SELJUK PERIOD

Long before the Seljuks settled in Anatolia, Turkmen groups started to migrate towards Anatolia to escape from Mongolian attacks. It is not known when these groups settled in various parts of Anatolia but Byzantine records show that between 500 and 700 AD, Cepni Turks reached the eastern Black Sea via Kars and that the pioneers of the Kaskai group settled around Sivas in central Anatolia around 600–800 AD, also passing via Kars.

Some of these Turkic groups, which were mostly nomad Turkmens of the Bozulus group, settled in and around Kars in the 7th century AD. They were stockbreeding nomads and once settled they accepted Christian culture and continued this belief until the arrival of the Arabs. So people of Turkic origins were settled in Anatolia long before the Seljuk Turks began to carry out more organized attacks on the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire.

Apart from the simple desire for expansion, the main motivation for the Seljuk Turkmen State, which became a central empire in western Asia at the end of the 10th century, to force its way into Anatolia was a period of political turmoil caused by internal conflicts. The dissident Turkmen tribes moved towards the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire to find a new country and to establish a new state.

The attacks they initiated against the Byzantines started around 950 AD and lasted until 1064, with occasional support from Christians living in Byzantine territory. After the 1018–1021 incursions led by Cagri Bey, the Turkmen groups mostly settled around the Kars region.

The Byzantine tax system, which remained in place until 1064, alongside cultural and administrative coercion led people to seek a savior from outside. The Seljuk Bey Alpaslan formed a large army with the support of the Turkmens and other principalities, and this army occupied Ani in 1064. In the same year Melikshah occupied Kars and Kars became the center of the Seljuk Empire.

During the Seljuk period everything changed in Kars, from architecture to language and family life. Water channels, bridges including the city’s large stone bridge, and the castle were built during that period, followed by the Ic Kale (inner castle) and some government buildings, fountains and aqueducts. But when the Russians settled in Kars in 1878 the architecture of the city changed dramatically: water channels and bridges were smashed down and the water system was taken underground. There are no remains of the Seljuk aqueducts in Kars today.