Arapgir ( hy, Արաբկիր; ku, Erebgir) is a town and district of
Malatya Province
Malatya Province ( tr, ; ku, Parezgêha Meletîyê) is a province of Turkey. It is part of a larger mountainous area. The capital of the province is Malatya. The area of Malatya province is 12,313 km². Malatya Province had a population of ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. As of 2000 it had a population of 17,070 people.
It is situated at the confluence of the eastern and western
Euphrates, but some miles from the right bank of the combined streams. Arapgir is connected with
Sivas
Sivas (Latin and Greek: ''Sebastia'', ''Sebastea'', Σεβάστεια, Σεβαστή, ) is a city in central Turkey and the seat of Sivas Province.
The city, which lies at an elevation of in the broad valley of the Kızılırmak river, is ...
by a ''chaussée'', prolonged to the Euphrates river. The present town was built in the mid-19th century, but about 2 miles north-east is the old town, now called Eskişehir ("old city" in Turkish).
Demographics
Arapgir town is populated by
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...
.
In descending order of population, the district is populated by
Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...
and
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...
and also historically had an
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 ...
population.
Composition
History
Arapgir is a market town and received significant Seljuk Turkish arrivals in the 12th century.
Population
According to
Donald Quataert Donald George Quataert (September 10, 1941 – February 10, 2011) was a historian at Binghamton University. He taught courses on Middle East/Ottoman history, with an interest in labor, social and economics, during the early and modern periods. H ...
, Arapgir in the 1880s was made up of 4,802 Muslim and 1,200 Armenian households, with a total population of about 29,000 persons. According to a
METU
Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The ...
study citing Nejat Göyünç, the city population was about 20,000 in 1911, of which more than half of the population was
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 ...
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
and the rest were
Muslim. Differing sources present differing pictures for the respective shares of ethnicities within the weavers' community. The Armenian population is reported to have suffered severely during the
Hamidian massacres of 1895, although, in this regard, Donald Quataert notes, with textile exports back to normal levels a year after the turmoil, in 1896, either all weavers were Muslims after all, or few Armenian weavers were killed, displaced or disrupted during the troubles.
On the eve of World War I, there were about 9,523 Armenians (1,300 houses) and 6,774 Turks living in Arapgir. After the 1915
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
, most of the Armenian population of Arapgir was killed or deported.
Churches, Mosques and other buildings

Before the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...
Arapgir had seven Armenian Apostolic churches: Surp Astvadzadzin (Holy Mother of God) Church, not to be confused with the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...
, Grigor Lusavorich (Gregory the Illuminator) Church, Surp Kevork Church, Surp Hagob Church, Surp Nshan Church, Surp Pilibos Arakel (St. Philip the Apostle) Church, Surp Sarkis Church, There were, also, one Catholic Surp Prgich (Holy Saviors) Church and one Protestant Cuğran Church.
[Kévorkian and Paboudjian, ''Les Arméniens dans l’Empire Ottoman'', p. 376.]
There were also more than 10 schools in the town. Little is left of pre-war Arapgir, but there are still some old houses that have survived, which are Armenian origin. The town also contains the ruins of a castle, several Seljuk mosques,
old cemetery and silver mines.
People from Arapgir
*
Abdullah Cevdet
Abdullah Cevdet ( ota, عبدالله جودت; tr, Abdullah Cevdet Karlıdağ; 9 September 1869 – 29 November 1932) was a Kurdish intellectual and physician in the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the founders of the Committee of Union an ...
*
Aram Achekbashian
Aram Achekbashian ( hy, Արամ Աչըքպաշյան, 1867 in Arapgir – 1915 in Constantinople) was an Armenian politician who became a member of Social-Democrat Hunchakian Party Central Committee in 1903.
Biography
In 1886, Achekbashi ...
(1867-1915),
Hnchak
The Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) ( hy, Սոցիալ Դեմոկրատ Հնչակյան Կուսակցություն; ՍԴՀԿ, translit=Sots’ial Demokrat Hnch’akyan Kusakts’ut’yun), is the oldest continuously-operating Armenian ...
politician
*
Cemal Azmi
Cemal Azmi (1868 – April 17, 1922), also spelled Jemal Azmi, was an Ottoman politician and governor of the Trebizond (now Trabzon) Vilayet (province) during World War I and the final years of the Ottoman Empire. He was one of the perpetra ...
(1868-1922), Ottoman politician
*
Vahagn Davtyan
Vahagn Davtyan () (August 15, 1922, Arabkir, Turkey – February 21, 1996, Yerevan) was an Armenian poet, translator, publicist and public activist.
Biography
He was born in the town of Arapgir in Turkey.
Davtyan was a Renowned activist of ...
, (1922-1996), an Armenian writer
*
Khajag Barsamian
Khajag Barsamian ( hy, Խաժակ Արքեպիսկոպոս Պարսամեան; born July 4, 1951) is an Armenian religious figure. He is the Pontifical Legate of the Western Europe and Representative of the Armenian Church to the Holy See. Former ...
, born 1951, the primate of Diocese of Armenian Church of Eastern America
*
Zehra Bilir Zehra Bilir (March 26, 1913 in Arapgir, Ottoman Empire – June 28, 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey) was a renowned Turkish folk singer of Armenian descent. She was known as the Edith Piaf of Turkey.
Life
Zehra Bilir was born Eliz Surhantakyan in Ar ...
(1913-2007), famous singer of Turkish folk songs known as "Türkü Ana" (Mother of Folk Songs). After her death, it was revealed she was born Armenian by the name of Eliz Surhantakyan.
See also
*
Arabkir District (Yerevan)
*
Zompa
Zompa is a village of Arapgir. It has population of about 318 (2000).
Towns in Turkey
{{Malatya-geo-stub ...
References
*
External links
Arapgir Towns Official Web PageArapgir Town VideoArapgir Nazar Hotel
{{Authority control
Populated places in Malatya Province
Districts of Malatya Province
Kurdish settlements in Turkey
Cittaslow