naturally for almost all their former territories, the city fell into the hands of the newly established Safavid dynasty of Iran, founded by king Ismail I. Following the Peace of Amasya of 1555 that followed through the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1533-1555, the city was declared neutral, and its existing fortress was destroyed.^[15]^[16] In 1585, during the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1579-1590, the Ottomans took the city alongside Tabriz.^[17] On June 8, 1604, during the next bout of hostilities between the two archrivals, the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1603-1618, Safavid ruler Abbas I retook the city from the Ottomans.^[18] The fortifications of the city were rebuilt by the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and were strong enough to withstand a siege by Nader Shah of Persia, in 1731.^[22] It became the head of a sanjak in the Ottoman Erzurum Vilayet.^[19] In August 1745, a huge Ottoman army was routed at Kars by Nader Shah during the Ottoman-Persian War of 1743-1746.^[20] As a result, the Turks fled westwards, raiding their own lands as they went.^[20]

Russian administration

In 1807 Kars successfully resisted an attack by the Russian Empire. During a break between the Russian campaigns in the region conducted against the Ottomans, in 1821, commander-in-chief Abbas Mirza of Qajar Iran occupied Kars,^[21] further igniting the Ottoman-Persian War of 1821-1823. After another Russian siege in 1828 the city was surrendered by the Ottomans on June 23, 1828 to the Russian general Count Ivan Paskevich, 11,000 men becoming prisoners of war.^[19] At the end of the war it returned to Ottoman control for diplomatic reasons, Russia gaining only two border forts. During the Crimean War an Ottoman garrison led by British officers including General William Fenwick Williams kept the Russians at bay during a protracted siege; but after the garrison had been devastated by cholera and food supplies had depleted, the town was surrendered to General Mouravieff in November 1855.^[19]

The fortress was again stormed by the Russians in the Battle of Kars during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78^[19] under generals Loris-Melikov and Ivan Lazarev. Following the war, Kars was transferred to Russia by the Treaty of San Stefano. Kars became the capital of the Kars Oblast (province), comprising the districts of Kars, Ardahan, Kaghisman, and Oltu,which was the most southwesterly extension of the Russian Transcaucasus.

From 1878 to 1881 more than 82,000 Muslims from formerly Ottoman-controlled territory migrated to the Ottoman Empire. Among those there were more than 11,000 people from the city of Kars. At the same time, many Armenians and Pontic Greeks (here usually called Caucasus Greeks) migrated to the region from the Ottoman Empire and other regions of Transcaucasia. According to the Russian census data, by 1897 Armenians formed 49.7%, Russians 26.3%, Caucasus Greeks 11.7%, Poles 5.3% and Turks 3.8%.^[30]

World War I

In the First World War, the city was one of the main objectives of the Ottoman army during the lost Battle of Sarikamish in the Caucasus Campaign. Russia ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. However, by then Kars was under the effective control of Armenian and non-Bolshevik Russian forces. The Ottoman Empire captured Kars on April 25, 1918, but under the Armistice of Mudros (October 1918) was required to withdraw to the pre-war frontier. The Ottomans refused to relinquish Kars; its military governor instead established a government, the Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus, led by Fahrettin Pirioglu, that claimed Turkish sovereignty over Kars and Turkish-speaking regions as far as Batumi and Alexandropol (Gyumri). Much of the region fell under the administrative control of Armenia in January 1919 but the pro-Turkish government remained in the city until a joint operation launched by British and Armenian troops dissolved it on April 19, 1919, arresting its leaders and sending them to Malta.^[22] In May 1919 Kars came under the full administration of the Armenian Republic and became the capital of its Vanand province.

Skirmishes between the Turkish revolutionaries and Armenian border troops in Olti took place during the summer of 1920. In the autumn of that year four Turkish divisions under the command of General Kâzım Karabekir invaded the Armenian Republic, triggering the Turkish-Armenian War.^[23] Kars had been fortified to withstand a lengthy siege but, to the astonishment of all, was taken with little resistance by Turkish forces on October 30, 1920, in what some modern scholars have called one of the worst military fiascoes in Armenian history.^[24] The terms of the Treaty of Alexandropol, signed by the representatives of Armenia and Turkey on December 2, 1920, forced Armenia to give back all the Ottoman territories granted to it in the Treaty of Sèvres.

