A part of Persia's Erivan Khanate, Surmali was annexed by the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Turkmenchay in the aftermath of the Russo-Persian War of 1826-28. The district was first administered as part of the Armenian Oblast and then the Erivan Governorate. In 1829, Baltic German explorer Friedrich Parrot of the University of Dorpat (Tartu) traveled to Surmali as part of his expedition to climb Mount Ararat. Accompanied by Armenian writer Khachatur Abovian and four others, Parrot made the first ascent of Ararat in recorded history from the Armenian monastery of St. Hakob in Akhuri (modern Yenidoğan). After the Russian Revolution, Surmali was briefly governed by the First Republic of Armenia. However, the district was later ceded to Turkey by the Soviet Union in the treaties of Moscow and Kars.