İspir (Georgian: სპერი Speri; Armenian: Սպեր Sber or Sper), (Kurdish: Espîr), is a town and district of Erzurum Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, on the Çoruh River. The mayor is Osman Çakır (AKP). The district has a population of 30,260 while the town has a population of 11,789.
İspir is the historical Speri for Georgians and Sper for Armenians.
İspir is known from the 3rd millennium BC. The name Sper is thought by some to be derived from Saspers, a tribe mentioned by Xenophon;
Speri was part of the Georgian Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti.In the 4th-3rd centuries BC it was organized into a province of the Iberian Kingdom as noted by Strabo, and during subsequent centuries it frequently changed hands between Georgians and Armenians. Alexander the Great sent one of his generals Menon to conquer Speri, but Menon and his forces were defeated and killed. Sper was an Armenian Bagratid domain in the fourth to sixth centuries, a domain whose territory also comprised the Bayburt plain until that was lost to the Byzantines (perhaps in 387).