After the Bolshevik advance into Armenia, the Treaty of Alexandropol was superseded by the Treaty of Kars (October 23, 1921), signed between Turkey and the Soviet Union. The treaty allowed for Soviet annexation of Adjara in exchange for Turkish control of the regions of Kars, Igdir, and Ardahan. The Treaty of Kars established peaceful relations between the two nations, but as early as 1939, some British diplomats noted{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} indications that the Soviet Union was not satisfied with the established border.

Recent history

After World War II, the Soviet Union attempted to annul the Kars treaty and regain the Kars region and the adjoining region of Ardahan. On June 7, 1945, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov told the Turkish ambassador to Moscow Selim Sarper that the regions should be returned to the Soviet Union, on behalf of the Georgian and Armenian republics. Turkey found itself in a difficult position: it wanted good relations with the Soviet Union, but at the same time they refused to give up the territories. Turkey itself was in no condition to fight a war with the Soviet Union, which had emerged as a superpower after the second world war. By the autumn of 1945, Soviet troops in the Caucasus were ordered to prepare for a possible invasion of Turkey. Prime Minister Winston Churchill objected to these territorial claims, while President Harry Truman initially felt that the matter should not concern other parties. With the onset of the Cold War, however, the United States came to see Turkey as a useful ally against Soviet expansion and began to support it financially and militarily. By 1948 the Soviet Union dropped its claims to Kars and the other regions.^[25]

In April 1993, Turkey closed its Kars border crossing with Armenia, in a protest against the capture of Kelbajar district of Azerbaijan by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.^[26] Since then the land border between Armenia and Turkey has remained closed. In 2006, former Kars mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu said that opening the border would boost the local economy and reawaken the city.^[27] Despite unsuccessful attempts to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2009,^[28] there remained opposition and pressure from the local population against the re-opening of the border.^[29] Under pressure from Azerbaijan, and the local population, including the 20% ethnic Azerbaijani minority, the Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu reiterated in 2010 and 2011 that opening the border with Armenia was out of question.^[30]^[31] {{As of|2014}}, the border remains closed.^[32]

Demographics

According to Turkey's 2011 Statistical Yearbook, the area has been depopulating because of migration to bigger cities.^[33] In İstanbul alone, there are 269,388 people from Kars, more than three times the city's population.^[34]^[35]

Government

On 30 March 2014, Murtaza Karaçanta (MHP) was elected mayor. The previous mayor, Nevzat Bozkuş (AKP), was not reelected. During the June 2015 elections, Kars became a stronghold of the pro-Kurdish HDP, becoming the largest political party in both the city and the province of Kars. Kars has a Kurdish majority. The current mayor is a government appointed mayor and not an elected one.^[41] The mayor before Bozkuş was Naif Alibeyoğlu (AKP).^[42]

Climate

Kars has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfb), with a significant difference between summer and winter temperatures, as well as night and day temperatures, due to its location away from large bodies of water, its high elevation and relatively high latitude, being where the high plateau of Eastern Anatolia converges with the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Summers are generally brief and warm with cool nights. The average high temperature in August is {{convert|26|°C|°F|lk=on|abbr=on}}. Winters are very cold. The average low January temperature is {{convert|-16|°C|°F|lk=on|abbr=on}}. However, temperatures can plummet to {{convert|-35|C|1}} during the winter months. It snows a lot in winter, staying for an average of four months in the city. Due to its geographic location of the city in the province, it has a slightly milder climate compared to the surrounding region. Some hills and peaks in the province, especially around the Sarıkamış region, are subarctic (Köppen climate classification Dfc) due to the higher elevation of the region. Both the summers and winters are colder in this area, with winter temperatures reaching {{convert|-40|°C|°F|lk=on|abbr=on}} more regularly.

