ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Karvatchar 1600 — 1812 yy․ 27 Monuments

NKR (Country) / Karvajar (District) / Karvatchar (City)

Location

Karvajar is one of the most important historical villages of the Tzar province. It is situated on the elevated left slope of the deep gorge of the Trtu, about 180 m above the river bank (average altitude of the town Karvajar is 1600 m above the sea).

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

Historical Introduction

1661 y․

This manuscript mentioned the toponym as Karavajar. A document dating back to 1661 mentioned already Karvajar (without intermediary - a) alongside with Hajav, Boru, Gumer and Zuar.

SCHARA, F. 57, L. 1, C. 4, p. 4 (in Arm.); Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

1873 y․

It should be mentioned that in a message dated 1873 the settlement was still mentioned under its Armenian name: “As refers to Tutkhu and Karvajar, the monastery estates, we strived as hard as we could, to prove that it should remain as it had been in the past, so that the consistory won’t be deprived of its property.. .”

SCHARA, F. 468, L. 1, C. 73, p. 1 (in Arm.); Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

1930 y․

In 1930 Karvajar-Kalbajar was turned to a regional centre. Since 1960 Kalbajar had become a rural type settlement and in 1980 it acquired the status of a town. The insignificant village began to expand since 1960 owing to large-scale investments. It was developing with extreme speed particularly after 1980 and to 1992. During that period the government of Azerbaijan spared no efforts to strengthen the district separating Armenia from Karabakh. As a result, during that period both the dimensions of the settlement and its population increased 6 or 7 times.

Soviet Azerbaijanian Encyclopaedia, vol. 5, Baku, 1981, p. 334 (in Azerb.); S. Karapetian, How did they Annex the Armenian Territories (Exemplified by the town of Karvajar), Azatamart, N 40, p. 13 (in Arm.); Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

Scriptoria
1402 y․

As a centre of medieval Armenian literature Karvajar is first recorded in the manuscript of 1402. Here Thovma Syunetsi has rewritten the “Comments to St. Mathew’s Gospel by Grigor Tatevatsi”.

Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts of the XV cent, vol. 1, Yerevan, 1955, p. 24 (manuscript N 3578); Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

Population
1730 y․

It’s quite probable that the Armenians lived in Karvajar till the thirties of the XVIII cent., then the town was abandoned simultaneously with other regions of the province.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

19 c․

In the middle of the XIX cent, it was occupied by the Kurds that modified the Armenian toponym to the phonetics of their mother tongue, calling it Kyarvajar or Kalbajar.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

Name Origin

As reasonably noted by H. Karaghozian the attempts to etymologize the toponym as the market place for selling stones (kar-vacarel) look like folk etymology. H. Karaghozian considers that the most plausible etymology is the word -kar used in ancient Near East to denote the trade factories, wide spread both in Mesopotamia and out of it. For instance the Kassite name of Babylon Kar-Duniash, or Kar-Bassi (a Kaskian settlement in Media), Kar-Ninlil (in Assyria), Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta (also in Assyria), Kar-Samas-nasir (a settlement in Assyria), Kar-nuri (also in Assyria), Kar-Sulmanu-asared (Til-Barsib), Kar-ubi-galli (the Assyrian name for Median settlement Kisasa), Kar-Sippur (a fortress and district in the basin of Large Zab River), etc.

H. Karagozyan, Anti-Armenian Wedge and its Four Adminis trative Centers, "Yerkir", 1994, N 131, p. 5 (in Arm.); Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

However we assume that the meaning of this formant of the complex toponym Karvajar was quite different. Particularly, names of many fortresses in the Armenian Highland, contain the component -k’ar in combination, which in all the cases comes to substitute the word -berd or amroc (‘fortress’), as their full synonym. As an example such names of fortresses as Karherdz (a fortress in Zakam), Kar Amyuk (or Kar Amkoy) and Kar-Manazkert (a fortress in Vaspurakan), Karn Sarvandin and Deghnkar (in Cilicia), etc. may be quoted. Thus taking into consideration the location of Karvajar, which meets any criteria required for the fortress: difficulty of access, availability of water, control of an important mountain pass - a gorge and the road below, we are inclined to connect the first component of the toponym Karvajar particularly with the fact that it had once been a fortress.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 46.

Description

The church of Karvajar, as well as the Armenian cemetery fell a victim of the local tendency to destroy any trace of Armenians.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 47.

Type Photo
View Exterior
Direction From the south
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Colour Negative

Type Photo
View Exterior
Direction From the east
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Colour Negative

Type Map
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Sketch
Date 1952 y․

Type Map
View Exterior
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Sketch
Date 1972 y․

Name	Year/Century	Etymology
Kyarvajar	1812 — 1920 yy․
Kyalbajar	19 c․
Karvatchar	5 — 16 cc․