Kars (redirected from Kars Province, Ottoman Empire)

Kars (kärs), city (1990 pop. 79,496), capital of Kars prov., E Turkey, in Armenia, on the Kars River. Its manufactures include textiles, carpets, and food products. An old fortified city, well situated in the mountains, Kars was the capital of an Armenian state in the 9th and 10th cent. It was destroyed by Timur in 1386 and was captured and rebuilt by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th cent. In 1828, 1855, and 1877 the city was occupied by Russia and together with the surrounding region was ceded to Russia by the Congress of Berlin in 1878. By a peace treaty (1921) between the nationalist Turkish government of Kemal Atatürk and the USSR, Kars and Ardahan were returned to Turkey. Kars has an 11th-century Armenian church.

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Kars 

a city in northeastern Turkey near the Soviet-Turkish frontier. It is the administrative center of Kars Vilayet. Population, 54, 000 (1970). Kars has a railroad station and an airfield. It is a center for milch-cow and sheep breeding. The city has creameries and dairy plants that produce pasteurized and powdered milk. Carpets and rough cloth are manufactured.

Kars is an ancient city. In the tenth and 11th centuries it was the center of the Armenian Kingdom of Kars. In the 16th century it was seized by Turkey, which turned it into a base for the spread of its empire to Transcaucasia. During the Russo-Turkish wars of the 19th century, Kars, as a Turkish stronghold, was one of the main objectives of military operations in the Caucasian theater. In 1807, Russian troops unsuccessfully assaulted the city, and in 1828 they took it by storm. In 1855 the Turkish garrison repelled the attacks of the Russian forces but were forced by hunger to capitulate after a five-month siege. In November 1877, Russian troops took Kars by a quick assault; the Treaty of San Stefano (1878) transferred it to Russia. Turkish troops occupied Kars in May 1918 after Russia’s withdrawal from World War I. After Turkey’s defeat in the war, however, Armenian Dashnak brigades occupied the city. According to the Treaty of Kars (1921), the city became part of Turkey.