Sports

The town has a football club Kars S.K.. Bandy, a sport which does not exist in Turkey today, was once played here.^[45]

Education

Transport

Kars is served by a main highway from Erzurum, and lesser roads run north to Ardahan and south to Igdir. The town has an airport (Kars Harakani Airport), with daily direct flights to Ankara and Istanbul. Kars is served by a station on the Turkish Railways (TCDD) that links it to Erzurum. This line was originally laid when Kars was within the Russian Empire and connected the city to nearby Alexandropol and Tiflis, with a wartime, narrow-gauge extension running to Erzurum. Turkey's border crossings with Armenia, including the rail link, the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway, have regrettably been closed since April 1993. Construction on a new line, the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway, intended to connect Turkey with Georgia and Azerbaijan, began in 2010 and is scheduled for completion by 2017. The line became operational on October 30, 2017.^[46] The line connects Kars to Akhalkalaki in Georgia, from where trains will continue to Tbilisi, and Baku in Azerbaijan.^[47]

Places of interest

Kars Citadel

The Castle of Kars ({{lang-tr|Kars Kalesi}}), also known as the Citadel, sits at the top a rocky hill overlooking Kars. Its walls date back to the Bagratuni Armenian period (there is surviving masonry on the north side of the castle) but it probably took on its present form during the thirteenth century when Kars was ruled by the Zak'arid dynasty.

The walls bear crosses in several places, including a khachkar with a building inscription in Armenian on the easternmost tower, so the much repeated statement that Kars castle was built by Ottoman Sultan Murad III during the war with Persia, at the close of the sixteenth century, is inaccurate. However, Murad probably did reconstruct much of the city walls (they are similar to those that the Ottoman army constructed at Ardahan). During the eighteenth century at the Battle of Kars (1745) a crushing defeat was inflicted upon the Ottoman army by the Persian conqueror, Nader Shah, not far from the city of Kars.

By the nineteenth century the citadel had lost most of its defensive purpose and a series of outer fortresses and defensive works were constructed to encircle Kars – this new defensive system proved particularly notable during the Siege of Kars in 1855.

Other historical structures

Below the castle is an Armenian church known as Surb Arak'elots, the Church of the Holy Apostles. Built in the 930s, it has a tetraconch plan (a square with four semicircular apses) surmounted by a spherical dome on a cylindrical drum. On the exterior, the drum of contains bas-relief depictions of twelve figures, usually interpreted as representing the Twelve Apostles. The dome has a conical roof. The church was converted to a mosque in 1579, and then converted into a Russian Orthodox church in the 1880s. The Russian people constructed porches in front of the church's 3 entrances, and an elaborate belltower (now demolished) next to the church. The church was used as a warehouse from the 1930s, and it housed a small museum from 1963 until the late 1970s. Then the building was left to itself for about two decades, until it was converted into a mosque in 1993. In the same district of Kars are two other ruined Armenian churches. A Russian church from the 1900s was converted to a mosque in the 1980s after serving as a school gymnasium.^[49]

The "Taşköprü" (Stone Bridge) is a bridge over the Kars river, built in 1725. Close to the bridge are three old bath-houses, none of them operating any longer.

As a settlement at the juncture of Armenian, Turkish, Georgian, Kurdish and Russian cultures, the buildings of Kars come in a variety of architectural styles. Most Russian-era buildings in Kars are identical in architectural style to those of Gyumri in Armenia. Orhan Pamuk in the novel Snow, set in Kars, makes repeated references to "the Russian houses", built "in a Baltic style", whose like cannot be seen anywhere else in Turkey, and deplores the deteriorating condition of these houses.

Notable natives

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

The municipality of Kars has developed sister city relationships with following cities at home and abroad:^[50]

