Vanand

Vanand (Armenian: Վանանդ) is the area of historic Armenia that roughly corresponds to the Kars Province of present-day Turkey.

Named after the Armenian family of Vanandi (derived from the Bulgar chieftain Vund), it was a principality of the Kingdom of Armenia and a later province of the Democratic Republic of Armenia.

The region fell to numerous invaders including the Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Persians, and the Ottoman Turks.

After the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, the Russian Empire acquired the region at the Congress of Berlin.

The area still retained a substantial Armenian population, but after World War I, most of it was decimated during the Turkish-Armenian War in 1920.