| Murat River | |
| Name Other: | Eastern Euphrates |
| Source1 Location: | near Diyadin north of Lake Van |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Type2: | Geographical region |
| Length: | 722km (449miles) |
| Source1 Elevation: | 2720m (8,920feet) |
| Mouth Elevation: | 820m (2,690feet) |
| Subdivision Type3: | Political region |
| Subdivision Name3: | Eastern Anatolia Region |
The Murat River, also called Eastern Euphrates (Turkish: Murat Nehri,, Armenian: Արածանի|translit=Aratsani), is a major source of the Euphrates River. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used to call the river Arsanias (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἀρσανίας). It originates near Mount Ararat north of Lake Van, in Eastern Turkey, and flows westward for 722km (449miles) through mountainous terrain. Before the construction of the Keban Dam, the Murat River joined the Karasu River or Western Euphrates 10km (10miles) north of the dam site and 13km (08miles) north of the town of Keban.[1]
In Muş Province, the river is interrupted near Toklu by the Alpaslan-1 Dam,[2] [3] which was completed in 2009. The Alpaslan-2 Dam was completed in 2021[4] and is located downstream of Alpaslan-1. The river merges into the reservoir of the Keban Dam, at one time Turkey's largest dam, which was completed in 1974 and provides electrical power.[5]
In Bingöl and Elazığ provinces, Kalehan Energy has four dams planned for the river: from upstream to downstream, the Upper Kaleköy Dam, Lower Kaleköy Dam, Beyhan I Dam, and Beyhan II Dam. The Beyhan I and Upper Kaleköy dams are already completed. Once completed, all four dams will have a combined installed capacity of 1,855 MW.[6]
The present name is usually connected with the Turkish given name Murat or the word from which that name derives, Turkish: [[wikt:murat|murat]] . But this may be folk etymology, so Hrach Martirosyan tentatively proposes derivation from Old Armenian, .[7]
The river was called in sources of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and in Classical Greek and Roman sources.[8] Those forms may be derived from an earlier form of Armenian, which Armen Petrosyan derives from an Armenian descendant of the Proto-Indo-European root * .[9] [10] Armenian may have developed from an earlier form * (whence Akkadian with the addition of the toponymic suffix -iya and Greek) under the influence of many other Armenian toponyms beginning with .
The main source of the Murat River starts in the Diyadin district of Ağrı.[11] The Kocasu River, which originates in the Bingöl Mountains, flows into the Murat River by the village of Sarıpınar village in the Bulanık district after taking the waters coming from the Akdoğan Mountains.[12] [13]