Van
History
Under the name Tushpa, Van was the capital of the kingdom urartéen in the ninth century BC. J.-C. At 5 kilometres from the town of today are the ruins of the fortress built by the Van Urartiens. It is also found cuneiform inscriptions urartiennes. The city then passed under the domination of the Medes in the seventh century BC. J.-C., then the Persians in the sixth century BC. J.-C..
The region was conquered by Alexander the Great in -331, and fit after his death part of the Seleucid empire. At the beginning of the second century, Van was part of the kingdom of Armenia, where she became an important centre, in particular during the reign of Tigran II.
The region saw then the Parthians and then the Romans, and the Sasanians to the fourth century AD
The Byzantine Empire briefly controlled the region of 628 to 640, when it was taken by the Arabs who created the province of Armenia (Ermeniye). In the wake of Sadjides the ninth century, the Byzantines took over the region in the tenth century.
The Seljuk Turks conquered the region in 1054, then it was headed by Ahlatshahs and Ayyubids (1207). Van was taken by the Mongols around 1240, then the fourteenth century by Kara Koyunlu and finally Timourids.
At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the region of Van was bitterly disputed between the Ottomans and Séfévides who occupied Van in 1502. The Ottomans took the city in 1515 and, after having lost in 1520 to benefit Séfévides, the attachèrent definitively in 1548. Van was then erected in sanjak dependent Erzurum, then a province in 1570.
During the First World War, the majority of Armenians 192 000 Van were decimated by Ottoman troops during the Armenian genocide. The new governor of Van, Jevdet Bey, vouait a particular hatred against Armenians and quickly ordered the mobilization of 4 000 Armenian soldiers to leave a city without defence possible. Thereafter, on the pretext of searching for weapons, the Turkish gendarmes fall into the surrounding villages and massacring the Armenian populations . According to Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Jevdet, with the approach of the Russian armed, ordered on April 20, 1915, execution of an Armenian who wanted to enter the city and two men come to help . This was the beginning of the revolt against the Turks and for Russians, only able to stop a desperate situation quickly respond to the decrease of ammunition and food.
The Russians finally took Van to the end of May 1915 but in August 1915, a victory over the Russian army allowed the Ottoman army back to where Van capture of the city after a violent battle caused death 100 000 inhabitants. In September 1915, the Russians forced the Turks to withdraw again. But with the Russian Revolution of 1917, troops left the city and leave the door open to the Ottoman army who takes control of the city until the end of the First World War. By the Treaty of Sevres, the city was then briefly incorporated into the first Republic of Armenia in 1920, but was quickly taken over by the Turkish armed Ataturk in the same year.
The ancient city at the foot of the citadel (Van Kalesi), having been completely destroyed and emptied of its population, the city was rebuilt a few kilometres away from the years 1920. She was the victim of a violent earthquake in the 1950 .
Geography
Van is situated on a plateau at 1 720 metres above sea level to 5 km of Lake Van, the largest of any country with its 3 600 sq. km.
This region of extreme south-east Turkey is mountainous and relatively dry.
The climate is continental with a mountain winters cold and snowy.
