Kars, Turkey

Kars (Armenian: Կարս or Ղարս; Azerbaijani: Qars; Kurdish: Qers; Greek: Καρσούντα, romanized: Karsoúnta) is a city in northeast Turkey. It is the seat of Kars Province and Kars District. Its population is 91,450 (2022). Kars, in classical historiography (Strabo), was in the ancient region known as Chorzene (Greek: Χορζηνή), part of the province of Ayrarat in the Kingdom of Armenia, and later the capital of the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia from 929–961. Currently, the mayor of Kars is Türker Öksüz. The city had an Armenian ethnic majority until it was conquered by Turkish nationalist forces in late 1920.

The city's name may be derived from the Armenian word հարս (hars), meaning "bride". Another hypothesis has it that the name derives from the Georgian word for "the gate."