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It is bordered by the [[Black Sea Region]] and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] in the north, the [[Central Anatolia Region]] in the west, the [[Mediterranean Region, Turkey|Mediterranean Region]] in the southwest, the [[Southeastern Anatolia Region]] and [[Iraq]] in the south, and [[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Iran]] in the east.
It is bordered by the [[Black Sea Region]] and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] in the north, the [[Central Anatolia Region]] in the west, the [[Mediterranean Region, Turkey|Mediterranean Region]] in the southwest, the [[Southeastern Anatolia Region]] and [[Iraq]] in the south, and [[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]], and [[Iran]] in the east.


The region is also called the [[Armenian Plateau]] by some geographers and historians and had a large population of indigenous [[Armenians]] until the [[Armenian genocide]]. After the Armenian population was forcibly removed, deported, or murdered [[Anatolia#Changing_toponyms_after_the_Armenian_genocide|it was renamed by the newly founded Turkish Republic in the 1920s]].<ref> {{cite book|last= Helft|first=Susan |editor-last1= Gansell|editor-first1= Amy Rebecca|editor-last2= Shafer|editor-first2= Ann|chapter=The Past, Present and Future of the Canon of Ancient Anatolian Art |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hKnDDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Eastern+anatolia%22+name+changed+armenian&pg=PA91|title= Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology|year= 2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-067316-1|page=91}}</ref>
Some geographers and historians have noted part of the region falls within historic "[[Armenia]]", the native national home of indigenous [[Armenians]]. During the [[Armenian genocide]] the Armenian population was forcibly removed, deported, or murdered from this region and other provinces of the state that would become the [[Republic of Turkey]], and [[Anatolia#Changing_toponyms_after_the_Armenian_genocide|toponyms were changed]] to erase the name and memory of the historic Armenian national home that now fell within Turkey's borders. For this reason parts of this region are sometimes remembered as "[[Western Armenia]]" by some writers.{{citation needed}}<ref> {{cite book|last= Helft|first=Susan |editor-last1= Gansell|editor-first1= Amy Rebecca|editor-last2= Shafer|editor-first2= Ann|chapter=The Past, Present and Future of the Canon of Ancient Anatolian Art |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hKnDDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Eastern+anatolia%22+name+changed+armenian&pg=PA91|title= Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology|year= 2020|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-067316-1|page=91}}</ref>


It has the highest average altitude, largest geographical area, and lowest population density of the seven [[Turkish regions]].
It has the highest average altitude, largest geographical area, and lowest population density of the seven [[Turkish regions]].
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* [[Malatya Province|Malatya]]
* [[Malatya Province|Malatya]]
* [[Muş Province|Muş]]
* [[Muş Province|Muş]]
* [[Hakkari Province|Hakkari]]
* [[Iğdır Province|Iğdır]]
* [[Iğdır Province|Iğdır]]
* [[Tunceli Province|Tunceli]]
* [[Tunceli Province|Tunceli]]

Revision as of 09:00, 11 February 2024

Eastern Anatolia Region
Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi
Location of Eastern Anatolia Region
CountryTurkey
Area
 • Total165,436 km2 (63,875 sq mi)
Population
 • Total6,513,106
 • Density39/km2 (100/sq mi)

The Eastern Anatolia Region (Turkish: Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The most populous province in the region is Van Province. Other populous provinces are Malatya, Erzurum and Elazığ.

It is bordered by the Black Sea Region and Georgia in the north, the Central Anatolia Region in the west, the Mediterranean Region in the southwest, the Southeastern Anatolia Region and Iraq in the south, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran in the east.

Some geographers and historians have noted part of the region falls within historic "Armenia", the native national home of indigenous Armenians. During the Armenian genocide the Armenian population was forcibly removed, deported, or murdered from this region and other provinces of the state that would become the Republic of Turkey, and toponyms were changed to erase the name and memory of the historic Armenian national home that now fell within Turkey's borders. For this reason parts of this region are sometimes remembered as "Western Armenia" by some writers.[citation needed][1]

It has the highest average altitude, largest geographical area, and lowest population density of the seven Turkish regions.

Seismologists know the area as the Eastern Anatolian Fault Zone. The area is seismically active and the older part of the North Anatolian fault runs through it. Much of the territory lies between the North Anatolian fault and the East Anatolian Fault.

History

Earthquakes

Most of eastern Anatolia falls betweeen the North Anatolian fault and the East Anatolian Fault

The provinces of eastern Anatolia have suffered many significant earthquakes in the 20th century. The literary historical record is not as extensive as it is for the western regions of Turkey (Türkiye).

Malatya was severely impacted by the February 6 earthquakes in 2023, when two of the largest quakes in the country's history occurred in the same area within 8 hours of each other. The Mw 7.8 earthquake that occurred in the early morning hours, at 04:17 TRT (01:17 UTC), was followed by a Mw 7.7 quake approximately eight hours later at 13:24.

The February 6 quakes were the largest in the country since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake of the same magnitude, also in Eastern Anatolia.