In popular culture

References

1. ^Tahir Sezen, Osmanlı Yer Adları (Alfabetik Sırayla), T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Yayın Nu 21, Ankara, p. 287.
2. ^¹²³⁴{{cite book|contribution= Կարս [Kars]|language= hy|last1= Arakelyan|first1= Babken|authorlink1= Babken Arakelyan|first2= Vrezh|last2= Vardanyan|first3= Hovhannes|last3= Khalpakhchyan|title= Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia Volume 5|location= Yerevan|publisher= Armenian Encyclopedia|year= 1979|pp= 342–344}}
3. ^http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-will-not-open-armenia-border-amid-karabakh-occupation-erdogan-136892
4. ^Encyclopaedia of Islam. — E. J. BRILL, 1997. — Vol. IV. — P. 669—670.
5. ^¹{{cite book|title= The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, Volume 3|year= 2009|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|isbn= 978-0-19-530991-1|page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=un4WcfEASZwC&pg=RA1-PA371&dq=kars+capital+armenia+928&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yeyMUpTMA7PgsASEzoGQBA&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=kars%20capital%20armenia%20928&f=false 371]|editor1= Bloom, Jonathan M. |editor2= Blair, Sheila }}
6. ^ [https://www.britannica.com/place/Kars The new encyclopædia Britannica]. — 2002. — Vol. 6. — P. 751 "The seat of an independent Armenian principality during the 9th and 10th centuries, Kars was captured by the Seljuqs in the 11th century."
7. ^{{cite book|last=Morack|first=Ellinor|title=The Dowry of the State?: The Politics of Abandoned Property and the Population Exchange in Turkey 1921-1945|publisher=University if Bamberg Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UU5cDgAAQBAJ|p=167}}
8. ^{{cite book|last=de Waal|first=Thomas |title=Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide |page=113}}
9. ^{{cite web | url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0239:book=11:chapter=14&highlight=chorzene#note-link4 | title=Geography Stabo - Book XI - Chapter XIV | accessdate=2011-05-31 | author=Strabo}}
10. ^{{cite book |title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe |last=Ring |first=Trudy |authorlink= |author2=Salkin, Robert M. |author3=La Boda, Sharon |year=1996 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=1-884964-02-8|page=357|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74JI2UlcU8AC&pg=PA357}}
11. ^{{cite book |title=Placenames of the World |last=Room |first=Adrian |year=2003 |publisher=McFarland |location= |isbn=0-7864-1814-1 |page=178}}
12. ^Bartold, Vasily-[C. J. Heywood]. "Kars." Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997, vol. 4, p. 669.
13. ^{{hy icon}} Harutyunyan, Varazdat M. "Ճարտարապետություն" [Architecture] in Հայ Ժողովրդի Պատմություն [History of the Armenian People], eds. Tsatur Aghayan et al. Yerevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1976, vol. 3, pp. 374–375.
14. ^{{harvnb|Lordkipanidze|Hewitt|1987|p=135}}.
15. ^Mikaberidze, Alexander [https://books.google.nl/books?id=WjQfo3a1eVMC&pg=PA698&dq=peace+of+amasya+caucasus&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBmoVChMIv7zZx-mSyAIVRI9yCh0qbwl2#v=onepage&q=peace%20of%20amasya%20caucasus&f=false Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1.] ABC-CLIO, 31 jul. 2011 {{ISBN|1598843362}} p 698
16. ^{{cite book|last1=Mikaberidze|first1=Alexander|title=Historical Dictionary of Georgia|date=2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1442241466|page=xxxi|edition=2}}
17. ^Endress, Gerhard Islam: An Historical Introduction page 194. Edinburgh University Press, 2002 {{ISBN|978-0748616206}}
18. ^Somel, Selcuk Aksin. (2003). Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire page XXXV. Scarecrow Press, 13 feb. 2003 {{ISBN|978-0810866065}}
19. ^¹²³⁴{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Kars (town) |display=Kars |volume=15 |page=683}}
20. ^¹Kohn, George Childs. [https://books.google.nl/books?id=qTDfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA506&dq=battle+of+kars+1745&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim9bSazfXJAhXDRQ8KHSClAcoQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=battle%20of%20kars%201745&f=false "Dictionary of Wars"] Routledge, 2013. {{ISBN|978-1135954949}} p 506
