Iğdır Province

Iğdır Province (Turkish: Iğdır ili) is a province in eastern Turkey, located along the border with Armenia, Azerbaijan (the area of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), and Iran. Its adjacent provinces are Kars to the northwest and Ağrı to the west and south. It occupies an area of 3,587 km² and population of 184,418 (2010 est.), it was 168,634 in 2000 (up from 142,601 in 1990). It was created from southeastern part of former Kars Province in 1993.

Turkey's highest mountain, Mount Ararat (Ağrı Dağı) is in Iğdır, but much of the land is a wide plain far below the mountain. The climate is the warmest in this part of Turkey, cotton can be grown in Iğdır. Iğdır is where Noah is said to have thrived following the flood. The border with Armenia follows the Aras River.

The provincial capital is the city of Iğdır. The majority of the province's population is Kurdish.

Districts

Iğdır province is divided into 4 districts (capital district in bold):

Etymology

Iğdır

Iğdır (Turkish [ˈɯːβdɯɾ]; Armenian: Իգդիր Igdir, also Ցոլակերտ, Tsolakert, after the ancient site nearby) is the capital of Iğdır Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. The highest mountain in Turkey, Ağrı Dağı or Mount Ararat, is partly in Iğdır province.

History

Historians believe that Igdir went by the Armenian name of Tsolakert during the Middle Ages. When the Spanish traveler Ruy González de Clavijo passed through this region in the early 15th century, he stayed a night in a castle he called Egida, located at the foot of Mount Ararat. Clavijo describes it as being built upon a rock and ruled by a woman, the widow of a brigand Timurlane had put to death. Because modern Igdir has no such rock, and is a considerable distance from the Ararat foothills, it is believed that medieval Igdir was located at a different site, at a place also known as Tsolakert, now called Taşburun. Russian excavations there at the end of the 19th century discovered the ruins of houses and what was identified as a church, as well as traces of fortifications. The settlement may have been abandoned after an earthquake in 1664. In 1555 the town became a part of the Safavid Empire, remaining under Persian rule (with brief military occupations by the Ottomans in 1514, between 1534-1535, 1548-1549, 1554-1555, 1578–1605, 1635–36 and 1722-46) until it fell into the hands of the Russian Empire after the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828.

Iğdır (electoral district)

Iğdır is an electoral district of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. It elects four members of parliament (deputies) to represent the province of the same name for a four-year term by the D'Hondt method, a party-list proportional representation system.

Members

Population reviews of each electoral district are conducted before each general election, which can lead to certain districts being granted a smaller or greater number of parliamentary seats.

Iğdır has consistently returned two MPs since the 1999 parliamentary election. It is one of the only districts in which both Turkish nationalist and Kurdish nationalist parties have a significant electoral presence.

General elections

2011

Presidential elections

2014

References

Coordinates: 37°50′N 34°45′E / 37.833°N 34.750°E / 37.833; 34.750

Iğdır (disambiguation)

Iğdır is a Turkic place name and may refer to the following places in Turkey:

See also