ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Yeznagomer 2 Monuments

NKR (Country) / Kashatagh (District) / Yeznagomer (Village)

Location

Yeznagomer (or Gharakeshish, Leninkand) is situated on the altitude of 1890-1990 m, to the south of the mountain pass linking the basins of the rivers Hochas and Aghavnaget.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, pp. 124-125.

Historical Introduction
18 c․

I assume that Yeznagomer is to be identified with the village marked in the pre-Soviet maps as Gharakeshish and renamed during the Soviet period to Leninkand. The Turkish toponym may be literally translated as ‘Black Priest'. We do not know any priest at all after whom that village might be named. Nevertheless, there are traces of numerous historical monuments, which testify that the village had been populated by Armenians to at least at the beginning of the XVIII cent.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 124.

The historical name of the village may be restored based on the Annex listing 18 villages included into the district of Kashatagh (see the Annex of S. Orbelian’s “Chronicle). The solution of this problem is greatly enhanced by the fact that villages included into the Annex are listed in strict sequence, along the axis directed southeast-northwest.

The Chronicle of Stephanos Orbelian, Annex, Yerevan, 1942, p. 42 (in Arm.).
Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 124.

Gharakeshish (Leninkand) of the czarist maps is situated between Hak and Spitakajur (the location of which is certain), while the Annex lists only two villages between Hak and Spitakajur - Pul and Yeznagomer. I presume that Gharakeshish should be identified with Yeznagomer firstly because being the most densely populated village of the district, Gharakeshish or Leninkand had been built on the ruins of a very large medieval village.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 124.

Secondly, in accordance with the Annex Yeznagomer had to pay the largest tithe in the district to the monastery of Tatev (6700 measures in produce), which is enough to prove the fact that the village was one of the largest in the Middle Ages. Besides, the former name of the village, Yeznagomer (‘Cattlesheds’), indirectly indicates that this large densely populated village should have been situated on the higher elevations of the mountains where stockbreeding was naturally the main occupation of the population. So is Gharakeshish surrounded by the vastest alpine meadows in the whole district.

Samvel Karapetian, Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh, Yerevan, 2001, p. 124.

Type Photo
Author Samvel Karapetyan
Source Black-and-white negative

Name	Year/Century	Etymology
Gharakeshish
Leninkyand