Ardahan

Ardahan is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border. Ardahan belonged to the Kingdom of Armenia during ancient and medieval times. It was located in the canton of Ardahan, which was a part of the province of Gugark'. In the ninth century, the city was taken by the Bagratuni princes of Artanuj. From the ninth to eleventh centuries, Ardahan was an important transit point for goods arriving from the Abbasid Caliphate and departing to the regions around the Black Sea.
Ardahan is one of the small provincial capitals in Turkey and was until 1993 a small town in the province of Kars. In 1993 the district was made a province, with Ardahan as its regional capital. This resulted in new investment in government buildings and services, but life in mountains that spend half the year under snow is still a struggle. There is also a substantial military presence in the town. The army still occupies the Ottoman fortress and it is inaccessible to visitors. The civil servants, academics, and military officers stationed in Ardahan help to support the local economy. These people have their own clubs and guest houses, while in the town itself there are still few social, cultural, and shopping amenities. There are hotels, mainly used by truck drivers and other travelers crossing into Georgia.