Ardahan

• Un çorbası (flour soup)
• Kesma aşı
• Höre aşı
• Keleçoş
• Cinar çorbası
• Kelemkeşir çorbası
• Puşruk aşı
• Ayran çorbası (yoghurt soup)
• Süt çorbası (milk soup)
• Evelik çorbası (sorrel soup)

• Pışırık aşı
• İşkembe çorbası (tripe soup)

LOCAL FOLK DANCES
Almost the same dances are performed throughout Ardahan. The instruments are generally the davul and zurna, and in Caucasian dances the accordion and a drum called the nagara. The Ardahan area generally dances halay and bar-type dances. The social occasions on which they are danced include weddings, engagements, send-offs for conscripts, and occasions expressing feelings such as sorrow and joy. The main dances of our area are:

A. BAR DANCES B. SOLO DANCES
Ağır Bar Ondört
Sallama Şeyh Şamil
Temur Ağa Ay Gizi Bir Mezara Doldurur
Nare Beş Açılan
Lorke Karabat
Şeker Oğlan Hanım Yaylada
Sarı Seyran
Kaççıke
Tavuk Barı
Gazelo
Hoş Bilezik
Haran
Döne
Kıskanç
Kürdün Kızı
Ardahan'ın Yolları (Dümme)
Hafif Bar
Paşa Göçtü

THE ARDAHAN DIALECT

LEYAKIL DÜŞMEK: to be exhausted

ŞOGURT: drool

YEĞİN: hard-working, meticulous

ENDEZE OLMAK: to dawdle

TUSMAK: to cower

MURUSLARINI DÖKMEK: to pull a long face

YÜNGÜL: light

AĞZINI GÖZÜNÜ TUZ GİBİ YALAMAK: said of someone greatly missed

GOMBA DÖNMEK: to turn a somersault

GIGIL YÜZLÜ: said of someone with a small face

HERSLENMEK: to get angry

ABURSUZ: disgraceful

PÜRÇEK: lock of hair

GOLOP: wooden yoghurt pot

SİTİL: yoghurt pot

GAGAÇ: said of a thin person

BİTİG: puppy

CİRTAKOZ: mad

GANFET: boiled sweet

FARS: bad, disgraceful woman

ÇAĞILDAMAK: to laugh

CİCİP: sores at the corner of the mouth and on the face

TEŞT: basin

GEŞLENMEK: to freeze, to feel cold

SOYHA, ANDIR, MERET: said of ill-omened things

HINGILIM ATMAK: pointless moves and tasks

KÖÇMEK: to marry

DILDIBIL: stark naked

GURUĞ TAVUK: broody hen

HARO: larder, granary

OBBAZ: useless idler

SEĞİRTMEK: to hurry

PELLÜK: hopscotch

YAŞIK: wooden crate

GOPPAL: big nose

PORTLAK: bulging-eyed

VEDRA: bucket

BİBİ: paternal aunt

CUCUL: chick

DOY DOY: pigeon

PEŞ GÜN: dining spread

GUŞGANA: cooking pot

CİNCAR: stinging nettle

ZIRZA: latch lock

BİJLİ: pointed

PALAZ: cloth

HERZAL: wheelless handcart

ZAĞAR: small dog

İSTOL: low floor chair

GIJİK: curly hair

ÇİRNAĞ: nail

YEKTİ: orphan

MUÇURLAMAK: to crumple

ŞARILDAYAN: lightning

COPLANMAK: to swell

PEŞKİR: towel

GIDİK: kid (young goat)

