Day 31: Definite Tension in the Air , Kars 22 Comments

This entry was posted in Travel Turkey and tagged 2018 Asia Castles City Motorhome Travel Walks Wild Camping on

After a brilliant time in Ani our fears and anxieties subsides, so we decided to give Kars another go.  We park at the train station (turned out to be very quiet) were the security guards kindly guided us to a safe area off the main drive through.

Our Bumble wild camping spot at Kars GPS position N040.604461, E043.106027

Kars has a strong connection with Russia. The Russian empire attacked Kars in 1828 and seized control from the Ottomans but it was a tug-of-war; they lost power and seized it again in 1878. After the First World War, it fell to Armenian rule, then eventually the Turkish republic.

Russian Architecture

The Russians were not going to give up though and in 1945, attempted to regain Kars through peaceful dialogue. They were unsuccessful. These days, the only Russian connection is seen in architecture style of old buildings, many of which now are under preservation status.

There were also a small percentage of locals that stood out because of their facial appearances.  Men and women displayed chiselled, clean looks with defining features and piercing eyes. Their skin was a lot lighter but perfectly suited the jet black hair that framed their faces.

I assumed the different facial appearance was because of the historical connections to Russia or Armenia so during a conversation with a local student (whilst at Ani), I questioned the ethnic diversity of the population of Kars. The biggest surprise was that there are many Azerbaijanis in Kars. Some just come over the border to work, while others have Azerbaijan blood in the family history. The Azerbaijan influences does add another twist to the diversity of Kars to find out they form a large percentage of the population.

A zip over to the castle to discover that Saltuk Turks built a fortress on this hill above a bend in the Kars River in 1153. It was demolished by the Central Asian conqueror Tamerlane (Timur) in 1386 and rebuilt several times over the following centuries.

We zip all over the city and find some good bits and some not so good bits. A few beggars (first in Turkey) and the odd heated argument amongst locals. All in all it has a lot of history but it also had a lot of tension, which we could certainly feel. Did we enjoy our visit to Kars second time around? We felt a little less uneasy and enjoyed looking at different things but did it float our boat, not really. Would we come back…probably not.

 

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