KARAKOYUNLULAR , AKKOYUNLULAR , SAFAVIDS

This was a period of frequent occupations and wars resulting in changes of ruler and the plunder of the city. The Karakoyunlus occupied Kars in 1380 and ruled the city with interruptions until 1468, when the Akkoyunlus arrived with a very large army and invaded the entire eastern region including Kars and its environs.

At that time the Ottoman Empire was getting stronger and this worried the Akkoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan, who attacked the Ottomans in the war of Otlukbeli but lost. Meanwhile the eastern Anatolia region was gradually occupied by the Safavid Dynasty, which soon added Kars to its conquests. The Safavids plundered the whole city, which led to another major migration. It is believed that the Omer Mosque built by the Umayyad dynasty was destroyed during the pillage. The Safavids ruled not through autonomous principalities but military governors or religious leaders. Their reign lasted until the War of Çaldiran in 1514, when they were defeated by the Ottoman emperor Selim the Grim. Selim stopped by at Kars and the village which was named after him to mark the occasion still exists.