Doğubayazıt (Kurdish: Bazîd;[2] Armenian: Պայազատ, romanized: Payazat or Դարոյնք, Daruynk)[3] is a town of Ağrı Province of Turkey, near the border with Iran.

[1] Also known as Kurdava,[5][6] the town was the capital of the self-declared Republic of Ararat, an independent Kurdish state centered in the Ağrı Province.

Princes of the Bagratid dynasty of Armenia resided at Daroynk and rebuilt the fortress into its present configuration with multiple baileys and towers carefully integrated into the ascending rock outcrop.

[10] It was subsequently conquered and reconquered by Persians, Armenians, Byzantines, and Seljuks all of whom would have used the plain to rest and recoup during their passages across the mountains.

The castle of Daroynk was repaired many times throughout this history, although it is now named after the Turkish warlord Celayırlı Şehzade Bayazıt Han who ordered one of the rebuildings (in 1374).

Doğubayazıt was the capital of the Kurdish Republic of Ararat led by Ibrahim Haski and Ihsan Nuri of the Xoybûn organization between 1927 and 1930.

[14] The town was thus dubbed the provisional capital of Kurdistan and was subsequently presented to the League of Nations and the Great Powers as the center of an independent Kurdish state.