ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Kamandar 30 Monuments

Azerbaijan (Country) / Northern Artsakh (Area) / Shamkhor (District) / Kamandar (Village)

Location

The village lies 25 kilometres west of the district centre, at an altitude of 1,200 to 1,320 metres above sea level.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 501.

Historical Introduction

The monuments surviving in the territory of Kamandar, whose historical name has sunk into oblivion, trace it back to at least the Middle Ages.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 501.

Population
1770 y․

Most presumably, it shared the fate of the other villages of the region and was stripped of its population in the 1770s, the local people moving to Shulaver: “Apparently, Kamandar, part of whose inhabitants now live in Shulaver, used to be a large settlement: present-day Legharak (Bada) residents use its name to refer to several village sites together with a grave-yard.”

Yeghishe Charents Art and Literature Museum. Sargis Kamalian Fund, copy-book No. 1, VI-11, p. 8.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 501.

Historical Introduction
20 c․

The village site of Kamandar revived in the early 20th century thanks to 30 families from Bada.

National Archives of Armenia, fund 57, list 2, file 2139, pp. 2-3.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 501.

1906 y․

According to a visitor who travelled in Kamandar between 1906 and 1907, it “...was surrounded by vast arable lands, so-called Archimandrite Lands, once belonging to Khoranashat Monastery but at present under state control. Extending up to the royal forest of Kalkar in one direction, they merge into a large plain in the other: the latter retains some ancient cemeteries and chapels amidst which a thick, centuries-old oak-tree of rich foliage stands as a pilgrimage destination for Bada inhabitants.”

Yeghishe Charents Art and Literature Museum. Sargis Kamalian Fund, copy-book No. 1, VI-11, p. 228. A record of 1890 states the following about this sacred site, “South of Keshish oghli, Khachyal was located. Riding our horses in that direction, ... we saw a huge oak-tree with splendid branches, its trunk exceeding seven arshins. Nobody dared cut a single branch off that holy tree; that is why, some immense branches that resembled logs were rotting underneath, torn off by the storm. The tree, which was a place of pilgrimage for the inhabitants of Legharak, was surrounded by some old graves, remains of fires as well as countless legs and feathers of sacrificed roosters squeezed into its tough bark and clefts. In a slightly elevated area west of it, its sister was said to be buried: allegedly, both of them suffered martyrdom in earlier times.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 502.

The unspeakable persecution and the clergymen’s indifference to the village in general, intertwined with a number of other factors, eventually aroused some tendency of apostasy among Kamandar’s population. The desperate Armenians voluntarily applied to the Georgian Exarch with a petition to be converted to the Georgian Orthodox faith. On 22 July 1913 Gandzak’s vicar informed Catholicos of All Armenians Gevorg V about that painful fact, particularly stating that “...the reasons that had forced them into resorting to that step included the shortage of lands, the social pressure, heavy taxation, as well as the absence of a school and a church.”

National Archives of Armenia, fund 57, list 2, file 2139, pp. 2-3.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 502.

Population
1986 y․

In 1986 the village had a population of 40 houses, including more than 100 inhabitants.

As attested by the Village Council. Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 502.

1988 — 1989 yy․

Kamandar was stripped of its residents in the aftermath of the deportation between 1988 and 1989.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 502.

Historical Introduction
9 — 11 cc․

Three medieval cemeteries, preserved in the village, are of great importance from the standpoint of the study of its history. The surviving cross-stones trace its existence to at least the period between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 502.

The neighbourhood of Kamandar is rich in a great variety of monuments and ancient sites dating back to different periods. The only topographer to have visited them is philologist S. Kamalian, whose unpublished manuscript contains their descriptions together with the decipherings of all the inscriptions he found there. The work he carried out is of immense significance not only for the history of Kamandar but also for that of the entire region. Below follow his records of the village.