Kars - Turkey
Kars, Turkey. Originally an Armenian capital. Became part of the Ottoman Empire (captured in 1534), then surrendered in 1828 to the Russian General Count Ivan Paskevich. The Russians returned the city ot the Ottomans in return for a new border with Russia which lay far closer to Kars than had previously. Stromed again by the Russians during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-8). Up to 1881 more than 82, 000 Muslims migrated back to the Ottoman Empire of which 11, 000 left from Kars. Russia ceded Kars, Ardahan, and Batum to Ottoman Empire by treaty in 1918, however the city was under the effective control of Armenian and non-Bolshevik Russian forces. After a lot of fighting and argument, in 1919 Kars came under the full administration of the Armenian Republic. Finally captured by Turkish troops on October 30th 1920. The Russians kept on wanting to re-negotiate and bickering continued up to the 1990s. The famous Armenian archaeological site of Ani is close by