21. ^Aksan, Virginia. (2014). Ottoman Wars, 1700-1870: An Empire Besieged page 463. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1317884033}}
22. ^{{cite book|last=Hovannisian|first=Richard G.|authorlink=Richard G. Hovannisian|title=The Republic of Armenia, Vol. I: The First Year, 1918–1919|publisher=University of California Press|year=1971|location=Berkeley|isbn =0-520-01984-9|pages =197–227}}
23. ^{{cite book|last =Hovannisian|first=Richard G.|title=The Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV: Between Crescent and Sickle, Partition and Sovietization|publisher=University of California Press|year=1996|location=Berkeley|isbn=0-520-08804-2|pages =182ff}}
24. ^Hovannisian. Republic of Armenia, Vol. IV, pp. 253–261.
25. ^Krikorian, Robert O. (2011), "Kars-Ardahan and Soviet Armenian Irredentism, 1945–1946," in Armenian Kars and Ani, ed. Richard G. Hovannisian. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers, pp. 393–409.
26. ^{{Cite book|last=Panico|first = Christopher|author2=Rone, Jemera|year = 1994|title = Bloodshed in the Caucasus: Escalation of the Armed Conflict in Nagorno Karabakh|publisher = Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Watch|isbn = 1-56432-142-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eDTuxhmqzSkC&pg=PA74|page=74|quote=Turkey cut all routes to Armenia in April 1993, after the Karabakh Armenian army - with alleged support from Russian and Armenian armies - seized Kelbajar province of Azerbaijan.}}
27. ^"Kars battles for access to Armenia and beyond", Turkish Daily News, July 30th 2006.
28. ^{{Cite news|author=Staff|title=Turkey, Armenia to Reopen Border|date=11 October 2009|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125518039736978131|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012060227/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125518039736978131.html|archivedate=12 October 2009|deadurl=no}}
29. ^{{Cite news|author=Mammadli, Sabuhi|title=Border Turks Want Door to Armenia Kept Shut|date=1 May 2009|newspaper=CRS Issue 491|publisher=Institute for War and Peace Reporting|url=http://iwpr.net/report-news/border-turks-want-door-armenia-kept-shut|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120923224553/http://iwpr.net/report-news/border-turks-want-door-armenia-kept-shut|archivedate=23 September 2012|deadurl=no}} Note: archive not available until mid-2013.
30. ^{{Cite news|title=Armenia border opening out of question, says Davutoğlu|newspaper=Today's Zaman|date=19 July 2010|url=http://www.todayszaman.com/news-216463-armenia-border-opening-out-of-question-says-davutoglu.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120923225545/http://www.todayszaman.com/news-216463-armenia-border-opening-out-of-question-says-davutoglu.html|archivedate=23 September 2012|deadurl=yes|df=}} Note: archive not available until mid-2013.
31. ^{{Cite news|url=http://www.economist.com/node/17905911 |title=Two vast and ugly blocks of stone |newspaper=The Economist|date=13 January 2011}}
32. ^{{Cite news|title=Turkish, Armenian journalists want the border opened|newspaper=Today's Zaman|date=3 June 2012|url=http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=282339|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120923230720/http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=282339|archivedate=23 September 2012|deadurl=yes|df=}} Note: archive not available until mid-2013.
33. ^{{Cite book|author=Turkish Statistical Institute|year=2011|chapter=The provinces with highest out-migration according to their net migration rate|title=Turkey in Statistics 2011 (The Summary of Turkey's Statistical Yearbook 2011)|page=15|url=http://www.tuik.gov.tr/IcerikGetir.do?istab_id=5&ei=95pfUOTmCamOiAL4kIGwBw&usg=AFQjCNFBHvLheqgo4Apb4qAdsneBRVUf1w|format=pdf}}
34. ^http://www.sabah.com.tr/Yasam/2014/01/29/istanbulun-nufus-bilgileri-aciklandi
35. ^{{cite web |url=http://medya.zaman.com.tr/2008/07/20/istanbul2.jpg |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2014-03-13 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313154018/http://medya.zaman.com.tr/2008/07/20/istanbul2.jpg |archivedate=2014-03-13 |df= }}
