Kars

Kars, a fortress of Russian Armenia, lies about 110 miles NE. of Erzerum. It is situated on a tableland of upwards of 6000 feet in elevation; the climate is therefore rather severe. Pop. (1890), since the Turks and Lazs have migrated to Turkey, 8672, mostly Armenians, who carry on an active transit trade. In 1828 Kars was taken from the Turks by the Russians under Paskevitch. It was brilliantly defended by the Turks under General Williams for six months in 1855. At the beginning of the war of 1877-78 Kars was invested by the Russians, but relieved in July by Mukhtar Pasha; besieged again in the autumn, it was carried by storm on 18th November 1877 by General Lazareff. Kars, long a bulwark of the Ottoman empire in Asia, was one of the Armenian fortresses the cession of which to Russia was agreed to by the Berlin Congress in 1878. It forms now a commanding position from a military point of view on the plateau of Asia Minor, facilitating future aggression towards Erzerum and Turkish Armenia in general. Kars, whose fortifications have been recently augmented, is nearly impregnable. See works on the siege of 1855 by Sandwith (1856) and Laurence Oliphant (1856).