Muş

British traveller H. F. B. Lynch travelled to Muş at the end of the 19th century. He described the city as "the most mis-governed town in the Ottoman Empire".^[13]

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city had around 20,000 inhabitants, of which 11,000 were Muslims, while 9,000 were Christian Armenians.^[14] According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) the town had 27,000 inhabitants, of whom 13,300 were Muslims and 13,700 Armenians.^[15] According to the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) the population was nearly equally divided between Kurds and Armenians.^[16]

During the Armenian genocide of 1915 the indigenous Armenian population of the region was exterminated.^[17][18][19] Over 140,000 Armenians of the Mush sanjak (living in 234 villages and towns)^[20] were targeted in June and July 1915.^[21] Military-aged Armenian men were conscripted to serve in World War I. The Armenian population was largely defenseless to these threats.^[22] The massacre of the Armenian population of the city of Mush came only after the surrounding villages were destroyed.^[22]

The town was captured during by the forces of the Russian Empire in February 1916 during the World War I.^[23] It was recaptured by Mustafa Kemal's Turkish Second Army in 1917.^[24]

In the 1960s, the Arakelots Monastery was dynamited by Muş officials.^[25]

Education

Alparslan University is one of the universities in Muş.

Tourism and main sights

The touristic places in Muş are the historical

Under the rule of Muslim dynasties, other types of buildings were built as well. There are mosques from the Ottoman and pre-Ottoman period which show influences of Seljuk architecture, such as the Alaeddin Bey (18th century),[12] Haci Seref (17th century),^[12] and Ulu (14th century, previously an Armenian church^[29]) mosques.^[12] Other sights include caravanserais like the Yıldızlı Han (13th century) destroyed in 1916, the now almost completely ruined Aslanlı Han,^[12] the bathhouse and fountain of Alaeddin Bey, and tombs of Muslim saints.

Transportation

The city is served by the Muş Airport. It has a train station and a bus station (MUŞTİ).

Demographics

In the late 19th century, H. F. B. Lynch reports that the city of Muş had two large mosques with minarets, four Armenian Apostolic churches (Surb Marineh, Surb Kirakos, Surb Avetaranotz, and Surb Stepanos) and one Armenian Catholic church.^[13]

Before the Armenian genocide, Armenians formed the majority of the population in the kaza of Muş. According to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, on the eve of the First World War, there were 75,623 Armenians, with 113 churches, 74 monasteries, and 87 schools.^[13] They were all massacred during the Armenian genocide, many of them burned in their houses.^[13] Almost all Muslims were Kurds.^[13]

According to the 1927 Turkish census, the Muş District had 21,486 Muslims and 13 non-Muslims.^[30]

Population of the municipality of Muş numbers 120,699 according to a 2022 estimate.

• 
  Muş Alaeddin Pasha Mosque
• 
  Muş Alaeddin Pasha Mosque
• 
  Muş Ulu Mosque
• 
  Muş Ulu Mosque
• 
  Muş Ulu Mosque
• 
  Muş Hacı Şeref Mosque
• 
  Muş Tuba Mosque
• 
  Muş street scene
• 
  Muş street scene
• 
  Muş street scene
• 
  Old house in Muş
• 
  Old house in Muş
• 
  Muş Hospital
• 
  Haspet Castle
• 
  Haspet Castle
• 
  View of Muş

Notable locals

• Armenak Shahmuradyan,^[33] Armenian
  operatic tenor
• Zafer Çağlayan, Turkish politician and former Minister
• Sabahattin Oğlago, four-time Olympian cross-country skier
• Zeki Eker, Turkish politician of Kurdish origin
• Kürşat Duymuş, Turkish football defender

Climate

Muş has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dsa, Trewartha climate classification: Dc) with cold, snowy winters and hot, very dry and very sunny summers.

References