Hanak
Encyclopedia
Hanak is a district of Ardahan Province
Ardahan Province
Ardahan Province is a province in the far north-east of Turkey, at the very end of the country, where Turkey borders with Georgia . The provincial capital is the city of Ardahan.- Geography :...

 of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 on the road from Ardahan
Ardahan
Ardahan is a city in northeastern Turkey, near the Georgian border.-Ancient and medieval:In Ancient times the region was called Gogarene, which is assumed to derive from the name of Gugars, who were a Proto-Kartvelian tribe...

 to Posof
Posof
Posof is a district of Ardahan Province of Turkey, in the far east of the country, 75 km from the city of Ardahan. It has a border crossing with neigboring Georgia at Türkgözü...

.

Hanak sits in the valley of the Hanak River with high mountains on all sides, Ilgar to the north being the highest at 2915m. The weather, like all districts of Ardahan, is very, very cold and dry especially on the mountainsides where the cold weather begins in September, the snow will not melt until May, avalanches are common and the road to Posof is frequently closed. In summers it rains.

Until the 18th century these mountains were covered in forest, but now they are bare hillsides apart from one or two patches of pine forest. The local economy depends on grazing cattle.

History

See Ardahan Province
Ardahan Province
Ardahan Province is a province in the far north-east of Turkey, at the very end of the country, where Turkey borders with Georgia . The provincial capital is the city of Ardahan.- Geography :...

 for the history of this area, including Hanak, long settled by the Kipchak branch of the Oghuz
Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion....

 Turks, apart from brief periods of occupation by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

in the late 19th and early 20th century.
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