GUDİK: small dog

KARTOPU: potato

BİŞKA: match

CAMUŞ: water buffalo

LAZUT: maize

BEDASIL: base-born

TEVÜR: kind, sort

GUNÇUL: tip

GULLEP: hinge

GODET: broom handle

GOTİK: buffalo calf

GAGAL: eye

SEKÜ: divan

FURĞUN: ox cart

KOR ARABA: solid-wheeled ox cart

GAŞGA: horse cart

İŞKAP: cupboard

CİCE: eldest sister

GİZLENGUGİ: hide-and-seek

BEYABUR: disgraceful

BAÇ ETMEK: to kiss

GIJGIRMAK: (of yoghurt) to sour

HARMUTLAMAK: to warm water

GİDİL: small

PİŞİK: cat

MOZİK: yearling calf

GARABAN: entrance of a village house

KERSEN: dough trough

GODA: big die

FANTİ: playing cards

HERG: ploughed field

HAROS: fallow field

PULUL: haystack

GALAMAK: to burn

GALAK: pile of dung cakes

KOTETE: stool

CEMSE: military convoy

KAVÇAL: long jaw

NİGART: hen's beak

TAR: hen roost

ÇİMMEK: to bathe

TEREK: shelf

GUZUK: hunchbacked

DILLO: flighty

ÇIKMAK: to tear

GATAKLAMAK: to chase away

MURUSLARINI DÖKME: to pull a long face

MÜRGÜLEMEK: to sleep

GAJ GÖZ: blue-grey eyes

CİNDAL: kitten

GORUĞÇU: field guard

LOBYE: beans

GIJO: pine cone

BED: ugly

CANCUR: plum

LIBBIZ: penniless, broke

KAYIŞ: belt

TELLÜK: woollen skullcap

MİNTAN: shirt

ÇENKÜRMEK: (of a small dog) to yap

GOCİK: coat

ŞOŞARTMAK: to exaggerate

ŞUŞLANMAK: to lie about too long

AĞBUN: manure

AKHORA: a place nearby

BADİYE: wide-mouthed bowl

BULUZ: dress

CİCLOBA: stye

ÇİNÇAVAT: miser

DEYHORA: pointer word for somewhere far

GÜZGİ: mirror

ĞUĞUN: crying

HELHEL: scatterbrained person

AGOZ: furrow left by the plough

JUJUN: pleasant itch

KERSEN: dough trough

KOLOPA: hollowed-out container

KÜSGİ: wooden pole

GARAVUL: watchman

LÖK: big

PÖRÇÜK: where the scythe blade is tied to its handle

SOKO: mushroom

SAKO: sleeveless jacket

ŞÜŞİT: funnel

ŞİNEL: overcoat

ŞÖHE: black bead

TAPUL, PULUL: bundle of hay

TAT: heel of a sock

TORHOLA: egg without a shell

TIĞ: heap of straw and grain

DINAZA: mockery

ÜLEŞMEK: to share out

YABA: five-pronged wooden pitchfork

ZAĞ: sharp, pointed

ZABUN: poor

ZANGAL: long footless sock

ZEDA: unploughed edge of a field

GUZUK: hunchbacked

ZURGANA: crooked-bodied

ZENNE: woman

ZUBUN: shirt

POCİLEMEK: to strike an axe on stone

MÜRGÜLEME: to doze off while sitting

TAĞAYİRLENME: to faint

CENÇİKLERİN GEVŞEDİ: you liked it

SINAMA: trying, testing

LOCAL LEGENDS

THE LEGEND OF THE UĞUZ STONE ON THE KURA
Between the village of Nekeleye in Ahıska and Hırtıs, on the Kura river coming from Ardahan, there is a cut stone called the Uğuz stone, as tall as two doors. Two brothers of the Uğuz people cut this stone, as big as a great rock, from a quarry and brought it here to build a bridge. After cutting the stone and setting it on the bank of the Kura, they went home for lunch. Meanwhile, a man who was small compared with the Uğuz came to their house as a guest. The Uğuz horse's nosebag held a somar (about 320–330 kg) of barley. Having filled the horse's nosebag, which to the Uğuz looked like a huge kilim, the small man, not strong enough to lift it, made the horse lower its head and easily slipped the barley-filled bag over it. Seeing this, the Uğuz mother said to her sons: "In the end, these people will take over the world and eat it up." Having seen with their own eyes, in the nosebag incident, how the small man achieved great things with his strength, the two Uğuz brothers gave up building the stone bridge they had wanted over the Kura. Later those tall, giant Uğuz died out over time because of their naivety and their lack of guile. The Uğuz rarely slept, they say, but when they did they slept for seven days without a break; the saying "he has lain down to an Uğuz's sleep" comes from this.

THE OLD CITY AT THE BOTTOM OF LAKE ÇILDIR
Long ago there was a city at the bottom of Lake Çıldır. Its lord lived at Akçakala. This city, built in a hollow, had a fountain with nine twist taps. The lord said, "Those who draw water from the fountain day and night must never forget to close it, or the city will flood." The men and women of the city obeyed this command. One day, as evening darkness fell, a girl filling water at the fountain was told the good news that her elder brother, who had been away for seven years, had come home. Filling water from one of the nine taps, the girl ran home in her joy and forgot to close the tap. That dark night, as water flooded the houses in the low ground, the place of the nine-tap fountain could no longer be seen. When those whose houses were a little higher realised what was happening, they fled uphill, holding their children by the hand, taking nothing with them. The next day only the dome of the church could be seen, and by evening that too was under water. Those who escaped the city alive came to the island of Akçakala. Lake Çıldır came into being from the water of that nine-tap fountain at its bottom. If the lake's outflow did not run from Taşbaşı (in the south) towards Zarşat, Akçakala island and the other villages would have been flooded too.