Other significant earthquakes with 6Mw of greater magnitude: 1840 Ahora earthquake, 1859 Erzurum earthquake, 1866 Bingöl earthquake, 1924 Pasinler earthquake, 1926 Kars earthquake, 1949 Karlıova earthquake, 1966 Varto earthquake, 1971 Bingöl earthquake, 1983 Erzurum earthquake (epicentre in the Allahuekber Mountains shear zone), 1992 Erzincan earthquake, 2003 Bingöl earthquake, 2010 Elazığ earthquake, 2020 Elazığ earthquake.

Earthquakes of 7Mw or greater magnitude: 1903 Manzikert earthquake, 1976 Çaldıran–Muradiye earthquake, 2011 Van earthquakes.

Toponyms

1890 map showing "Armenia" from Review of Reviews[2]
1926 map depicting the "Armenian highlands" from William R. Shepherd's Historical Atlas[3]

In 1923, the newly founded Republic of Turkey renamed the territory "Eastern Anatolia" as part of a wider policy of removing all non-Turkish names of places following the Armenian genocide.[4][5] Beginning in 1880, the name Armenia was forbidden to be used in official documents of the Ottoman Empire, in an attempt to play down the role of Armenians in the region.[5][6][7] The government of Sultan Abdul Hamid II replaced the name Armenia with such terms as "Kurdistan" or "Anatolia". The Sublime Porte believed there would be no Armenian question if there was no Armenia. The process of "nationalization" of toponyms was continued and gained momentum under the Kemalists after the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.[4][5][7]

According to Richard Hovannisian, this changing of toponyms was "necessary to obscure all evidence" of the Armenian presence as part of the policy of Armenian genocide denial embarked upon by the newly established Turkish government and what Hovannisian calls its "foreign collaborators".[8]

Vazken Davidian terms the expanded use of "Anatolia" to apply to the Ottoman East, where Ottoman Armenians lived for centuries, an "ahistorical imposition". Some scholars prefer to use different toponyms, rather than lazily refer to the Ottoman East as "Eastern Anatolia".[9]

Administrative divisions

Subdivision

Eastern Anatolia Region has four subdivisions:

  • Upper Euphrates division (Turkish: Yukarı Fırat Bölümü)
  • Erzurum-Kars division (Turkish: Erzurum-Kars Bölümü)
  • Upper Murat-Van division (Turkish: Yukarı Murat-Van Bölümü)
  • Hakkari division (Turkish: Hakkari Bölümü)

Provinces

Provinces that are entirely in the Eastern Anatolia Region:[10]

Geography

The average altitude is 2,200 m (7,200 ft). Major geographic features include plains, plateaus and massifs. There is some volcanic activity today.

Lakes and rivers

Lake Akdoğan
  • Located in the Eastern Anatolia Region Aras and Kura rivers flooded the shed outside the territory of Turkey to the Caspian Sea. Euphrates, the Tigris and the Zab river waters are poured back onto the Persian Gulf Turkey outside.
  • The regime of the streams of the region is irregular. This is because; the irregularity of the precipitation regime and the fall of winter precipitation in the form of snow. As the snow falls on the ground for a long time without melting, the flow rates of the rivers decrease. The snow melting in spring and summer causes streams to increase their flow rates and flow enthusiastically. On the other hand, the rivers of the region have high hydroelectric energy potential. The reason for this is that it has high elevations and slopes.
  • Lakes were formed on the fault lines throughout the region. Turkey's largest lake, Lake Van along with Lake Çıldır, Lake Nazik, Lake Erçek, Lake Hazar, Lake Balık, Lake Haçlı and Lake Akdoğan are located within the region.

Massifs and mountains

Mount Ararat (Ağrı Dağı), the highest mountain peak in Turkey, is located in eastern Anatolia.

The highest mountain in the Eastern Anatolia Region is Mount Ararat (5123 m).[11] The Euphrates, Aras, Karasu and Murat rivers connect the Armenian Highlands to the South Caucasus and the Upper Euphrates Valley. Along with the Çoruh, these rivers are the longest in the Eastern Anatolia Region.[12]

Plateaus and plains

Lakes

Rivers

Climate and nature

Erzurum
Climate chart (explanation)
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
 
 
20
 
 
−4
−15
 
 
24
 
 
−3
−14
 
 
33
 
 
3
−7
 
 
58
 
 
12
0
 
 
70
 
 
17
4
 
 
43
 
 
22
7
 
 
27
 
 
27
10
 
 
16
 
 
28
10
 
 
21
 
 
23
5
 
 
49
 
 
15
1
 
 
33
 
 
7
−5
 
 
22
 
 
−1
−11
Average max. and min. temperatures in °C
Precipitation totals in mm
Source: Turkish State Meteorology[14]
Imperial conversion
JFMAMJJASOND
 
 
0.8
 
 
25
5
 
 
0.9
 
 
27
7
 
 
1.3
 
 
37
19
 
 
2.3
 
 
54
32
 
 
2.8
 
 
63
39
 
 
1.7
 
 
72
45
 
 
1.1
 
 
81
50
 
 
0.6
 
 
82
50
 
 
0.8
 
 
73
41
 
 
1.9
 
 
59
34
 
 
1.3
 
 
45
23
 
 
0.9
 
 
30
12
Average max. and min. temperatures in °F
Precipitation totals in inches

Since most of the region is far from the sea, and has high altitude, it has a harsh continental climate with long winters and short summers. During the winter, it is very cold and snowy, during summer the weather is cool in the highlands and warm in the lowlands.

