Tartar :: ARTSAKH LOCATIONS

6 Monuments

NKR (Country) / Tartar (District)

Historical Introduction

The Tartar district is part of the vast plain extending to the south and southeast of the NKR and limited by the Kura and Araxes rivers. During the Middle Ages these vast areas were mainly included into three administrative provinces: Partav or Uti Arandznak, Beghamej and Baylakan (Belukan). The former occupied the area surrounding the city of identical name, the second - Beghamej was situated south of the former: "... in a humid and hot? place, located between the two cities - Partav and the most fortified place of Belukan, which is called Beghamej..."596 and the third, most southern district, situated to the south of Beghamej was Baylakan, also named after the city of identical name.

Kirakos Gandzaketsi, History of Armenia, Yerevan, 1961, p. 202-203. (in Arm.). Actually large and small swampy lakes, swamps and saline lands mainly cover the area between Partav (Barda) and Baylagan.
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 198.

Armenians lived in this area since the antiquity. Traces of Armenian material culture reach mainly the XIII-XIV cent, lingering, in certain sites, even up to the XVIII-XIX cent., afterwards vanish almost completely. This phenomenon may be accounted for the fact that during the Arab expansion already the Armenians retreated from the plain, less reliable in the terms of defence and fortified in the mountainous and woody areas. Those who stayed in the plain moved closer to certain fortresses (Tigranakert, Baylakan, Partav, etc.).

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 198.

The local agricultural population of the valley between the Kura and Araxes rivers withdrew even more intensively during the Tatar-Mongol invasion. We may state for certain, that after this invasion the number of Armenian settlements was next to nothing. During the following periods the area was mostly populated by various Turkish nomadic tribes, that used the vast and warm plain as wintertime pastures for their innumerable flocks. As a result, the channels crossing the valley declined, the land that needed irrigation became barren and waste, and the prospering countryside turned into dry steppe and desert. The flourishing cities and settlements declined alongside with the retreat of the local agricultural population, and were finally abandoned.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 198.

The situation remained unchanged till the middle of the XIX cent, when the czarist government turned its attention to the vast but barren areas.597

Brief Information about the Ancient Channel Gavurarkh, "Caucasus", 1852, N 23, p. 106 (in Russian).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Works on the restoration of old and construction of new irrigation channels resumed upon hundreds of years of oblivion, on the verge of the XIX-XX cent. Thus was refunctioned the channel, existing from the most ancient periods and named by the Turks Gavur-Arkh (i.e. the 'Christian Channel'). Taking source from the Araxes, and being fed by the waters of the rivers Kondalan, Khonashen, Karkar, Khachen and smaller tributaries it irrigated thousands of hectares of land (during the Soviet years the channel was officially renamed to Upper Karabakh channel).

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Before 1910 several new channels financed by the "Atabekov Company", princess Umtseva, the Rustambekovs and other private investors were made in the space between the Kura and Araxes rivers.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199. See the "5 versta" map of 1905.

However, cultivation of the barren land in these areas was not that easy without the population used to agricultural works. The solution of this problem was even more complicated for the fact, that the Armenians skilled in such works had left the area long ago, while the nomadic tribes who occupied their settlements were unable to meet the requirements of this project. Finally, the czarist government found solution in the creation of new settlements for Russian colonists by the banks of major rivers and channels. Nevertheless, this project was doomed, because the majority of the Russian colonists left their new settlements after 1918.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

The Azerbaijanian authorities clashed with this problem again upon the establishment of the Soviet power. It is true that during 1920-1930-ies considerable part of the nomadic tribes passed, under the government duress, to the settled mode of life and occupied most of the settlements of the Russian colonists. Meanwhile cultivation of the wasteland needed population more skilled in the field of agriculture. To save the situation, since the middle of 1930-ies, the Azerbaijanian authorities adopted the policy of transferring the Armenians of the overpopulated villages of the NKR by various promises and privileges to the steppes and saline lands of the Kura -Araxes valley. Thus they established several new Armenian villages in the districts of Agjabedi and Zhdanov (presently, Bay lagan).

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

It deserves mentioning that the Armenians preferred to settle in the former Armenian villages, later occupied by the Russian colonists, where they could find traces of Armenian culture, old churches or other antiquities, even though ruined. Such were Tazakand and Shahumian (in the Aghjabedi district), Khachinstroy and Kebirli (in the Zhdanov district).

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Little by little in the beginning of the sixties there appeared the first Azerbaijanian settlers. At the same time the Armenians started to leave (mainly to the NKR). The last Armenian families were forcibly displaced from the plain in 1988.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

In conformity with the territorial division of the present day Azerbaijan the plain was divided between several administrative districts: the Tartar district (former Mir-Bashir), Partav (Barda), Aghdam, Aghjabedi, Baylagan (former Zhdanov), Fizuli (former Karyazin) and Jabrail.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Geographical Environment

Since its establishment in 1930 and up to 1949 the district was called Tartar. In 1963 it was adjoined to the neighboring Partav (Barda) district, later in 1965 it was again turned to a separate administrative entity, this time renamed to Mir-Bashir. The district covers the area of 412-sq. km. It is situated in the lower course of the Trtu (Tartar) River. In the north it is limited by the Injaget, and in the south - by the Khachen River. It borders with the Martakert district, NKR (in the west), and Kasum Ismayilov, Yevlakh, Partav and Aghdam districts of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijanian Soviet Encyclopaedia, vol. VI, Baku, 1982, p. 587 (in Azerb.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Historical Introduction
1981 y․

As of the state of 1981 there had been one town (the administrative centre Mir-Bashir) and 49 villages, only one of them (Begum-Saroy) - Armenian.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Description
19 c․

In the medieval period the entire area of the district was included into the Partav province. Afterwards, before the middle of the XIX century it entered into the Barda-Basan province. In conformity with Acad. S. Yeremian one of the most significant settlements of Hayots Arevelits Koghmants (the Eastern Armenia) -Kaghankatuyk - should have been located within the area of the administrative centre Mir-Bashir.

SCHARA, F. 56, L. 1, c. 305, p. 47 (in Arm.).
See, S. Yeremian, Armenia in Conformity with "Ashkharatsuyts", Yerevan, 1963, p. 75 (in Arm.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 199.

Name	Year/Century	Etymology
Mir-Bashir