Akyaka ( ota, شوره کل ''Şoregil'' or ''Şöregel'', az, Ağyaxa or , ; ) is a district of

Kars Province Kars Province ( tr, Kars ili; ku, Parêzgeha Qersê; hy, Կարսի նահանգ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northeastern part of the country. It shares part of its closed border with Armenia. The provincial capital is the city of ...

in eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, and the name of the small town that is the district's administrative capital. It is located on Turkey's closed

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

. The population was 2,273 in 2010.

Government

Ergüder Toptaş was elected mayor in the

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

in March 2019. Nur Seninç Özbek serves as

Kaymakam Kaymakam, also known by many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been retained a ...

Etymology

The settlement was known as ''Şuregel'' () or ''Kızılçakçak'' () whilst part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

—until 1961 when it was renamed Akyaka. Nowadays, the town is referred to by its Azerbaijani and Karapapakh residents as ''Ağyaxa'' or ''Şörəyəl''. In the town's original name Kızılçakçak, ''kızıl'' may refer to bright red in Turkish or gold in Azerbaijani, whilst ''çak'' refers to something strong, precise or in high measure in Turkic.

History

Akyaka was a district between 1922 and 1926 and a township in the

Arpaçay Arpaçay is a town and a district of Kars Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The population is 2,503 as of 2010. The mayor is Erçetin Altay ( AKP). Azerbaijanis and their subgroups of Terekemes and Karapapaks make up the majo ...

district between 1926 and 1988. The Akyaka municipality was established in 1972.

Transport

Akyaka is a

border checkpoint A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders ofte ...

on the railway into

, which has been closed since 1993. The route from Kars runs next to the railway leading to the border.

Demographics

The town—then known as ''Kızılçakçak''—was exclusively

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

during the

whilst it was part of the Kars Okrug of the

Kars Oblast The Kars Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was the city of Kars, presently in Turkey. The ''oblast'' bordered the Ottoman Empire to the west, the Batum Oblast ...

. Following the conclusion of the

Turkish–Armenian war The Turkish–Armenian war ( hy, Հայ-թուրքական պատերազմ), known in Turkey as the Eastern Front ( tr, Doğu Cephesi) of the Turkish War of Independence, was a conflict between the First Republic of Armenia and the Turkish ...

and Turkey's annexation of the region, Azerbaijanis and

Karapapakhs The Karapapakhs or Tarakama ( az, Qarapapaqlar, Tərəkəmələr; tr, Karapapaklar, Terekemeler) are a Turkic people, who originally spoke the Karapapakh language, a western Oghuz language closely related to Azerbaijani and Turkish. Nowada ...

who had fled from Armenia in 1918–1920 settled in Akyaka, replacing the Armenian population which was expelled in 1920. Nowadays, Azerbaijanis form 50% of the population, Sunni Karapapakhs 45%, and

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

and others form the remaining 5%.

References

Towns in Turkey Armenia–Turkey border crossings Populated places in Kars Province {{Kars-geo-stub