THE LEGEND OF THE UĞUZ MEADOW AND UĞUZ MOUNTAIN
The old people say that even before the Georgians, before the Cınıvız (Genoese-Romans) appeared, a people of very large build called the Uğuz (Oğuz) lived on Uğuz Mountain and the highland pastures around it. These Uğuz had a lord who owned the whole of Ardahan and Akhalkalaki, also called Cavk, and Zegan (the Ilgar and Cin Dağı areas of Posof and the foothills of the Arsiyan mountains on the Şavşat border). The winter quarters on and around Uğuz Mountain and on the Kura were this lord's private pasture. The other mountains and places mentioned were then all pine and forest. Every summer the lord had the Uğuz meadow beside Uğuz Mountain, from which 300 cartloads of hay were cut each year, mown by one Uğuz. The mower was a very big man who spent the summers here. This Uğuz would both mow and stack the 300 cartloads of hay from the meadow in a single day. One summer day, while he was mowing with his scythe, his sister brought him his lunch. Working away in the heat, the Uğuz, the steam of his sweat clouding his eyes, worked furiously in a thick patch of the meadow. He did not see his sister approaching with the saddlebag of lunch on her shoulder, and cut her in two along with the grass without even noticing. When he reached the end of the row and tried to strike the whetstone he took from his belt against his scythe, he saw that the scythe was red with blood. Lamenting, "Have I killed an animal?", he went straight back along the row, and what should he see but that he had cut his sister, who had brought his lunch, in two. In his fury he struck the whetstone on the ground, and half of the whetstone, made of white stone, stuck into the meadow; the part still above ground today is taller than a man. Beating his hands on the ground and dropping his scythe, he quickly joined the two halves of his sister and buried her at the foot of the whetstone. Then in his grief he climbed to the top of Uğuz Mountain and died there.

THE LEGEND OF THE BULLET SOLDIER
A heroic Mehmetçik (Turkish soldier) is on guard at the border post at Secede in Posof district. He hears sounds, and the enemy appears on the hill opposite. He fires his rifle so his comrades will hear, but before they arrive the enemy surrounds him. The Russians are met with a hail of bullets. This village came to be called "Kurşun Çavuş" (Bullet Sergeant).

THE LEGEND OF TEKÇAM (THE LONE PINE)
In the mountains of the village of Ovapınar, attached to our provincial centre, a forested area disappeared over time, but nobody touched one pine tree. Local people, who saw candles burning around the tree at night, believed the pine was sacred and came here to make wishes. One day, however, a man from one of the nearby villages decided to cut the tree down. He came to the tree and began chopping with his axe, and blood flowed from where the axe struck. Determined to cut the tree, the man did not give up; he felled it and took it home. That evening rain such as had never been seen fell on the area, and a flood swept through the man's village. The flood carried away only this man's house and family and harmed no one else. Today a fountain called "Tekçam" flows where the tree stood, and when there is no rain the local people come here to pray for rain.

THE HOCA
In the old days hocas (religious teachers) were not paid a salary. Three hocas were guests at a house, and supper was light. One of them got hungry after the night prayer and pretended to talk in his sleep:
"Three mullahs have come to the door, send a gift to your friend, let halva come for the night, topar laha," he said. The host replied:
"What you say is right, but we don't have that. Tuck your turban under your arm. Talk in your sleep, go on, talk in your sleep."

THE RAFTERS
A man on his deathbed called his children and said:
- When I die, cover my grave with old mertek (the timbers used to roof houses).
His children said the villagers would not approve and it would be a disgrace for them, but the man said that if they did not carry out his will he would not give them his blessing, and some time later he died. So his children carried out their father's will and covered the grave with old rafters.
Angels came to the buried man and said they would hold his first questioning. Ready for them, the man scolded the angels:
- What kind of business is this, brother, how many times do we have to give account? Don't you remember me? Can't you see these boards on top of me? he said, and sent the angels away.

