by
Lev Lagorio For most of the periods described here, Doğubayazıt was a larger and more important settlement than the present-day provincial capital
Ağrı, not least because it is located at the Iranian border crossing. The area has a long history, with monuments dating back to the time of the
Kingdom of Urartu (over 2700 years ago). Before the
Ottoman Empire the site was referred to by its
Armenian name
Daruynk (written as Դարույնք in Armenian). In the 4th century the
Sasanians failed to capture the Armenian stronghold and royal treasury at Daroynk. Princes of the
Bagratid dynasty of Armenia resided at Daroynk and rebuilt the fortress into its present configuration with multiple baileys and towers carefully integrated into the ascending rock outcrop. When King
Gagik I Artsruni reoccupied the fortress ca.922 A.D. it became the seat of a bishop. It was subsequently conquered and reconquered by
Persians,
Armenians,
Byzantines, and
Seljuks all of whom would have used the plain to rest and recoup during their passages across the mountains. as well as when it was attacked by
Russia later in 1856, and taken by the Russians during the
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). When the Russians retreated many of the local
Armenians left with them to build
New Beyazit (now
Gavar at
Armenia) on the shore of
Lake Sevan. Doğubayazıt was further ravaged during
World War I and the subsequent
Turkish War of Independence. Starting in 1920, the area began producing
sulphur. The widely dispersed village of Bayazit, was originally an
Armenian settlement and populated by
Kurds in 1930 and
Yazidis from the Serhed region. But in 1930 the
Turkish Army destroyed it in response to the
Ararat Rebellion. A new town was built in the plain below the old site in the 1930s (hence the new name "Doğubayazıt", which literally means "East Beyazıt"). Doğubayazıt was the capital of the
Kurdish Republic of Ararat led by
Ibrahim Haski and
Ihsan Nuri of the
Xoybûn organization between 1927 and 1930. The town was thus dubbed the provisional capital of
Kurdistan and was subsequently presented to the
League of Nations and the Great Powers as the center of an independent Kurdish state. In January 2006, Doğubayazıt was the centre of a
H5N1 bird flu outbreak. Four children died from the disease after playing with chicken carcasses. 75,000 chickens in Doğubayazıt and in surrounding villages were killed as a precaution. == Politics ==