Selmas

In the vicinity of Selmas in ancient times was the city of Zarehavan, which was part of Ancient Armenia . In the X century, the city was part of the Armenian state of Vaspurakan . In the XIII century, the city was almost completely destroyed by the Mongols, but Vezir Ali Shah restored it as a fortress and survived a new heyday ^[2] . In 1281, Selmas was mentioned as the diocese of the Assyrian Church of the East ^[3] . Subsequently, he passed under the rule of the Timurids , Kara-Koyunlu , Ak-Koyunlu , the Ottoman Empire and the Safavids . In the 19th century, Armenians continued to make up 2/3 of the city’s population. Today it has a population of 79,560 people, consisting mainly of Kurds and Azerbaijanis . In the past, a large number of Christians ( Armenians , Assyrians ) lived in the city and its environs, who first emigrated to the borders of the Russian Empire , and then to the West, and Kurdistan Jews . In the 19th and early 20th centuries, a significant part of the Armenian population of Nakhichevan was immigrants from Selmas ^[4] .

Located near the northwestern tip of Lake Urmia , at an altitude of 1396 m above sea level ^[5] .

• Kishveri - Azerbaijani poet of the 16th century
• Gukas V Salmastezi - Catholicos of all Armenians from 1545 to 1567
• Mike Agassi - Iranian boxer of Armenian descent
• Raffi - 19th century Armenian writer