BUJLANMA
A man whose mother fell ill took his very elderly mother to the doctor. Examining her, the doctor asked the old woman:
- What's the trouble, auntie?
The old woman said:
- My feet are bujlaniyir, son.
Understanding nothing of this local term, the doctor then asked her son, who said:
- What she means, doctor, is: my feet are gejerleniyir, I can't stand up straight.

Gejerlenme / bujlanma = numbness

FOLK SONGS

DİMME

On the roads of Ardahan
Roses bloom in its gardens
I loved such a sweetheart
When I was thirteen or fourteen. Alas, dimme dimme, coy love, dimme
I'm drunk already, don't you pour me wine. I saw Dimme by the stream
I had some good from her hand
I kissed twice, I loved once
And from her I saw faithfulness too. Alas, dimme dimme, coy love, dimme
I'm drunk already, don't you pour me wine. Light the samovar
Take the tongs and stir it
My love has gone off sulking with me
Make her make up with me. Alas, dimme dimme, coy love, dimme
I'm drunk already, don't you pour me wine. I set the samovar red-hot
I turned the sugar to honey
Thinking that love would come
I sacrificed a ram. Alas, dimme dimme, coy love, dimme
I'm drunk already, don't you pour me wine.

BU GELEN NAHIR MIDIR (IS THIS THE HERD COMING?)

Is this the herd coming, ay maral maral maral (doe)
Is it the grain being gathered, are you a girl or a bride, maral
They said your love is coming, ay maral maral maral
Is the stopping place near, are you a girl or a bride, maral

A doe roams on this mountain, ay maral maral maral
She combs her hair as she roams, are you a girl or a bride, maral
The mountain is ours, the doe is ours, ay maral maral maral
What is a hunter doing here, are you a girl or a bride, maral

GÖLELİ GELİN (THE BRIDE FROM GÖLE)

Tell me, what have you seen of Göle?
You have seen the height of sixty girls and brides
You have seen the sheep that strayed from the flock. Bride from Göle, bride with hennaed hands
Bride from Göle, graceful bride
Bride with kohl-lined brows and eyes, bride with all ten fingers hennaed
The mountains of Göle, with vineyards and oaks
Inside them grow roses and violets
Parting from one's love is a hard thing. Bride from Göle, graceful bride
Bride with kohl-lined brows and eyes, bride with all ten fingers hennaed
If I went among them, what would they say?
They mock the ones they don't love. Bride from Göle, graceful bride
Bride with kohl-lined brows and eyes. The mountains of Göle can't be crossed for snow
Its waters are so cold you can't drink a bowlful. Bride from Göle, graceful bride
Bride with all ten fingers hennaed.

ÇAYDA ÇINAR AĞACI (TELLO) (THE PLANE TREE BY THE STREAM)

A plane tree by the stream, tello
Two sisters walk as a pair, tello
The elder is so-so, tello
The younger is a cure for the soul, tello. Hop tello, dear tello, dear tello
You've set me on fire, beautiful dear tello. A fish swims sideways in the water, tello
Don't open my wound, blood will flow, tello
What can a doctor do for this, tello
Death has come, the soul is going, tello. Hop tello, dear tello, dear tello
You've set me on fire, beautiful dear tello. On the bank of the Arpa stream, tello
Its lantern flowed and went out, tello
I can't bear this sorrow alone, tello
Let's share it half and half, tello

Hop tello, dear tello, dear tello
You've set me on fire, beautiful dear tello

ARDAHAN

How shall I praise you, Ardahan?
Your flat plain is wide, I want to roam it
When spring comes, the meadows open up
Like a rose garden, all kinds of flowers bloom. Anatolia lives on your butter and cheese.
Your herds and sheep come flock by flock
The highland pastures are yours, they gladden the heart
Your girls and brides join the halay and dance. The dadaş sing until morning, the drummer plays
Your highland water flows cool, spreading joy
Nuri said these words this way.
He roamed mountain and corner and gladdened his heart.

TOYUĞUM (MY HEN)

My hen was white, my child
Her skin was full of fat, my child
This time yesterday she was alive, my child
Curse the one who caught my hen
Woe to the one who stole my hen. My hen was speckled
Her wings were feather by feather.
She wasn't a hen, she was an elephant.
Curse the one who caught my hen.
Woe to the one who stole my hen. Aunt Zübeyde went up on the roof
She looked right, she looked left
She caught the hen and threw it in the pot.
Curse the one who caught my hen.
Woe to the one who stole my hen.

