[3] Nearby cities include Erzurum, Sivas, Tunceli, Bingöl, Elazığ, Malatya, Gümüşhane, Bayburt, and Giresun.

[2] In the settlement of Erez, at a yet unidentified site, there was a pre-Christian shrine dedicated to the Armenian goddess Anahit.

A text of Agathangelos reports that during the first year of his reign, King Trdat of Armenia went to Erez and visited Anahit's temple to offer sacrifice.

When Gregory refused, he was taken captive and tortured, starting the events that would end with Trdat's conversion to Christianity some 14 years later.

This was the time of greatest splendour of Acilisene, which ended with the decisive defeat of the Byzantines by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

It was there, in the summer of 1500, that about 7,000 Qizilbash forces, consisting of the Ustaclu, Shamlu, Rumlu, Tekelu, Zhulkadir, Afshar, Qajar and Varsak tribes, responded to the invitation of Ismail I,[15] who would aid in him establishing his dynasty.

[17] According to the General Census of 1881/82, the sanjak of Erzincan within the Erzurum vilayet had a total population of 107,090, consisting of 85,943 Muslims and 19,026 Armenians, 1,887 Greeks and 234 Protestants.

[18] Vital Cuinet's research dating to 1893 show that there were 23,000 people in the centre of Erzincan of which 15,000 were Muslims and 7,500 were Armenian.

[21] However, Miller and Kévorkian's research state that the Armenians in the centre of Erzincan were more than double the census data.

[22][23][24] During this period, at least 150,000 Armenian men, women and children from Erzincan and surrounding areas[clarification needed - possible contradiction] were transported by Turkish forces between 1915 and 1916 through Erzincan proper, where a series of transit camps were set up to control the flow of victims to the concentration camp and killing site at the nearby Kemah gorge.

Winter's work state that between 1915 and 1917, the Central Hospital of Erzincan was the primary site of medical experiments conducted by Turkish army physicians on Armenian civilians involving typhus and other lethal infectious agents.

They then gained the heights of Naglika and took a Turkish position on the banks of the Durum Durasi river, with their cavalry breaking through the Boz-Tapa-Meretkli line.

Despite the strategic advantages gained from this victory, Yudenich made no more significant advances and his forces were reduced due to Russian reverses further north.

Arshak Djamalian who was a Bolshevik soldier, called Kurdish, Turkish, and Armenian representatives to take charge of the administration of Erzincan Soviet.

The city witnessed a state of "indescribable panic" as Armenian soldiers evacuated Erzincan towards Erzurum.

Meanwhile, Armenian fedayeen fought "ferociously" in rearguard actions, while the under-equipped and famished Ottoman army found sustenance and weaponry in abandoned Russian arsenals and reserves.

So extensive was the damage to Erzincan city that its old site was entirely abandoned, and a new town was founded a little further to the north.

Erzincan is divided into the neighborhoods of Akşemsettin, Aktoprak, Akyazı, Aslancak, Arslanlı, Atatürk, Aziz Baba, Bahçelievler, Barbaros, Barış, Başbağlar, Başpınar, Bayrak, Bozyazı, Buğdaylı, Bulutlu, Büyük Çakırman, Cemal Gürsel, Cumhuriyet, Çarşı, Çukurkuyu, Davarlı, Demetevler, Demirkent, Dereyurt, Ergenekon, Ersevenler, Ertuğrul Gazi, Esentepe, Fatih, Gazi, Gölcük, Gülalibey, Güllüce, H.Ahmet Yesevi, Halitpaşa, Hamidiye, Hancı, Hocabey, Hürrempalangası, Işıkpınar, İnönu, İzzetpaşa, Karaağaç, Kavakyolu, Kazımkarabekir, Keklikkayası, Kızılay, Kurutilek, Menderes, Mengüceli, Mimarsinan, Munzur, Mustafa Kemal Paşa, Osman Gazi, Osmanlı, Özgürlük, Paşa, Sancak, Sarıgöl, Selçuklu, Şehit Cengiz Topel, Şehit Serhat, Şehit Serhat Yurtbaşı, Taksim, Terzibaba, Ulalar, Üçkonak, Yalnızbağ, Yavuzselim, Yeni, Yenidoğan and Yunusemre.