Kapan

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Kapan (disambiguation) .

Kapan Կապան
coat of arms
State :	Armenia
Province :	Sjunik
Coordinates :	39 ° 12 ′  N , 46 ° 25 ′  E Coordinates: 39 ° 12 ′  N , 46 ° 25 ′  E
Height :	900  m
Area :	36  km²
Residents :	45,544 (2009)
Population density :	1,265 inhabitants per km²
Time zone :	UTC + 4
Telephone code :	(+374) 285
Postal code :	3301-3308
Community type:	city
Mayor :	Geworg Parsjan (independent)
Website :	kapan.am (arm., russ., engl.)
Kapan

Kapan ( Armenian Կապան ; until 1991 Ղափան Ghapan or Կաֆան Kafan ) is the capital of the southern Armenian province of Sjunik and the largest city in the south of the country.

From the Chalcolithic period onwards, copper ores extracted from the area were processed. The medieval city was about 15 kilometers to the west near the Baghaberd fortress . Under the rule of the Persian dynasty of the Qajars , the development of the present-day city in the Voghji Valley began with the exploitation of the metal ore deposits , which during the Soviet period became a center of the mining industry and the capital of the province of the same name.

location

From the Vachagan River to the southwest towards the 3201 meter high Mount Chustup.

Kapan is located in the extreme southeast of Armenia, a few kilometers from the border with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , which has existed in Azerbaijan since 1991 as an internationally not recognized regime . The country's only expressway ( M2 ), which connects Armenia with Iran via the border crossing at Meghri , runs through Kapan . All goods coming from Iran are transported on this road. The 71-kilometer stretch of the newly developed M17 to Meghri branches off from the M2 just before the road tunnel east of the city center to the south and crosses the wooded Shikahogh reserve in many serpentines along the border with Nagorno-Karabakh . The old M2 leads across the city and follows the west Voghdschi River up to 26 km distant city Kajaran . On this route in the hills south of the valley on the western outskirts of Kapan, the fortress Halidzor from the 17th century has been preserved. Two kilometers further, in a wooded area high above the right bank of the river, is the Wahanawank Monastery, founded at the beginning of the 10th century . The Baghaberd fortress, 15 kilometers from Kapan on a rocky outcrop on the left bank of the river, goes back to a foundation in early Christian times. Between Kajaran and Meghri, the M2 crosses a pass which is snow-covered in winter and is 2,483 meters high.

The M2 expressway in a northerly direction along the Nagorno-Karabakh border overcomes a 1700-meter-high pass and reaches Goris after 61 kilometers , Sissian after 93 kilometers and ends 290 kilometers from Kapan in the state capital Yerevan . The pass represents the watershed between the Vorotan in the north and the Voghdschi, both of which flow southeast over Nagorno-Karabakh in the Aras . A side road (H45), which is rarely used and which is not paved throughout, turns four kilometers east of the city to the north into a valley in which mining is carried out and reaches the Tatew monastery via Tandzaver .

The height of the city ranges from around 750 meters in the valley to 1050 meters in the residential areas on the mountain slopes. From Kapan you can see the 3201 meter high rocky summit of the Chustup in the southwest . The broad granite massif is the highest point in the southernmost tip of Armenia. The Vachagan stream rises on its northern flank and flows into the Voghdschi in the city center. The direct route to Kapan's local mountain initially follows the stream to the village of Verin Vachagan, 3.5 kilometers from the center .

history

To the northeast: in the background the valley of the Voghdschi, on the right in front the valley of the Vachagan, in the middle the Mesrop-Mashtots church from 2001.

The first immigrants came to the area from the Caspian Sea via the Voghdschi valley. Shards of pots prove a settlement in the Stone Age . Copper has been mined in the areas of Kapan, Kajaran, Alawerdi , Shamlug ( Lori Province ) and Agarak from the Chalcolithic to the present day . The trade in ores and bronze and iron objects made from them probably brought the inhabitants into contact with the culture of Metsamor (5th to early 2nd millennium BC, Armavir province ). Beginning of the 4th millennium BC The Kura-Araxes culture spread in Transcaucasia, a uniform culture within the local population, which had a more sophisticated metalworking technique and practiced agriculture and animal husbandry.

