Aras River Valley

Overview

A taxi trip from either Jolfa or Kaleybar through the sublime mountain scenery of the Aras River Valley should not be missed. Rarely in the world can you travel along such a sensitive international frontier so steeped in history and riven by geology.
The Aras River is the Bible’s River Gi-hon. For millennia its valley formed a thor-oughfare for traders, armies and holy men. Only with the treaties of 1813 and 1828 did Russia and Persia turn it into a border line, and mud fortifications remain from the 18th century conflicts that led to its division.
But today the tension is east–west, not north–south. Clearly visible on the Aras’ northern bank are ruined villages, sad signs of the still-unresolved 1989–94 Armenia–Azerbaijan war. What a difference 50m makes: it’s fine to drive along the southern (ie Iranian) riverbank as a casual tourist (though taking photos isn’t advised), but travelling along the parallel northern bank’s now severed train line would be unthinkable folly. That line crosses two globally forgotten front lines: from Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan) to its mortal enemy Armenia, on through Kara-bagh (Armenian-occupied Azeri territory), and then back through minefields to Azerbaijan again. There’s not been active fighting for over a decade, but the guard posts, bombed-out trains and barricaded tunnels add a considerable geopolitical frisson to the valley’s great natural beauty.

Aras Valley

In 2006, a bird research and education center was established by KuzeyDoğa Society, 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. It is one of Turkey’s two bird ringing stations that remain active yearly. Between 2006 and 2015, more than 65,000 birds of 198 species were ringed and 258 bird species were observed at this station. Fifty-five percent of the 471 bird species found in Turkey are recorded at this wetland, making it Turkey’s most important wetland for birds. The number of ringed and observed 258 bird species comprises 85 percent of the 303 bird species in Iğdır Province. Seven new bird species were observed during the bird ringing activities in 2012 alone, including the raptor Shikra or Little Banded Goshawk (Accipiter badius), which was new to Turkey’s avifauna.