Toponym and administration
The village and administrative center of the kaza of the same name was called Neri (Kurdish for ‘vineyards’, ‘gardens’) since 1877 and since 1928 in Turkish Bağlar, which also means ‘vineyards’. The Index Anatolicus assumes that Ne(h)ri may have been a city called Nairi in Assyrian sources. The tribal alliance of the eight (later up to 60) ‘lands’ or ‘kings of Nairi’, which had been mentioned by Assyrian rulers since about 1273 B.C., probably comprised ethnically different indigenous groups and was located on the territory of the subsequent state of Biainili (Urartu). It is regarded as an indirect predecessor of the Armenians.
Population
According to the French geographer and orientalist Vital Cuinet, 2,200 Kurds, 500 Turks and 200 Jews lived in Nehri in 1891. Nehri at that time was the home village and ancestral seat of the so-called Nehri Sheikhs or Sadate Nehri.