The place name Kapan is derived from the ancient Armenian word ghapan, "gorge" and has been used since the 4th century BC at the latest. A fortified city that belonged to ancient Armenia. The city is mentioned in the Chronicle of Moses by Choren and other Armenian historians of the 5th century. Stephanos Orbelian (around 1250–1305) describes in his history of the province of Sjunik the city near the fortress Baghaberd, which was surrounded by a mighty rampart. The population included artisans, traders and a wealthy class of nobility. Arab conquerors destroyed Ghapan on the advance into the capital Dvin , which they took under their control by 642. The city recovered from the following two centuries of Arab rule when, at the end of the 9th century, it was ruled by princes of the Armenian Tzagik family, who had gained some autonomy under the rule of the caliphate . The caliphs gave the governors in the regions of Transcaucasia the freedom to make their own administrative agreements with the local princes. Prince Tzagik, son of Javanshir Sisakan of Sjunik, had the city renewed and fortified again.

The Bagratid king Smbat II (ruled 977–989) had Ghapan administered as the capital of his fiefdom Bagrat-Kapan from 987. As in all of Armenia in the 10th century, the second cultural bloom began after the early Christian period. In the 11th century, Ghapan was a prosperous city with a population of 15,000 to 20,000 and the center of Sjunik Province. A larger Jewish community lived in its own district. Visible evidence of the existence of individual Jewish communities in medieval Armenia are the graves from the 13th and 14th centuries in the Jewish cemetery of Jeghegis . The Jews of Kapan belonged to the Zoks ethnic group, considered to be the successors of the ancient Jews. According to Moses von Choren, these Jews were deported from Palestine to Armenia by the Artaxid king Tigranes II (around 140 - around 55 BC).

In 1064 the Seljuks conquered Ani , which was declared the capital in 961 . The severely weakened Armenian kingdom fell to the Kurdish dynasty of the Shaddadids several times in the following years . After the Seljuks took Ghapan in 1103, the capital of the Province of Syunik was relocated to the Baghaberd fortress. In the first half of the 12th century, the Zakarian princes ruled their capital Ani as vassals of Georgian kings . From 1220, after several invasions, northern Armenia came under Mongolian influence for a good 100 years (until 1344) . Kapan belonged to the southern areas that remained undisturbed under Armenian rule after the princes of Sjunik had reached an agreement with the Mongols. The cultural center moved from Ghapan further north to Tanahat , where the University of Gladzor was founded at the end of the 12th century. Around 1340, Tatev Monastery succeeded it as one of the leading Armenian educational institutions. Ghapan remained a city of medium importance in the following years, which was exposed to occupation by Timurids and Turkmen tribes of the Qara Qoyunlu in the 14th and 15th centuries . In 1604 the Persian Shah Abbas I had large parts of the Armenian population deported to Isfahan . As a result of subsequent wars between the Ottomans and Safavids , the provinces of Vajoz Dzor and Syunik were largely uninhabited at the beginning of the 17th century . Instead of the Armenians, nomadic Turkic peoples settled in the course of the century . Armenians returned to Ghapan at the end of the 17th century.

