Barkhudarants Cemetery :: ARTSAKH HISTORICAL MONUMENTS

Barkhudarants Cemetery

Azerbaijan / Northern Artsakh / Gandzak / Gandzak

Historical Introduction

A record of 1887 states the following, “Some 50 to 60 years ago, before the establishment of the present-day grave-yards, called Nerki and Barkhudarants, funerals were held in a cemetery located within 30 feet of the local main church of St. Hovhannes.”

“Nor-Dar,” 1887, No. 46, p. 1.
Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 57.

The Barkhudariants’ grave-yard, that was the only Armenian cemetery in Gandzak in the Soviet years, once retained more than 3,000 tombstones. In the 1980s, however, most of the city’s grave-yards lay in ruins.

Karapetian, Samvel. Northern Artsakh, Yerevan, 2007, p. 58.

The Armenian cemetery of the city, with thousands of burials dating from the period between the Late Middle Ages and 1988, was gradually destroyed “to provide space” for some construction activities that immediately followed its annihilation. This is evident from two Google Earth photos published on 17 January 2012 and on 20 December 2015.