Berdzor :: ARTSAKH LOCATIONS

21 Monuments

NKR (Country) / Kashatagh (District) / Berdzor (City)

Historical Introduction

The town of Lachin, presently renamed to Berdzor was also built in the place of a little settlement abandoned by Armenians, though the traces of Armenian culture within the town itself are rather scarce.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169.

Description

Presently no historical monuments have been preserved within the entire area of the town. Particularly, visiting Lachin in the beginning of the 80-ies, the writer S. Khanzadian noticed: "On a stone fastened into the wall of a new house I read
"MELIK AVR ... 1562" and on the wholesome khachkar turned to a bench at the market place I read
"MIGHTY MKHITAR... 1412".
Presently no historical monuments have been preserved within the entire area of the town.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169.

Historical Introduction
1923 y․

Up to 1923 Lachin (former Ardalar) was a small insignificant village, inhabited, e.g. in 1914 by 124 Kurds, speaking Turkish.

"Azerbaijanian SSR, Administrative-Territorial Division", Baku, 1979, p. 212 (in Russian).
"The Caucasian Calendar for 1915", Tiflis, 1914, p. 82 (in Russian).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169.

1923 — 1930 yy․

On 6 August 1923 Lachin was turned to the administrative center of a new autonomy -”Red Kurdistan”, later in 1930, when the autonomy was repealed, it became the center of the district with identical name.

"Azerbaijanian Soviet Encyclopaedia", vol. VI, Baku, 1982, p. 173 (in Azerb.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169.

Population

During the early years of the Soviet rule there had been some Armenian population in Lachin, which was later expelled. As witnessed by the Kurdish writer Amine Avdal: “The Kurds, Arme-nians and Azerbaijanians used to live in the town of Lachin. The ancestors of the Kurdish residents of Lachin came from the tribe called Tzheloya.”

Amine Avdal, The Family Life of the Transcaucasian Kurds, Yerevan, 1957, p. 13 (in Arm.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169.

Description
1950 y․

Lachin, which separated mostly Armenian Artsakh from Syunik, began to develop rapidly since the fifties. It increased immensely during the past one or two decades, covering the area, ten times larger than the former settlement. The population was increased artificially by enforced migration of the ethnic Turks from other regions of the country.

Samvel Karapetian, How did They Occupy the Armenian Lands (based on the history of Lachin), "Azatamart", 1994, N 43, p. 13 (in Arm.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169

Historical Introduction
1989 y․

Since 1989 Lachin was converted to the main military standpoint, separating Artsakh from Armenia and threatening both the Armenian population of Berdadzor (Shushi district of NKR) and the villages of Goris district, bordering Lachin. The Artsakh Liberation Army took this town on 18 May 1992.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 170.

Population
1996 y․

Presently, upon almost 200 years Lachin is renamed to Berdzor and again populated by Armenians. In 1996 the town had 150 households, two active Armenian schools, a kindergarten, a music school, etc. To commemorate the 4th anniversary of the liberation a new museum of history of the region was established in 1996.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 170.

Description

At the same time the Armenians founded a new church.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 169.

A few old settlements in the environs of Berdzor, are mainly known by their Kurdish names.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 171.

Type Map
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Sketch
Date 1952 y․

Master Plan of Lachin town in 1952

Type Map
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Sketch
Date 1973 y․

Master Plan of Lachin town in 1973

Name	Year/Century	Etymology
Lachin
Abadlyar