Van Province

Van Province (Van ili, Parezgêha Wanê, Armenian: Վանի մարզ) is a province in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey, between Lake Van and the Iranian border. It is 19,069 km2 in area and had a population of 1,128,749 at the end of 2022. Its adjacent provinces are Bitlis to the west, Siirt to the southwest, Şırnak and Hakkâri to the south, and Ağrı to the north. The capital of the province is the city of Van, with a population of 525,016 at the end of 2022. The second-largest city is Erciş, with 92,945 inhabitants at end 2022. The province is considered part of Western Armenia by Armenians and was part of ancient province of Vaspurakan. The region is considered to be the cradle of Armenian civilization. Before the Armenian genocide, Van Province was part of six Armenian vilayets. A majority of the province's modern day population is Kurdish. The province is mainly populated by Kurds and considered part of Turkish Kurdistan. The province had a significant Armenian population until the genocide in 1915. In the 1881—1882 Ottoman census, the sanjak of Van had a population of 113,964 of which was Armenian and Muslim. In the 1914 census, the sanjak had a population of 172,171 of which was Muslim and Armenian. The remaining population was Nestorian Assyrians at and Chaldean Assyrians at . In the first Turkish census in 1927, Kurdish was the most-spoken first language in Van Province (which included Hakkari Province until 1945) at while Turkish remained the second most-spoken first language at . Other languages enumerated included Hebrew at and Arabic at . In the same census, Muslims comprised of the population and the remaining being Jews. In the subsequent census in 1935, Kurdish stood at and Turkish at . Other smaller languages included Circassian at , Hebrew at , Arabic at . Muslims remained the largest denomination at , Jews stood at and Christians at . In 1945, Kurdish stood at and Turkish at , while of the population was Muslim. In 1955, Kurdish and Turkish remained the two most spoken languages at and , respectively.