Başkale

 town, district center

• Belediye / Municipality:
www.baskale.bel.tr
• Kaymakamlık / District-Governorate:
www.baskale.gov.tr

Bashkale (Turkish: Başkale) or Adamakert (Armenian: Ադամակերտ) is a Kurdish populated city in Van Province present-day Turkey. It has a population of 12,784. Başkale was founded by Urartians as the town of Adamma. Since the 2nd century. Since the 2nd century BC it was known in Armenian language as Adamakert (Ադամակերտ) and was the main fortress of the Medz Aghbak district of Vaspourakan province of the Greater Armenia's kingdom. Since 385 AD control of the area alternated between Parthia and the Roman Empire. In the 3rd century AD the Sassanid (Persian) Empire took control of district from the Roman Empire.
After the division of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire took control in the 6th century. In 645 AD Arabs took control of the Başkale area. In the period of the Arsacid and Bagratuni dynasties' rule, Adamakert was taken back by the Armenian kingdom from the Persian and Arabians. During the Arsacid era, Adamakert was a part of Armenia's Aghbak district and was a possession of Vaspurakan's Artsruni dynasty. The 10th century chronicler, Tovmas Artzruni, wrote that the dynasty had originated in this region, and mentions the city-fortress of Adamakert as the residence of the dynasty (believed to be the site of present-day Başkale). One of many events in the string of tensions prior to World War I was a massacre of approximately fifty Gawarnai Assyrians by Muslims on 30 October 1914 at Başkale in the local government centre. Armenians of Başkale were later deported and massacred by Turks and Kurds during the Armenian genocide (approximately 1915-1918).
The town was capital of the Kurdish Emirate of Hakkari during the 19th century.