Urmia

Urmia, Uromieh, Uromiyeh, Oroomieh, Orumiyeh, or Orumiye (ارومیه in Persian), previously Rezaieh or Rezaiyeh (رضائیه), is a city (1991 pop. 357,399) in northwestern Iran, and the capital of the West Azarbaijan province; situated on the western side of Lake Urmia.

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The name "Urmia" is thought to have come from Aramaic, the language of the city's Assyrian founders. Ur, meaning "cradle", and mia, meaning "water". Hence, Urmia, situated by a lake and surrounded by rivers, is the cradle of water.

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Urmia was captured by Oghuz Turks in the 11th century, sacked by the Seljuk Turks in 1184, and was later occupied a number of times by the Ottoman Turks.

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Today, most inhabitants of Urmia are Iranian Azerbaijani Turks and Kurds, but other minoritites like Armenians, Persians and Assyrians also live there. Some people believe that the prophet Zoroaster has risen from Urmia.

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Oromiyeh University has a large accredited college of Agriculture. Urmia is situated in a fertile region where fruit (apples and grapes) and tobacco are grown. Many families have apple plantations of various sizes.

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Urmia consists of five parts: Urmia, Oshnaviyeh, Naghadeh, Somay Baradoost, and Silvan.

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Historically, Urmia had always been a Orthodox Christian city, largely due to the city's Assyrian inhabitants. Iran's first Christian mission was established in Urmia in 1835. After half a century of American Christian missionary work in Iran, the growing numbers of missionaries created need for the United States to establish diplomatic relations with Iran. The first US Minister arrived in June 1883. US consulates were established at Tehran and Tabriz, but elsewhere American missionaries continued to depend on Great Britain for consular assistance. At the turn of the 20th century, Christians still made up more than 40% of Urmia's population, though most fled in July 1918, when the Ottoman Empire launched a campaign to recapture Iranian Azerbaijan from the Russian forces.

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Urmia is also where the first ever traces of wine among any civilization were found.

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Iran's first Homeopathy course was run at the University of Urmia by Dr Masud Naaseri.

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Persian: Persian can refer to:...

Iran: Iran (Persian: ?????) is a Middle Eastern country located in Southwest Asia bordering Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkmenistan to the north, Pakistan and Afghanistan to the east, Turkey and Iraq to the west. Although locally known as Iran at least since the Sassanian period, until 1935 the country was ...

West Azarbaijan: West Azarbaijan (آذربایجان غربی in Persian) is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. It should not be confused with the western part of the Republic of Azerbaijan....