The region's annual temperature difference is the highest in Turkey. Some areas in the region have different microclimates. As an example, Iğdır (near Mount Ararat) has a milder climate.

The region contains 11% percent of the total forested area of Turkey, and it is rich in native plants and animals. Oak and yellow pine trees form the majority of the forests.

The region has high potential for hydroelectric power.[15]

Location and borders

The Eastern Anatolia Region is located in the easternmost part of Turkey. It is bounded by Turkey's Central Anatolia Region to the west; Turkey's Black Sea Region to the north; Turkey's Southeast Anatolia Region and Iraq to the south; and Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia to the east, where Eastern Anatolia overlaps and converges with the South Caucasus region and Lesser Caucasus mountain plateau.

The area of the region is 164,330 km2 (63,450 sq mi), which comprises 20.9% of the total area of Turkey.

Panoramic view of Ani in Kars

Population

The total population of the region is 5,966,101 (2019 estimate), down from 6,100,000 at the 2000 census. The population density (40 inhabitants per square kilometre (100/sq mi)) is lower than the average for Turkey (98/km2 (250/sq mi)).[citation needed] The region has the second most rural population in Turkey after the Black Sea region. Migration, especially to Marmara Region, is high. Migration to other regions and abroad is higher than the natural population increase. Until the Armenian genocide, the region also had a large population of indigenous Armenians, when it was also known as Western Armenia, and in addition had significant minorities of Georgians, Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks.[16][17][18]

Etymology

Endnotes

  1. ^ Helft, Susan (2020). "The Past, Present and Future of the Canon of Ancient Anatolian Art". In Gansell, Amy Rebecca; Shafer, Ann (eds.). Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology. Oxford University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-19-067316-1.
  2. ^ 1890 map
  3. ^ Historical Atlas by William Shepherd
  4. ^ a b Hovannisian, Richard (2007). The Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4128-3592-3.
  5. ^ a b c Cheterian, Vicken (2015). Open Wounds: Armenians, Turks and a Century of Genocide. Oxford and New York City: Oxford University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-84904-458-5. As a result of policies such as these, the expression Armenian Plateau, which had been used for centuries to denote the mountainous highlands around Lake Van and Lake Sevan, was eliminated and replaced by the expression 'eastern Anatolia'.
  6. ^ Galichian, Rouben (2004). Historic Maps of Armenia: The Cartographic Heritage. London and New York City: I.B. Tauris. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-1-86064-979-0.
  7. ^ a b Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies. Vol. 14–16. Los Angeles. 2005. p. 55. Most of historical Armenia presently constitutes a part of Turkey (renamed "Eastern Anatolia"), which conducts a policy of minimizing the role of the Armenians in history{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. (1998). Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-2777-7. Archived from the original on 10 March 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  9. ^ Vazken Khatchig Davidian, "Imagining Ottoman Armenia: Realism and Allegory in Garabed Nichanian's Provincial Wedding in Moush and Late Ottoman Art Criticism", p. 7 & footnote 34, in Études arméniennes contemporaines volume 6, 2015.
  10. ^ https://www.ktb.gov.tr/EN-99763/eastern-and-southeastern-anatolia.html
  11. ^ Fevzi Özgökçe; Kit Tan; Vladimir Stevanović (2005). "A new subspecies of Silene acaulis (Caryophyllaceae) from East Anatolia, Turkey". Annales Botanici Fennici. 42 (2): 143–149. JSTOR 23726860.
  12. ^ Palumbi, Giulio (5 September 2011). McMahon, Gregory; Steadman, Sharon (eds.). "The Chalcolithic of Eastern Anatolia". The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia. 1. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376142.013.0009. Archived from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  13. ^ "İRAP, Il afet risk azaltma planı" (PDF) (in Turkish). Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency. 2021. p. 18.
  14. ^ "İl ve İlçelerimize Ait İstatistiki Veriler- Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü". Archived from the original on 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  15. ^ C, Aykut (2020-05-01). "Hidroelektrik Üretimi En Fazla Hangi Bölgede?". dpumekatronik.com (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  16. ^ Holslag, Anthonie (2018). The Transgenerational Consequences of the Armenian Genocide: Near the Foot of Mount Ararat. Springer. p. 26. ISBN 978-3-319-69260-9.
  17. ^ Hovanissian, Anush (2016). "Turkey: a Cultural Genocide". In Chorbajian, Levon; Shirinian, George (eds.). Studies in Comparative Genocide. Springer. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-349-27348-5.
  18. ^ Bloxham, Donald (2003). "The Armenian Genocide of 1915-1916: Cumulative Radicalization and the Development of a Destruction Policy". Past & Present (181): 148. JSTOR 3600788. Though no ethnicity comprised an absolute majority of the inhabitants of eastern Anatolia, Armenians formed a plurality, alongside Kurds.