Gürpınar is a municipality and district of Van Province, Turkey. With an area of 4028 km2, Gürpınar is the second-largest district of Turkey, after Karaman District. Its population is 31,865 (2022). The town Gürpınar is located 20 km south of the provincial capital Van. The district has several places of historical interest. The current mayor is Hayrullah Tanış from the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The current kaymakam Fatih Sayar was appointed in August 2019.

Name

The area's old Armenian name is Hayots Dzor (, meaning "Valley of the Armenians"). Its Kurdish name is Payizava; however, the Armenian-derived Xawesor is also used. The titular village of Gürpınar itself was also known to Armenians as Kghzi (, meaning "island", due to it being surrounded by the Shamiram Canal).

History

In Armenian mythology, Hayots Dzor is the valley where the Armenian progenitor Hayk defeated the army of the invading Babylonian king Bel and constructed a fortress (Haykaberd) nearby. In the Middle Ages, the area was a part of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan, ruled by the Artsruni dynasty of Armenian kings. The village of Kghzi had 241 Armenian and 11 Kurdish inhabitants in 1909 (the wider region of Hayots Dzor was home to about 10,000 Armenians before the Armenian genocide). The Armenian population was massacred or displaced during the Armenian genocide; some of the inhabitants managed to flee and settle in Eastern Armenia.

Historical places

Composition

There are 79 neighbourhoods in Gürpınar District: