Ardahan Province

Template:Infobox Province TR Ardahan Province (Turkish: Ardahan ili), is a province in the north-east of Turkey, at the very end of the country, where Turkey borders with Georgia. The provincial capital is the city of Ardahan.

Geography

This is attractive open countryside which however spends many months of the year under snow. At this altitude temperatures on average reach -20°C and can drop below freezing all year round, including summer months.

The local economy depends on farming and raising livestock. Until 1993 Ardahan was a district of the province of Kars, becoming a province in its own right has meant more investment in infrastructure

There are two crossing points into the Samtskhe-Javakheti district of Georgia, one at Posof and the other (currently closed) at Çıldır. The Turkish military have a strong presence in this border district, another boost to the local economy.

Population

Ardahan is an impoverished area that since the 1950s has seen a large number of its people migrate to other parts of Turkey or abroad. The population declined from 170,000 people in 1990 to 119,000 in 2000. The population is 105,454 as of 2010. Ethnic groups in the region include, Turks, Georgians, Turkmens ^{[citation needed]}, Kurds ^{[citation needed]} and Azeris ^{[citation needed]}.

History

In 680 BC Scythians came across the Caucasus from the north and captured this area from the Urartu Kings that ruled from their capital on the shores of Lake Van to the south. The Scythians were replaced by Persians and then in 330(?) BC Alexander the Great came through with his armies. Ethnic Georgians populated the area, and in between conquests, it was a province of a Georgian Kingdom after whose paritition in the 1490s the area passed to the atabegs of Samtskhe based in Akhaltsikhe until it was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1578.

In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the region was included into the Russian Empire, and until 1918 was known as Kars Oblast. Part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from 1918 to 1921, Ardahan was reclaimed by Turkey under the Treaty of Kars in 1921.

The construction of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline gave the local economy a brief boost from 2000 onwards.

Districts

Ardahan province is divided into 6 districts (capital district in bold):

Cities and towns

Ardahan City 17,171 inh.
Göle City 6,231 inh.
Hanak City 4,030 inh.
Damal City 3,804 inh.
Köprülü Town 2,126 inh.
Posof City 1,810 inh.
Çıldır City 1,502 inh.

Places of interest

There are a number of medieval castles in the district including Ardahan Castle itself.
Lake Çıldır

References