RUSH TO CLIMB ARARAT GIVES A TOWN A LIFT

Townspeople here say they cannot recall any comparable rush to climb Mount Ararat, that great volcanic cone that dominates the frontiers of eastern Turkey, Soviet Armenia and Iran.

This year the Turkish authorities eased restrictions, and climbing permits were given to a score of groups from the United States, France, West Germany and Japan as well as Turkey. Most foreign visitors to Dogubayazit, the main base for Ararat climbers, were seeking some trace of Noah's ark, which according to tradition came to rest somewhere on the slopes of the Ararat massif after the Great Flood.

But there were also scientists, publicists, alpinists and adventuresome youths among those who flocked here this season to climb Mount Ararat, whose peak is 16,945 feet above sea level. All this activity has greatly helped tourism in the area, which has been on the decline since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in neighboring Iran in 1979.

The main celebrity in town was the former American astronaut James B. Irwin, 53 years old, who wanted to give the mountain a second effort after he fell last year on the glacier, suffering severe leg and face lacerations and had to be carried down on horseback. This time Mr. Irwin and Marvin Steffins, head of International Expeditions Inc. of Monroe, La., chartered an Army observation Cessna and flew around the mountain four times looking for some evidence of the ark. Easier on the Moon

Later the former astronaut and his group of 22 climbers, including his wife and son, searched two passes, some of the group going over 15,000 feet. When he came down he seemed dejected.

''It's easier to walk on the moon,'' he said. ''I've done all I possibly can, but the ark continues to elude us.''

But he said a Turkish guide had seen some wood for the first time in a place where the snow line had retreated and had promised to send him a sample to be analyzed.

Most climbers agree that if the ark is still around it must be in the Ahora gorge, a vast chasm usually covered by a glacier and clouds. For the last hundred years there have been reports of a large rectangular form in the gorge shaped like a boat.

Another hunt for it is expected next season, in July and August, if the Turkish authorities keep the mountain open.

Dogubayazit is a booming, relatively new frontier town, on the main route from Europe to Iran and the East. The old village on a ridge nearby was destroyed and its largely Kurdish population dispersed after a local revolt against the Turkish state in 1930. Splendid Fortress Palace

On another crest stands the splendid fortress palace built by the Kurdish lord Ishak Pasa in the 17th century, occupied by the Russians and the Turkish Army and now partly restored as a national monument.

This is above all a trading center, with low stone or mud-brick shops full of goods ranging from large plastic containers to pyramids of gold bracelets.

Smuggling, according to local residents, is still very much part of border life, despite the strict Turkish military Government set up three years ago.

Smugglers are generally known locally. People point to men in big Mercedes sedans and BMW's shoving through the usual traffic of horsecarts and mules.

One type of trade people do not talk about much is Iranian refugees. Turkey is neutral in the war between Iran and Iraq and is doing good business with both. Turkish press sources say about 50 Iranians are smuggled over the border into Turkey every two weeks. They are usually detained and sent by bus to Ankara or Istanbul and encouraged to get visas for third countries.

The Turkish press reported recently that Iranian ''mercenaries'' were helping people escape by giving them Iranian Army uniforms for a fee of about $3,000.