Kars Culture & Art Association

Kars


The address is an unpromising paint shop ('Yeni Akçay Kol. Şir.'). However, if you can find him in, the shop's owner is local historian Vedat Akçayöz who maintains a small library and museum about the Molokan ('milk-drinker') and Doukhobor ('spirit wrestler') spiritual Christian sects.

These peaceful Christian groups, who don't use icons or formal churches, were essentially driven into internal exile within the Russian empire during the 19th century and, after the Russo-Turkish War (1878), some Molokans settled in the Kars area (see www.molokane.org/places/Turkey). Vedat's own grandmother was Molokan, he speaks reasonable English and is also a published authority on the 'underground city' below the main monumental area at Ani.