36. ^{{cite book|last1=Mirzoyan|first1=Sonya|last2=Badem|first2=Candan|title=The Construction of the Tiflis-Aleksandropol-Kars Railway (1895-1899): [English]|date=2013|publisher=Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation|isbn=9789491145032|pages=7|quote="At the end of 1878, the indigenous population of the city of Kars included 2,835 Turks, 1,031 Armenians and. 378 Greeks."}}
37. ^Свод статистических данных о населении Закавказского края, извлечённых из посемейных списков 1886 года, г. Тифлис, 1893. Available online here
38. ^¹{{cite web|script-title=ru:Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку и уездам Российской Империи кроме губерний Европейской России|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/emp_lan_97_uezd.php?reg=403|publisher=Demoscope Weekly|accessdate=8 April 2014|language=ru}}
39. ^The new encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 6, p. 751
40. ^¹{{cite web|title=Kars|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/312676/Kars|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408060631/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/312676/Kars|archivedate=8 April 2014|quote=Pop. (2000) 78,473; (2013 est.) 78,100.}}
41. ^{{Cite news|title=İlhan Aküzüm, Başkan Nevzat Bozkuş'u Ziyaret Etti (Ilhan Aküzüm President Visits Mayor Nevzat Bozkus)|date=18 September 2012|newspaper=Ihlas News Agency|language=Turkish|url=http://www.haberler.com/ilhan-akuzum-baskan-nevzat-bozkus-u-ziyaret-etti-3947206-haberi/|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120924001147/http://www.haberler.com/ilhan-akuzum-baskan-nevzat-bozkus-u-ziyaret-etti-3947206-haberi-haberi/|archivedate=24 September 2012|deadurl=no}} Note: archive not available until mid-2013.
42. ^{{Cite news|author=Bakırcı, Cem|title='Başkanın kardeşiyim belediye elimizde' ("We Have the Mayor's Brother")|date=7 December 2007|newspaper=Milliyet Online|language=Turkish|url=http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/12/07/guncel/gun02.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208152911/http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/12/07/guncel/gun02.html|archivedate=8 December 2007|deadurl=no}}
43. ^http://www.mgm.gov.tr/veridegerlendirme/il-ve-ilceler-istatistik.aspx?m=KARS
44. ^http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weatherall.php3?s=89071&refer=&units=metric&cityname=Kars-Turkey
45. ^{{cite news|last=Grigoryan|first=Aleksandr|script-title=ru:В хоккей играют настоящие армяне|url=http://noev-kovcheg.1gb.ru/article.asp?n=94&a=39|newspaper=Noev Kovcheg|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408165930/http://noev-kovcheg.1gb.ru/article.asp?n=94&a=39|archivedate=8 April 2014|language=ru}}
46. ^{{cite web|url=https://dnd.com.pk/btk-railway-track-becomes-operational-to-carry-chinese-goods-to-europe/134952 |title=Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway track becomes operational to carry Chinese goods to Europe |website=dnd.com.pk |date= 30 October 2017 |access-date=27 February 2018}}
47. ^Railway Gazette International February 2009 p54 with map
48. ^{{cite news|title=Burası cami oldu, burada ayin olmaz|url=http://www.milliyet.com.tr/d/t.aspx?ID=879898|newspaper=Milliyet|date=2008-06-24|language=Turkish|quote=Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü, 1993 yılında kiliseyi Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı'na devretti. Böylece kilise, yıllar yine cami olarak kullanılmaya başlandı ve adı yine Kümbet Cami olarak değiştirildi.}}
49. ^"THE CATHEDRAL OF KARS: Holy Apostles Church (Surb Arak'elots)." VirtualANI. December 7, 2000.
50. ^{{cite web|title=Kars Belediyesi'nin çalışmaları|url=http://www.siyasalbirikim.com.tr/haber.php?haber_id=373|publisher=Siyasal Birikim|accessdate=8 April 2014|language=tr|date=8 October 2007|quote=68- KARDEŞ ŞEHİR: Belediyemiz Kardeş Şehir İlişkisi kurulması konusunda gerekli girişimlerde bulunarak yurt içinde Bursa ve Edirne Belediyeleri ile yurt dışında ise Azerbaycan'ın Gence Belediyesi, Almanya'nın Wesel Belediyesi, Norveç'in Kirkenes Belediyesi, Gürcistan'ın Kutaisi Belediyesi ile kardeş şehir ilişkisi kurulmuştur.|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408222845/http://www.siyasalbirikim.com.tr/haber.php?haber_id=373|archivedate=8 April 2014|df=}}
51. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.azerbaijans.com/content_1719_en.html|title=Twin-cities of Azerbaijan|accessdate=2013-08-09|work=Azerbaijans.com}}