KIMMERIANS

The Kimmerians were attacked by the Iskitians and escaped from the north but did not settle in Kars. They plundered existing settlements and forced them to pay taxes. Their victims included the Urartians, who had to agree to pay up after the Iskitians attacked the Kars principality. During the same period (the seventh and sixth centuries BC) Urartians retreated from the Kars area due to attacks by other groups. Kars principality was attacked by Iskitians many times and Ani and Kars were plundered. Despite these attacks, the administrative structure of Kars survived. In the third century BC, the Araks Kingdom, made up of Georgians, Armenians and Persians, occupied Kars and the city was forced to pay tribute for a long period that ended with an attack by the Parthians.

TIGRAN KINGDOM - INVASIONS AND MUSLIMS

The Araks Kingdom broke up under the Parthian attack, and was later reunited by the Tigranes, as the Armenian kings were known. The Tigran Kingdom occupied the whole of the old Urartu territory, and was ruled from Ani. Following the Roman invasion of 64 BC, the Tigran Kingdom came to an end and the region was ruled by a consul appointed by Romans.

The Kars region was repeatedly invaded by various kingdoms before the Seljuk reign, and during these invasions - by Romans, Sassanians, Arabs and Georgians - its ethnic structure changed. A large number of people in Kars were Christians for 418 years until the arrival of the Seljuks; Christianity was brought to the region by the Gregorian priests, and thus this became the most popular sect. The public reacted against Byzantine attempts to impose orthodox beliefs, and were subjected to harsh reprisals, mostly in the form of taxes. When conditions became unbearable, the people of the region asked for help from the Umayyad Caliphate, and the Arab invasions between 638 and 642 AD shook Byza - tine sovereignty. Kars and its environs were introduced to Islam in that period. The army of Habib bin Mehleme stayed in Kars for a few months and built the Hz. Omer Mosque, which was later demolished by invading Persians. When the Arabs retreated in 657, the region was regained by the Byzantines and their rule lasted until 685.

BAGRADIT KINGDOM

The Arab army that returned to the region in 685 ended Byzantine sovereignty for almost four centuries. Emir Mervan bin Muhammed made Divin his base, leaving Kars autonomous but appointing a government there which would be loyal to the Arab Kingdom and pay taxes. Namikonlu Artav (Artavasdes), who was from the Christian Oghuz clan, headed the government. Artav could not stand the heavy taxes and rebelled against the Arabs; the Abbasid Caliphate sent an army of 30,000 to recapture Kars, and Artav was replaced by the Christian Ashot of Bagratuni. This new principality, in which Kars was the third-largest city and whose boundaries were soon to enlarge, is known in history as the Bagratid Kingdom.

Ashot’s son Smbad was appointed as a head priest for the Christians of the region and head of the principality during the sovereignty of the Abbasids. Ani became the administrative center of the principality, while Kars was made an autonomous principality with the name of Vanand – after the Armenian family of Vanandi -- tied to the Bagradit Kingdom. Abbas II was appointed as the governor in 928.

When Ashot III came to the head of the Bagradit Principality in 962, he ousted the rulers of Kars and appointed his brother Mushel instead. This state of affairs continued until 1045. Kars remained the third largest principality after Bagradit and Erasgavork (todays Arasoglu village) in the Bagradit Kingdom.