Khoy

Khoy (Persian and Azerbaijani: خوی; Kurdish: خۆی, romanized: Xoy; and Armenian: Հեր, romanized: Her), also Romanized as Khoi, is a city in the Central District of Khoy County, West Azerbaijan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district.

At the 2006 census, its population was 178,708 in 45,090 households. The following census in 2011 counted 200,958 people in 57,149 households. The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 198,845 people in 59,964 households.

Khoy is located north of the province's capital and largest city Urmia, and 807 km north-west to Tehran. The region's economy is based on agriculture, particularly the production of fruit, grain, and timber. Khoy is nicknamed as the Sunflower city of Iran. At the 2006 census, the city had a population of 178,708, with an estimated 2012 population of 200,985. Khoy is largely populated by ethnic Azerbaijanis, except for the residents of the western edge of Khoy, who are mostly Kurds; The majority of the population (more than 90%) subscribes to the Shiite sect of Islam. The Kurds of this less, who live mostly in a nomadic way, are composed of two independent tribes, Madrumi.

Occupied since Median times, it shares a long history as an important Christian center.