title: Tortum
text: Tortum () is a municipality and district of Erzurum Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,463 km2, and its population is 15,259 (2022). The current mayor is Muammer Yiğider from the Great Unity Party (BBP).
  
  History
  Tortum was part of the area known as Diaueni, Tayk or Tao and was ruled by Hayasa-Azzians, Diauehi, Urartians, Iberians, Armenians, Romans, Persians and Byzantines. Tortum was a part of some proto-Armenian states (Hayasa-Azzi; Urartu), proto-Georgian Kingdom of Iberia (4th - 2rd centuries BC) and Kingdom of Greater Armenia (2nd century BC - 5th century). Between the 9th and 16th century it was part of the Kingdom of the Iberians, Kingdom of Georgia and Georgian principality of Samtskhe-Saatabago. It was first an Ottoman vassal in the early 16th century and was annexed in 1550. The area of Tortum  was contested by the Safavids and the Ottoman Empire in the 16th-17th century but remained Ottoman after 1625. Georgians and Armenians made up the vast majority of the population in Tortum. During Georgian rule, half of the ethnic Armenian population became Chalcedonians and joined the Georgian Orthodox church, while the rest of the Armenians remained part of the Armenian church. Armenian cleric Hakop Karnetsi recorded in the 1650s that a man named Mullah Jaffar took census and placed heavy taxes in the region, causing the Armenian Chalcedonians to convert en-masse to Islam. Tortum was a sanjak in Erzurum Eyalet. The region was in the early Ottoman period largely Christian but acquired a Muslim majority in the mid 18th century, as Georgian population fled in inner provinces of Georgia. During World War I, Ottoman troops crossed Tortum in the disastrous Battle of Sarikamish. Then the Russians occupied the town and held it between 1915 and 1917. After the February revolution of 1917 they left it to the Armenians. The Ottoman army advanced some time later and captured Tortum on 16 March 1918. The town has a ruined citadel.
  
  The Muslim Armenians continued to speak Armenian well into early the 19th century when they were Turkified.
  
  Economy
  As of 1920, Tortum was producing coal.
  
  Composition
  There are 58 neighbourhoods in Tortum District:
  
   Akbaba
   Aksu
   Aktaş
   Alapınar
   Alpaslan
   Arılı
   Aşağı Serdarlı
   Bağbaşı
   Bahçeli
   Ballı
   Çakıllı
   Çamlıca
   Çardaklı
   Çataldere
   Çaylıca
   Çiftlik
   Cihanlı
   Çivilikaya
   Demirciler
   Derekapı
   Derinpınar
   Dikmen
   Doruklu
   Esendurak
   Gökdere
   Hamidiye
   İncedere
   Kaleboynu
   Kaledibi
   Kapıkaya
   Karlı
   Kazandere
   Kemerkaya
   Kireçli
   Kırmalı
   Konak
   Meydanlar
   Pehlivanlı
   Peynirli
   Şenyurt
   Serdarlı
   Sögütlü
   Suyatağı
   Taşbaşı
   Taşoluk
   Tatlısu
   Tipili
   Tortumkale
   Uzunkavak
   Vişneli
   Yağcılar
   Yamankaya
   Yavuz Sultan Selim
   Yazyurdu
   Yellitepe
   Yukarı Sivri
   Yumaklı
   Ziyaretli
  
  See also 
  Cağ kebabı
  Khakhuli Monastery
  Tortum Waterfall
  
  References
  
  External links 
  
  Populated places in Erzurum Province
  Historical regions of Georgia (country)
  Districts of Erzurum Province
  Metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey