Azerbaijanis. Government The ethnic make-up of Kars is also reflected in politics, with the Turks and Azerbaijanis often voting for the nationalist MHP and the Kurds often voting for the pro-Kurdish HDP. On 30 March 2014, Murtaza Karaçanta (MHP) was elected mayor. During the June 2015 elections, Kars was won by the pro-Kurdish HDP, becoming the largest political party in both the city and the province of Kars. The last elected mayor was Ayhan Bilgen from the HDP until he was deposed in October 2020. Climate Kars has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb, Trewartha: Dcb). It experiences significant seasonal and diurnal temperature variation, due to its location away from large bodies of water, its high elevation and location, where the high plateau of Eastern Anatolia converges with the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Summers are generally brief and quite warm with cool nights. The average high temperature in August is . Winters are very cold. The average low January temperature is , and temperatures can plummet to during the winter months. Kars experiences frequent and sometimes heavy snowfall, with four months of snow cover on average. Due to its geographical location, the city itself has a slightly milder climate compared to the surrounding region. Some hills and peaks in the province, especially around the Sarıkamış region, are subarctic (Köppen: Dfc, Trewartha: Ec) due to the higher elevation of the region. Summers and winters are colder in these areas, with winter temperatures reaching more regularly. Sports The town has a football club Kars S.K. Bandy, a sport which does not exist in Turkey today, was once played here. Education Kars hosts the Kafkas University, which was established in 1992. Transport Kars is served by a main highway from Erzurum, and lesser roads run north to Ardahan and south to Igdir. The town has an airport (Kars Harakani Airport), with daily direct flights to Ankara and Istanbul. Kars is served by a station on the Turkish Railways (TCDD) that links it to Erzurum. This line was originally laid when Kars was within the Russian Empire and connected the city to nearby Alexandropol and Tiflis, with a wartime, narrow-gauge extension running to Erzurum. Turkey's border crossings with Armenia, including the rail link, the Kars-Gyumri-Tbilisi railway, have regrettably been closed since April 1993. Turkey's border with Armenia was closed down after local Armenian forces occupied the Kalbajar District (adjacent to disputed Nagorno Karabakh) in