[4] The Aras is fed by several major tributaries, including the Arpa Çayı (also known as the Akhuryan), which gathers the waters from the Kars River and Lake Çıldır located in Turkey, the Hrazdan River, which empties into Lake Sevan in Armenia, and the Qareh Sū, originating from the Sabalān Mountains in northeastern Iranian Azerbaijan.

[10] The name was later Hellenized to Araxes and was applied to the Kura–Araxes culture, a prehistoric people who flourished in the valleys of the Kura and Aras.

[11] Robert H. Hewsen described Aras as the only "true river" of Armenia and as "Mother Araxes," a symbol of pride to the Armenian people.

[13] During Islamic times, the Araxes became known in Arabic parlance as al-Rass (not to be confused with modern-day Ar Rass) and in Perso-Turkish contexts as Aras.

[14] Because of these 19th-century border changes, one modern, not widely accepted scheme draws Aras River as the line of continental demarcation between Europe and Asia.

[16] In 2006, a bird research and education center was established by KuzeyDoğa, a Turkish non-governmental organization for nature conservation, in the Aras Valley at the village Yukarı Çıyrıklı, in the Tuzluca district of Iğdır Province, Turkey.

[18][19] A Biology professor at the University of Utah and a president of the KuzeyDoğa Society, Çağan Şekercioğlu, appealed to the Ministry of Forest and Water Management to drop the Tuzluca Dam project, which would destroy the wetland harboring bird wildlife in the Aras Valley.