LAMENTS

THE ARDAHAN LAMENT OF 1915

They scattered Ardahan
They took ten thousand gold pieces in cash
Some fled by night,
Some drank poison,
The delicate girls and brides,
Blizzards blocked their way,
Mosque and masjid filled with wailing
"Agop" and "İvan" slaughtered the people,
They killed all the men,
The roses that had bloomed withered
They summoned its beys
Ardahan burned for its sins
You burned in disgrace, Ardahan
The snowy mountains opened in the night
What days you have seen, Ardahan
Where is your merriment, Ardahan?
The Cossacks bent your back
Where are your girls and brides, Ardahan?
Home of orphans, Ardahan
A court was set up there,
Where are your rich, Ardahan?
Ardahan that loved its guests
You ache at the sight of the Cossacks,
What you have seen, Ardahan
You have been laid waste, Ardahan

Source: Ardahan Governor's Office

The province's history: The oldest written document of Ardahan's history is the conquest inscription that the Urartian king Sarduri II (753–735 BC) had carved on the cliff at the village of Taşköprü, south-west of Lake Çıldır. The first Turkish settlement in the area began in 720 BC with the arrival of the Cimmerians, ancestors of the Kipchaks. In AD 628 the Arda Turks, a branch of the Khazar Turks and the source of the name Ardahan, took the area. Conquered by Alp Arslan in 1069 and brought under Seljuk rule, Ardahan joined the Ottoman Empire in 1551. Located in the upper Kura basin, the Ardahan, Göle, Hanak and Çıldır area formed the Ottoman “ARDAHAN SANJAK” until the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, known as the 93 War. The term “sanjak” (liva) then corresponded to today's “province” (il, vilayet).

Ardahan, which suffered Russian occupation in 1828–1855, was ceded to Russia by the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, together with Kars and Batumi as the “Elviye-i Selâse” (the three provinces), in lieu of war reparations. During this period of captivity there were uprisings in Ardahan here and there, but they were bloodily suppressed. Ardahan was returned to the Ottomans by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed in 1918, ending 40 years of Russian rule. The joy of the first liberation of April 1918 in the three sanjaks officially called the “Elviye-i Selâse” did not last more than six months: after our army withdrew under the Armistice of Mudros, signed on 30 October 1918, the area was occupied by Armenians and Georgians. Ardahan then joined the provisional government called the Milli Şura (National Council), set up in Kars on 5 November 1918 as our first Müdafaa-i Hukuk (Defence of Rights) organisation, and for six months fought the Armenians to the east and the Georgians to the north. The Milli Şura government rejected the terms of the Mudros Armistice, and the 1st Ardahan Congress (3–5 January 1919) and 2nd Ardahan Congress (7–9 January 1919) opened the road to liberation. Ardahan was liberated from enemy occupation on 23 February 1921 by our army under Kâzım Karabekir Pasha and Halit Pasha.

Made a mutasarrıflık (sub-province) on 7 July 1921, Ardahan became a district attached to Kars province by Law No. 877 in 1926. In response to public demand and in view of developments in the region following the dissolution of the USSR, it regained provincial status by Law No. 3806 of 27 May 1992.

Source: http://www.ardahan.bel.tr/sayfa/28/ardahan-tarihi.html

Ardahan can be reached by air or by road. The nearest airport is Kars Harakani Airport, 89 kilometres away. From there you can reach Ardahan by hiring a car or by going to the bus station and taking a bus. For those travelling by bus, many bus companies run services to Ardahan from big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir. Istanbul to Ardahan is 1,456 kilometres (about 16 hours), Ankara to Ardahan 1,100 kilometres (about 13 hours) and İzmir to Ardahan 1,690 kilometres (about 19 hours). By road, Ardahan can also be reached from the Black Sea coast road via Artvin and Şavşat. By rail, the Doğu Express from Ankara takes you to Kars, from where you continue to Ardahan by road.

Ardahan's economy relies heavily on livestock. Most farms keep animals, mainly cattle, and the extensive pastures and highland meadows are the basis of this activity.

The cold climate limits crop production; farming focuses mainly on staple crops such as potatoes, wheat and barley.

Dairy products are among the region's best-known assets. Much of the cheese known as Kars kaşarı is produced in Ardahan, especially in Göle. Goose meat and organic dairy products also stand out. Beekeeping is practised, but honey yield per colony is below the Turkish average.

Industry and tourism are limited; because of the cold climate and unemployment, the region has long seen people move away.