This small district several times was the capital city of some ruling states . It was a main center of the province of Turuberan as part of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia . The city changed hands on several occasions between the Arabs and the Byzantines , in the early Middle Ages . In 1054 , while under Byzantine administration , it was captured and sacked by the Seljuk Turks after an eight-day siege . It was fortified in the early 14th century by the Ilkhanid vizier Ali Shah . Erciş was part of the Karakoyunlu state and later became a part of the Ottoman Empire . It was moved to a new location called Alada in 1841 , due to floods . After the Armenian Genocide in 1915 , the Russian forces captured the city as part of the Caucasus Campaign . They were replaced by Russian Armenian troops after December 1917 . These were eventually driven out by the Ottomans on April 1 , 1918
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Erciş