Urmia (also Wurmę), previously called Rezaiyeh, is a Kurdish city in northwestern Iran, and the capital of the West Azarbaijan province, situated on the western side of Lake Urmia. Its population in 2005 is estimatd at 602,403. 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. Urmia is a biethnic and bilingual city. The Kurds comprise the majority of Urmia while turks are a large minority in this city; The main languages spoken in the city are Kurdish and Turkish. There are also some other ethnic and linguistic groups in the city who form a small miniority. These are: Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians and finally the Jews. The Columbia Encyclopedia mentions that Urmia was an important town in the region during the 9th century. Oghuz Turks entered the area in the 11th century, and the city was reportedly sacked by the Seljuk Turks in 1184. The Ottoman Turks made several incursions into the city, but the Safavids were soon able to regain control over the area. Due to Urmia's large relative Christain population by the end of the 19th century, Urmia also became the seat of the first American christian mission in Iran in 1835. Another mission soon became operational in nearby Tabriz as well. It is reported that by the turn of the century, christians composed more than 40% of the city's population. Most of them however fled the city during or after WWI. West Azarbaijan (in Kurdish: Azerbaycanî Rojawa, in Persian Azerbāijān-e-Qarbi) is one of the 30 provinces of Iran. The province of West Azarbaijan covers an area of 39,487 sq and 43,660 sq including Lake Urmia.In 2005 this province had a population of 2 955 634, about 3 000 000 [1]. The greater parts of this province is Kurdish-inhabited and eastern part of the Greater Kurdistan. The capital city of the province is Urmia. The name "Azarbaijan" comes from the ancient Middle Persian name Ator Patkan. Excavation sites such as Teppe Hasanlu establish permanent settlement in the province to the 6th millennium BCE. In Hasanlu a famous Golden Vase was found in 1958. The province is also the location of Teppe Hajifiruz site of one of the world's earliest evidence of wine manufacture.[2] Gooy Teppe is another significant site. A metal plaque dating from 800 BCE depicts a scene from the epic of Gilgamesh.Islamic researchers proclaim that the birth of the prophet Zoroaster was in this area, in the vicinity of Lake Orumieh (Chichesht), Konzak City Ruins such as these and the UNESCO world heritage site at the Sassanid compound of Takht-i-Suleiman illustrate the strategic importance and tumultuous history of the province through the millennia. Overall the province enjoys a wealth of historical attractions, with 169 sites registered by the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran. The province continued to experience many wars and ethnic unrest over the centuries until very recently. Significant events in the 20th century are the Soviet occupation in 1946 the foundation and destruction of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946 and periodic severe fighting in the period of 1979 until 1990 between Kurdish (nationalist and communist) forces and Iranian government. At times large parts of the province were outwith government control. The province is divided into 14 townships, the present number of townships was achieved over time by subdivision of many of the larger townships into smaller ones.The townships in the province are as following: Urmia, Salmas, Naghadeh, Piranshahr, Bukan, Khoy, Mahabad, Oshnaviyeh, Sardasht, Chaldoran, Miandoab, Maku, Takab and Shahindej. 8 of these 14 townships are homogeneous, which 5 of them are entirely Kurdish and the another 1 is entirely Turkish, the 5 prodominently Kurdish cities are: Oshnaviyeh, Piranshahr, Bukan, Sardasht and Mahabad and the other township which is prodominently Turkish is Miandoab.The remaining 8 townships are principally heterogeneous and their populations has long been a combination of Kurdish and Turkish peoples, these townships are as following: Urmia, Salmas, Maku, Chaldoran, Naghadeh, Khoy, Takab and Shahindej. The Kurdish peoples constitute the majority of the province's population while Turks are a large minority in this province; but there are also four small ethnic and religious groups who are native to the province but have status as miniorities, these miniority groups are: Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians and the Jews. Clearly, the diversity of religions in the province has been a fact throughout the entire history of all the province's major living religious traditions.The religions in the province are: Islam(Sunni and Shia sects), Christianity, Judaism and Yarasani.Both Kurds and Turks follow Islam, acutally all Kurds belong to the Sunni branch and the Turks are mainly Shias, except a very small miniority who follow a religion called Yarasani.Christianity is the main religion of Assyrians, Chaldeans and Armenians.The Jews, as the name indicate, belong to the Judaism religion. Thank you for visiting my page. Please come back and visit again!