Kagizmanokrug Кагызманский округ | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
 Location in the Kars Oblast | |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Viceroyalty | Caucasus |
| Oblast | Kars |
| Established | 1878 |
| Treaty of Brest-Litovsk | 3 March 1918 |
| Capital | Kagyzman (present-dayKağızman) |
| Area | |
• Total | 4,373.77 km2 (1,688.72 sq mi) |
| Population (1916) | |
• Total | 83,208 |
| • Density | 19.024/km2 (49.273/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 13.36% |
| • Rural | 86.64% |
TheKagizmanokrug[b] was a district (okrug) of theKars Oblast of theRussian Empire, existing between 1878 and 1918. Its capital was the town of Kagyzman (present-dayKağızman), presently in theKars Province ofTurkey. Theokrug bordered with theKars okrug to the north, theOlti okrug to the northwest, theErivan Governorate to the east, and theErzurum Vilayet of theOttoman Empire to the west.[1]
The Kagizmanokrug was one of the four territorial administrative subunits (counties) of the Kars Oblast created after its annexation into the Russian Empire in 1878 through theTreaty of San Stefano, following thedefeat of theOttoman Empire.[2]
During theFirst World War, the Kars Oblast became the site ofintense battles between theRussian Caucasus Army supplemented byArmenian volunteers and theOttoman Third Army, the latter of whom was successful inbriefly occupying Ardahan on 25 December 1914 before they were dislodged in early January 1915.
On 3 March 1918, in the aftermath of theOctober Revolution theRussian SFSR ceded the entireKars Oblast including the Kagizman okrug through theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk to the Ottoman Empire, who had been unreconciled with its loss of the territory since 1878. Despite the ineffectual resistance of theTranscaucasian Democratic Federative Republic which had initially rejected the aforementioned treaty, the Ottoman Third Army was successful in occupying the Kars Oblast and expelling its 100,000 panic-stricken Armenian inhabitants.[3]
The OttomanNinth Army under the command ofYakub Shevki Pasha, the occupying force of the district by the time of theMudros Armistice, were permitted to winter in Kars until early 1919, after which on 7 January 1919 Major GeneralG.T. Forestier-Walker ordered their complete withdrawal to the pre-1914 Ottoman-frontier. Intended to hinder the westward expansion of the fledglingArmenian andGeorgian republics into the Kars Oblast, Yukub Shevki backed the emergence of the short-livedSouth-West Caucasus Republic with moral support, also furnishing it with weapons, ammunition and instructors.[4]
The South-West Caucasus Republic administered the Kagizman okrug and neighboring formerly occupied districts for three months before provoking British intervention by order of GeneralG.F. Milne, leading to its capitulation byArmenian andBritish forces on 10 April 1919.[5][6] Consequently, the Kars Oblast largely came under the Armenian civil governorship of Stepan Korganian who wasted no time in facilitating the repatriation of the region's exiled refugees.[7]
Despite the apparent defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish agitators were reported byArmenian intelligence to have been freely roaming the countryside of Kars encouraging sedition among the Muslim villages, culminating in a series of anti-Armenian uprisings on 1 July 1919.[8]
The Kars Oblast for the third time in six years saw invading Turkish troops, this time under the command of GeneralKâzım Karabekir in September 1920 during theTurkish-Armenian War. The disastrous war for Armenia resulted in the permanent expulsion of the region's ethnic Armenian population, many who inexorably remained befalling massacre, resulting in the region joining theRepublic of Turkey through theTreaty of Alexandropol on 3 December 1920. Turkey's annexation of Kars and the adjacentSurmalu Uyezd was confirmed in the treaties ofKars andMoscow in 1921, by virtue of the newSoviet regime in Armenia.[9]
The prefectures (участки,uchastki) of the Kagizmanokrug were:[10][11]
| Name | Administrative centre | 1912 population | Area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kagyzmanskiy prefecture (Кагызманский участок) | Kagyzman (Kağızman) | 17,779 | 1,233.80square versts (1,404.14 km2; 542.14 sq mi) |
| Nakhichevanskiy prefecture (Нахичеванский участок) | Digor | 21,231 | 1,194.13square versts (1,358.99 km2; 524.71 sq mi) |
| Khorosanskiy prefecture (Хоросанский участок) | Karakurt | 19,771 | 1,415.24square versts (1,610.63 km2; 621.87 sq mi) |
According to theRussian Empire Census, the Kagizmanokrug had a population of 59,230 on 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1897, including 33,344 men and 25,886 women. The plurality of the population indicatedArmenian to be their mother tongue, with significantKurdish,Greek, andTurkish speaking minorities.[12]
| Language | Native speakers | % |
|---|---|---|
| Armenian | 21,648 | 36.55 |
| Kurdish | 17,733 | 29.94 |
| Greek | 7,245 | 12.23 |
| Turkish | 5,172 | 8.73 |
| Russian | 2,617 | 4.42 |
| Ukrainian | 1,431 | 2.42 |
| Polish | 895 | 1.51 |
| Tatar[c] | 867 | 1.46 |
| Turkmen | 659 | 1.11 |
| Jewish | 270 | 0.46 |
| Lithuanian | 236 | 0.40 |
| German | 99 | 0.17 |
| Persian | 70 | 0.12 |
| Georgian | 61 | 0.10 |
| Belarusian | 37 | 0.06 |
| Estonian | 31 | 0.05 |
| Avar-Andean | 21 | 0.04 |
| Ossetian | 10 | 0.02 |
| Dargin | 10 | 0.02 |
| Karapapakh | 2 | 0.00 |
| Other | 116 | 0.20 |
| TOTAL | 59,230 | 100.00 |
According to the 1917 publication ofKavkazskiy kalendar, the Kagizmanokrug had a population of 83,208 on 14 January [O.S. 1 January] 1916, including 43,589 men and 39,619 women, 72,638 of whom were the permanent population, and 10,570 were temporary residents. The statistics indicated an overwhelminglyArmenian population in the city of Kagizman, with a sizeableSunni Muslim minority, however, in the rest of the okrug, Armenians formed the plurality of the population, followed closely byKurd,Asiatic Christian,Yazidi, Sunni Muslim andRoma minorities:[15]
| Nationality | Urban | Rural | TOTAL | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Armenians | 8,895 | 80.02 | 25,826 | 35.82 | 34,721 | 41.73 |
| Kurds | 0 | 0.00 | 20,677 | 28.68 | 20,677 | 24.85 |
| Asiatic Christians | 43 | 0.39 | 12,860 | 17.84 | 12,903 | 15.51 |
| Yazidis | 0 | 0.00 | 6,032 | 8.37 | 6,032 | 7.25 |
| Sunni Muslims[d] | 2,067 | 18.59 | 2,546 | 3.53 | 4,613 | 5.54 |
| Roma | 0 | 0.00 | 2,580 | 3.58 | 2,580 | 3.10 |
| Shia Muslims[e] | 62 | 0.56 | 1,075 | 1.49 | 1,137 | 1.37 |
| Russians | 43 | 0.39 | 464 | 0.64 | 507 | 0.61 |
| North Caucasians | 0 | 0.00 | 32 | 0.04 | 32 | 0.04 |
| Other Europeans | 6 | 0.05 | 0 | 0.00 | 6 | 0.01 |
| TOTAL | 11,116 | 100.00 | 72,092 | 100.00 | 83,208 | 100.00 |
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