Travel Guide Van

Formerly named Tushpa, Van, located east of the eponymous lake, is a modern and liberal city. It is a convenient stopover for resting during a trip to the conservative villages of the region. Lake Van is the largest in Turkey and the second largest in the Middle East. It is 120 km long, 80 km wide and 171 m deep on average. It culminates at 1 640 m altitude and its surface is 3 755 km2. Its creation is the result of a volcanic eruption that occurred 60,000 years ago. Although its waters of a magnificent blue call for swimming, it is not recommended to stay there for a long time because of the high level of sodium but also because of the monster that it would shelter!In the 11th century BC, Van was the capital of the Urartenian kingdom, which extended in the east of Asia Minor and clashed with the Hittites. Defeated by the Scythians in the 7th century BC, and by a nomadic group called the Cimmerians, the Urartes nevertheless left their influence in most of the remains and monuments that can be visited today around Van. With the establishment of the Kingdom of Armenia in the first century B.C., Van became the center of Armenian power, a status that lasted for ten centuries. In order to survive, the Armenian kingdom established alliances with the Byzantines, Romans, and Persians, while at the same time being eroded by Arab invasions. Following the battle of Malazgirt in 1701, the Seljuks took possession of the area. During the First World War, Turkey, at war with the Russians, doubted the loyalty of the Armenians living in the regions close to the Russian Empire. The government, controlled by the Union and Progress Committee (CUP, also called the Young Turks), ordered the massacre and expulsion of the Armenian population to the Syrian desert (a region of the Ottoman Empire). The existence for centuries of a Christian territory in Anatolia and Western Armenia hinders the dream of the pan-Turkish parties. Their aim was to strengthen the domination of the Muslim Turks in eastern Anatolia by eradicating the many Armenians living there. In 1915 and 1916, between 800,000 and 1.5 million civilians were executed and deported. In 2021, the United States recognized the Armenian genocide as organized by the Ottoman Empire, which Ankara completely rejects.