From 1722 under the military leader Davit Bek († 1728) Kapan became the center of the liberation struggle of the Armenians against the Ottomans and against the Persian Safavids, weakened by unrest. In September the Georgian King Vakhtang VI. an army of 50,000 men from Tbilisi to Gəncə (Ganja) to wait for Russian troops to fight the Persians. Wachtang placed 2000 men in his army at the disposal of General Davit Bek, who marched with them to Kapan. In 1724, Davit Bek captured Vorotnaberd fortress from the Persians. With the support of some Armenian Meliks of Artsakh , they won more battles. The replenishment of weapons and ammunition was a problem, but was apparently largely covered by small local production facilities that processed the region's natural resources. The food was also supplied from their own production and contributed to the fact that the Armenians in Arzach and Kapan could maintain their autonomy. When Ottoman troops advanced into the province of Sjunik in 1726, the Armenian Meliks broke up with Davit Bek and sought an understanding with the Ottomans. In 1727 the rebel leader and his loyal followers took refuge in the fortress of Halidzor, from where, in a surprise attack, they defeated the outnumbered Turks. The victory gave him the status of a national hero, but had no political consequences. He died of an illness in Halidzor in 1728. When Beks closest ally and successor Mkhitar Sparapet was killed in his quarters in Khndzoresk in 1730 , the Armenian resistance collapsed.

Among the Qajar end of the 18th century began the expansion Ghapans to a mining center on the site of the present town. Her name was in Persian Ma'dan ("mine", "mineral"). In the third Russo-Persian War , the Russians had conquered all of Armenia including Syunik and Arzach by 1813. With the introduction of the Russian pronunciation rules, the Gh- at the beginning of the word was replaced and the place name was changed to Kapan or Kafan . Kapan developed into an important mining site in the province now called Sangesur .

Shopping arcade above Voghdschi, row of shops with fast food restaurants on the north bank.

After the end of World War I, Sangesur was a disputed area between Turkey and Russia, where the Dashnaks attempted to establish the Democratic Republic of Armenia in May 1918 . One of the partisan leaders of the republic, which existed independently for only two years, was Garegin Nschdeh (1886–1955). He fought on the one hand against the takeover of Kapan by the Turks and on the other hand against the plan of the Russian Bolsheviks to unite the Kapan region with the territory of Azerbaijan, where at the time the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was struggling for independence. Garagin Ndjeh, venerated as a national hero in Armenia, died in Soviet captivity. In 1987 his ashes were secretly brought to the medieval hermitage of Spitakavor , located in the mountains of the Vajoz Dzor province , and buried there in front of the church. Some of his remains later came to Kapan and was buried for the third time on the slope of Mount Chustup south of the city. A memorial erected there in 2003 commemorates him.

During the Soviet reign in 1930 Kapan became the capital of the district of the same name. After the Second World War, the branch line to Mindzhevan opened in 1932 with a connection to the railway line to Baku made it possible to export mineral ores and products from heavy industry. With the independence of Armenia in 1991, a large part of industrial production in the entire country collapsed, which Kapan in particular suffered, because the rail connection was immediately interrupted. The diesel locomotives could no longer be moved out of the city. During the armed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Kapan was hit by Azerbaijani aerial bombs . Armenian war refugees crowded into the city until 1994. At the same time, more than half of Kapan's residents may have left Kapan for economic reasons in the 1990s. In 1995 Kapan became the capital of the newly defined ( marz ) Sjunik province .

Cityscape

In the Vachagan valley, one kilometer southwest of the center. At the edges, the apartment blocks merge into informal village settlements.

In the 2001 census, the official population was given as 45,711. In January 2009, according to official statistics, 45,544 people lived in the seventh largest city in the country.

The city extends along the Voghdschi, the center is on the south bank of the river. The M2, which comes into the city from the east on the north bank of the river, first passes an area with heavy industry and, after the tunnel, leads past a residential area with run-down apartment blocks from the Soviet era and the inoperative railway systems that herald the economic decline of the industrial location. One of the main streets is Aram Manukyan Street parallel to M2 on the south bank of the Voghdschi. The city's commercial center is a tree-lined park in a bend in the river at the confluence of the Vachagan. From Karan Demirchyan Square there, Melik Stepanyan Street leads under avenue trees along Vachagan to the southwest. A large hotel from the Soviet era is located on the square. Beyond the bridge from the park over the Voghdschi, the bronze statue of Davit Beks on a galloping horse shows the way to another large square with the stop for marshrutkas , the minibuses for regional and long-distance transport.

