Kars has been a seat of armenian culture and treasure since its foundation thousands of years ago, today, it lies in Turkey, for the last 9 decades, substancial efforts have been made to erase Armenian traces from the city, as its native armenian population was ethnically cleansed during the first genocide of the 20th century. Kurds and Turks were moved into the city to fill the vacant homes of the armenians. Today, the once prosperous Armenian city, is now one of the poorest towns in Anatolia, due to efforts to Undo what the Armenians had built. the new settlers were unable to preserve the trading network the natives had established, and the city has decayed for over 80 years, to add to this, the blockade on armenia by the Turkish government has harmed the fragile economy of what is now eastern 'turkey' by disallowing them to trade with the modern armenian state. here is a history of the armenians of Kars