Tuzluca (; ; ''Koghb''; or Тузлуджа) is a town in the
Iğdır Province
Iğdır Province (, , , ) is a Provinces of Turkey, province in eastern Turkey, located along the borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan (the area of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), and Iran. Its adjacent provinces are Kars Province, Kars to the north ...
in the
Eastern Anatolia
The Eastern Anatolia region () is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ.
It is bordered by the Black Sea Region and Georgia in th ...
region of
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. It is the seat of
Tuzluca District
Tuzluca District is a district of the Iğdır Province of Turkey. Its seat is the town of Tuzluca.İlçe Belediyesi Turkey Civil Administration Departments Inventory. Retrieved 1 March 2023. Its population is 9,619 (2022). It lies near the
border
Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...
with
Armenia
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
.
Etymology
''Tuz'' means ''salt'' in the
Turkish language
Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...
. The Turkish name ''Tuzluca'' is derived from the salt mines that have existed here since at least medieval times; a salt mine still operates.
History
Known by
Armenians
Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...
as ''Koghb'', Tuzluca was historically part of various Armenian kingdoms. The town and the surrounding area later became an Ottoman frontier Kurdish chiefdom and a scene of constant warfare between the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
and
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
. It was especially renowned for its salt mines.
In 1746, the region was finally ceded to Persia and became part of the
Erivan Khanate
The Erivan Khanate (), also known as , was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate (i.e., province) that was established in Afsharid dynasty, Afsharid Iran in the 18th century. It covered an area of roughly 19,500 km2, and corresponded to most o ...
Treaty of Turkmenchay
The Treaty of Turkmenchay (; ) was an agreement between Qajar Iran and the Russian Empire, which concluded the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828). It was second of the series of treaties (the first was the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan and the last, the ...
, it passed from Persian to Russian control. Under Russian rule, the town, now known as ''Kulp'', became part of the Surmali district of the
Armenian Oblast
The Armenian Oblast was a province (''oblast'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917), Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire that existed from 1828 to 1840. It corresponded to most of present-day central Armenia, the Iğdır Province of ...
and later the
Erivan Governorate
The Erivan Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its centеr in Erivan (present-day Yerevan). Its area was 27,830 sq. kilometеrs, roughly corresponding to what is now most of central ...
. In 1829, shortly after the Russian annexation,
Baltic German
Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...
explorer
Friedrich Parrot
Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot (14 October 1791) was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Tartu, Estonia in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. A pioneer of Russian ...
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat, also known as Masis or Mount Ağrı, is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in Eastern Turkey, easternmost Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest p ...
. Two members of Parrot's expeditionary team, medical students Carl Schiemann and Maximilian Behaghel von Adlerskron, travelled to Kulp with four
Cossacks
The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...
to examine the salt mines.
After the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
, the town came under the administration of the
Democratic Republic of Armenia
The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was an independent Armenian state that existed from May (28th ''de jure'', 30th ''de facto'') 1918 to 2 December 1920 in the Armenian-popula ...
. However, it was ceded to Turkey by the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in the
Treaty of Kars
The Treaty of Kars, , was a treaty that established the borders between Turkey and the three Transcaucasian Soviet republics, which are now the independent republics of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The treaty was signed in the city of Ka ...
. It was traditionally part of
Kars
Kars ( or ; ; ) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District.Ä ...
province until the creation of predominantly Iğdır province in 1993. Today, Tuzluca serves as a highland retreat for
asthma
Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...
patients. Apricots and other fruit and vegetables are grown in the district.
Government
In the local elections in March 2019 Ahmet Sair Sadrettin Türkan was elected mayor. In
2024 Turkish local elections
Local elections in Turkey took place throughout the country's 81 provinces on 31 March 2024. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,363 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors were elected, in addition t ...
, CHP candidate won with 30.64 percent of the votes, while the incumbent mayor gathered 28.27 percent of the votes. However, Supreme Election Council has awarded the mayorship to the incumbent mayor from AKP, deciding that CHP candidate was not qualified for elections. This decision caused protests in support of the elected mayor in the town.
Servet Çetin
Servet Çetin (born 17 March 1981) is a Turkish football manager and former player who's currently coaching Amedspor. Çetin began his football journey in 1990 when he joined Kartalspor after a chance encounter. Initially an amateur, he progres ...
, soccer player
*
Şamil Ayrım
Şamil Ayrım (born 1950 in Tuzluca, Iğdır, Turkey) is a Turkish politician and member of Turkish Parliament. He is a member of Justice and development party in Turkey and deputy for Istanbul
He is ethnically Azerbaijani and is related to C ...
, member of the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...