The side valley going north from the minibus stop and the valley of the Vachagan to the south-east form the only flat settlement area with the valley of the Voghdschi in east-west direction. Large, uniform blocks of flats grow up like stairs to the half-height positions from the narrow valleys on the slopes. Unplanned quarters with village single-family houses were built on the steeper valley slopes. A district with apartment blocks, founded on a hill in the southwest, can only be reached directly from the center via a long flight of stairs or a long detour via the arterial roads. Since the turn of the millennium, some construction projects point to an economic recovery. In addition to the construction of new apartment blocks, this includes a modern church with a cross dome made of concrete and a shopping arcade that was built as a bridge over the Voghdschi. A long line of small shops and fast food restaurants lines the north bank of the river. The church, consecrated in 2001, is named after St. Mesrop Mashtots .

In the north-eastern part of Kavard, a church of Our Lady ( Surb Astvatsatsin ) built with rough stone blocks from the 17th century has been preserved. There is a museum of regional history and culture (Schahumian Street 22, shows objects from prehistory to the present), a museum of contemporary art with regional artists (Romanos Melikian Street 8), a geological museum and one based on the writer Alexander Schirwanzade (1858–1935) named cultural center in which music, dance and theater performances take place. A football stadium (Lernagorz Stadium with 3500 seats) is located on Voghdschi to the west of the center. The home games are played by the football club Gandsassar Kapan .

Mining

Stollen of Dundee Precious Metals at the H45 north of the city.

At the place of the minibus stop, an information center draws attention to the Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals , which was founded in 1983 and in 2014 mined gold and copper in an underground area of ​​176 square kilometers near Kapan . In 2005, Dundee took over the mining rights to Kapan from the Swiss company Deno Gold Mining Company CJSC, which in turn replaced the Kapan Mine Metallurgy Company in 2002 . In 2013, Dundee produced 455,920 tons of ore, extracting 24,360 ounces (690 kg) of gold and 2,340,859 pounds (1061 tonnes) of copper, zinc and silver. Dundee Precious Metals Kapan has been operating as a subsidiary of Polymetal International since April 2016 .

The main mine around Kapan for gold, silver, zinc and copper is Shahumyan, two to three kilometers east of the city. After the Kajaran copper-molybdenum mine, this is the second largest of a total of 26 polymetallic deposits in Armenia.

The economic development of the city and the expansion of the infrastructure largely depend on the investments made by the mining companies. One of the negative consequences of mining is heavy metal pollution of the environment in general, and of the agricultural products grown in particular. Chemical analyzes have shown concentrations of mercury in certain types of vegetables that are higher than those in the field and led to the recommendation that pumpkins, for example, should not be grown. The accumulation of heavy metals in fruits is lower. A study from 2012 advises against the consumption of agricultural products from the region. Some samples taken from agricultural products, arable land and drinking water show that the limit values ​​for heavy metals have been exceeded ten to one hundred times. Untreated water contaminated with heavy metals from the tunnels and from the tailings (deposited sludge residues) flows over streams to the Voghdschi. These polluted streams are diverted to the field irrigation and ensure the spread of heavy metals.

climate

Kapan
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     28   7th -13     32   8th -12     60   12 -8th     80   17th -1     96   22nd 4th     68   26th 8th     31   29 11     30th   29 11     43   24 7th     55   20th 1     40   13 -6     27   9 -10 Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: WMO

