Bukan بوكان |
|
---|---|
— city — | |
Bukan | |
Bukan
|
|
Coordinates: | |
Country | Iran |
Province | West Azerbaijan |
County | Bukan |
Bakhsh | Central |
Population (2006) | |
• Total | 149,340 |
Time zone | IRST (UTC+3:30) |
• Summer (DST) | IRDT (UTC+4:30) |
Bukan (Persian: بوكان; Kurdish:بۆکان; also Romanized as Būkān, Bokan, and Bowkān)[1] is a city in and the capital of Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 149,340, in 32,488 families.[2]
Bukan is located south of Lake Urmia about 1,300 metres above sea level. It lies in the West Azarbaijan Province of Iran. The town is situated on the eastern bank of the Sīmīnarūd (Tk. Tatahūčāy), known locally as Čōmī Bōkān, on the road between Saqqez and Miandoab.
Bukan is inhabited by Kurds, adherents of Shafeʿite Sunnism, who speak the Sorani, or central, dialect of Kurdish. The rural population is engaged in farming (wheat, barley and other cereals, sugar beets, tobacco, and some summer crops), gardening, and animal husbandry. Formerly the village housed a Jewish community of about 70 families (Razmārā, loc. cit.).
Residents of Bukan were actively involved in the short-lived Kurdish Republic of 1946, which had its capital at Mahābād (Eagleton). The town acquired a printing press, and books and magazines were published in Kurdish there. Six years later the region was the center of a peasant revolt that spread to all the Kurdish provinces of Iran (Mokhammedov). Peasant forces were able to force the āḡās out of the villages and besieged them in Bukan. The army interfered, and the revolt was ruthlessly put down (Hēmin, pp. 38-39; Kurdistān [publication of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Kurdish] 23, February, 1973, pp. 1, 3). The people of Bukan participated in the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 and in the subsequent movement for Kurdish autonomy.
|