Arapgir

Arapgir (Armenian: Արաբկիր, known as Arabraces during Byzantine rule) is the name of a town and district of Malatya Province, Turkey. As of 2000 it had a population of 17,070 people. It is situated in the confluence of the eastern and western Euphrates river, but some miles from the right bank of the combined streams. Arapgir is connected with Sivas by a chaussée, prolonged to the Euphrates river. The present town was built in the mid-19th century, but about 2 miles north-east is the old town, now called Eskişehir ("old city" in Turkish). The mayor is Haluk Cömertoğlu (AKP).

History

The history of the city goes to BC 852. The old town of Arapgir was founded by the Armenian King Senek'erim-Hovhannes in 1021, who had exchanged his kingdom for estates in the central lands of the Byzantine Empire. It remained under Byzantine control until 1071, when the Seljuk dynasty conquered the city. In the fourteenth century the Ottoman Empire gained the city from the Seljuks. Under Ottoman rule, Arapgir was part of Mamuret-el-Aziz Province. The town was famous for the grapes and mulberries that grew in the area.

Arapgir was the site of a fascinating story of rising textile imports and industrial growth as of the 1830s. In 1836, some 1,000 looms in Arapgir were weaving cotton goods from British yarn and by 1907, some 1,200. Durability and color fastness of locally made manusa textile also retained its competitive position. The city grew larger than the province (vilayet) center of Harput and a municipal administration was established in 1883.

Population

According to Donald Quataert, Arapgir in the 1880s held 4,800 Muslim and 1,200 Armenian homes, with a total population of about 29,000 persons.^[3] According to a METU study citing Nejat Göyünç,^[4] the city population was about 20,000 in 1911, of which more than half of the population was Armenian Christians and the rest were Muslim. ^[5] Differing sources present differing pictures for the respective shares of ethnicities within the weavers' community. The Armenian population is reported to have suffered severely during the Hamidian massacres of 1895 although, in this regard, Donald Quataert notes, with textile exports back to normal levels a year after the turmoil, in 1896, either all weavers were Muslims after all, or few Armenian weavers were killed, displaced or disrupted during the troubles. In 1915 there were about 33,000 Armenians living in Arapgir . After 1915 Armenian Genocide, most of the Armenian population of Arapgir was killed or escaped to Armenia. In 1922 the remaining 800 Armenians of Arapgir settled in Soviet Armenia. Most people that escaped the genocide, settled in Yerevan a district called Arabkir District.

Churches, Mosques and other buildings

Before the Armenian Genocide Arapgir had 7 Armenian Apostolic churches: Surp Astvadzadzin Church, not to be confused with the cathedral, Grigor Lusavorich Church, Surp Kevork Church, Surp Hagob Church, Surp Nshan Church, Surp Pilibos Arakel Church, Surp Sarkis Church, There were, also, one Catholic Surp Prgich Church and one Protestant Cuğran Church. There were also more than 10 schools in the town. Little is left of pre-war Arapgir, but there are still some old houses that have survived, which are Armenian origin. The town also contains the ruins of a castle, several Seljuk mosques, old cemetery and silver mines.

People from Arapgir

Armenians

• Vahagn Davtyan, born 1922, an Armenian writer
• Khajag Barsamian, born 1951, the primate of Diocese of Armenian Church of Eastern America

Others

• Gökhan İlgin
• Abdullah Cevdet
• Erhan İlgin

See also

• Arabkir District (Yerevan)

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Arapgir Towns Official Web Page (Turkish)
• Arapgir Town Video