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Kapan Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 7.1 8.4 11.7 17.1 21.8 25.8 29.3 29.3 24.4 19.8 13.1 9.0 O 18.1 Min. Temperature (° C) -13.0 -12.0 -8.0 -1.0 4.0 8.0 11.0 11.0 7.0 1.0 -6.0 -10.0 O −0.6 Precipitation ( mm ) 28 32 60 80 96 68 31 30th 43 55 40 27 Σ 590 Rainy days ( d ) 7th 7th 11 12 15th 10 4th 4th 7th 8th 7th 6th Σ 98 Source: WMO

sons and daughters of the town

• Dawit Hambarzumjan (1956-1992), water diver
• Arzwik Harutjunjan (* 1984), singer
• Aram Manukian (1879–1919), resistance fighter and politician, born in the village of Zeyva, now Davit Bek, near the Baghaberd fortress

Web links

Commons : Kapan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Rick Ney: Siunik . (PDF; 1.6 MB) Tour Armenia, 2009, pp. 34–38

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.azatutyun.am/a/29561994.html (accessed January 4, 2020)
2. ↑ Halidzor Fortress . Armeniapedia
3. ^ Ian Lindsay, Adam T. Smith: A History of Archeology in the Republic of Armenia . In: Journal of Field Archeology, Vol. 31, No. 2, summer 2006, pp. 165-184, here p. 167
4. ^ Jewish Community of Armenia. The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
5. ^ Jacob Neusner: The Jews in Pagan Armenia . In: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 84, No. 3, July - September 1964, pp. 230-240, here p. 231
6. ↑ Dashdondog Bayarsaikhan: Submissions to the Mongol Empire by the Armenians. ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) In: Mongolian & Tibetan Quaterly , Vol. 18, No. 3, 2009, p. 76 
7. ↑ arms Aivazian: The Secret Meeting of Armenians on Lim Iceland in 1722: Concerning the Possible Involvement of Western Armenians in an All-Armenian Liberation Movement . In: Iran & the Caucasus , Vol. 5, 2001, pp. 85–92, here p. 85
8. ↑ poor M. Aivazian: The Armenian Rebellion of the 1720s and the Threat of Genocidal Reprisal. (PDF) American University of Armenia, Yerevan 1997, p. 11f
9. ↑ Knarik Meneshian: Exalted Purpose. The Armenian Weekly, December 10, 2013
10. ↑ Karekin Njhdeh Monument in Kapan. Asbarez, August 25, 2003
11. ^ RA 2001 Population and Housing Census Results. (PDF; 927 kB) armstat.am, p. 72
12. ^ RA Syunik Marz. Marzes of the Republic of Armenia in Figures 2009. (PDF; 284 kB) armstat.am, p. 260
13. ^ Stadium in Armenia. World stadiums
14. ^ Dundee Precious Metals Inc (DPM: Toronto).  ( Page no longer available , search web archives ) Bloomberg Business Week, March 31, 2014
15. ↑ Deno Gold Mining Company CJSC. Amcham in Armenia
16. ↑ Annual Report 2013. ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Dundee Precious Metals, p. 2, 16
17. ^ Company Overview of Dundee Precious Metals Kapan CJSC. Bloomberg, April 22, 2019
18. ↑ Kapan Shahumyan deposit . Data Metallogenica
19. ↑ OA Belzaeva: Impact of Mining Enterprises of the City of Kapan on Adjacent Agroecosystems. ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) 2012, pp. 26, 29
20. ↑ Yuri Suvaryan, Vardan Sargsyan, Arman Sargsyan: The Problem of Heavy Metal Pollution in the Republic of Armenia: Overview and Strategies of balancing Socioeconomic and Ecological Development . In: Lubomir I. Simeonov, Mihail V. Kochubovski, Biana G. Simeonova (Eds.): Environmental Heavy Metal Pollution and Effects on Child Mental Development. Risk Assessment and Prevention Strategies . Springer, Dordrecht 2011, p. 311f
21. ↑ arms Saghatelyana, Lilit Sahakyana, Olga Belyaevaa: Polluted Irrigation Waters as a risk factor to Public Health. ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) In: Chemistry Journal of Moldova. General, Industrial and Ecological Chemistry. 7 (2), 2012, pp. 84–88, here p. 85