Unseen Armenia: Ayrk

Ayrk, in Gegharkunik marz, about 30 km. south of Vartenis, to the south-east of Lake Sevan, is a village of about 50 households. It is reachable from Vartenis by a bad but passable road.

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The village of Ayrk in the distance

The origin of the village is unknown, but in the cemetery next to its two small churches, Sourp Grigor and Sourp Astvatsatsin, are khatchkars (stone crosses) that date to the 7th-10th centuries.

Ayrk, Sourp Gevorg Church, 19th century
Ayrk, Sourp Gevorg Church, 19th century

Approaching the village, a few roofs over the scattered houses were visible in the distance, together with some destroyed buildings. We wondered if there was really anything there and if continuing on would be worthwhile. An approaching driver assured us that there were two churches in the village, so we proceeded.

The village is poor; most of its young people have left for work in Russia. Current villagers are primarily refugees from Azerbaijan, with a few descendants of survivors of the Armenian Genocide from Western Armenia. The primary economic activity is raising animals, and farming grain and potatoes. The climate is too cold to grow fruit. In the valley below Ayrk is a milk-processing facility that processes and delivers the village’s milk to market.

We arrived at the 2 churches, about 100 yards apart, in mid-afternoon with bright sun,

Ayrk, Sourp Gevorg Church, 19th century
Ayrk, Sourp Gevorg Church, 19th century

a cool breeze, and a few beautiful white fluffy clouds floating overhead. The two churches are small, simple rectangular buildings, about the size of my kitchen, and are not ornate apart from the interesting khatchkars embedded in their walls. The ground is rocky with bright, short green grass speckled with very small, bright blue flowers. The green grass extends to the surrounding mountains and the shallow valley below.

The field stones and khatchkars in the cemetery are covered with fluorescent orange-colored lichen. It is one of the most beautiful, spectacular scenes I’ve seen in Armenia, or anywhere else for that matter. One of the villagers, an elderly gentleman, was seated on a nearby rock watching his flock of sheep. After a few words of greeting, it was as if we had known each other all our lives. He was a refugee from Baku.

The old Armenian name for the village was “Karakert,” meaning “stone built.” Sometime around the 15th century, Turks settled in the area and renamed the village “Dashkert” (meaning “stone built,” the same meaning as its previous Armenian name). Many, if not most, of the Armenians had left. After the Armenian Genocide, some refugees from Western Armenia resettled there, perhaps during the first Armenian Republic established in 1918. During the first republic and the subsequent Soviet era, though the village remained within Armenia’s borders, it retained its Turkish name due to the presence of its Turkish/Azeri inhabitants. As this was still part of Armenia, the Turkish residents, as far as I understand, left the churches and cemetery undisturbed. Around 1988, during the Karabagh conflict, the Turks left. Armenian refugees arriving from Azerbaijan used the abandoned Turkish houses as sources of building material to build or repair their own homes. The village youth erected the khatchkars, which over the centuries had fallen, placing them on solid cement bases. The current Armenian government renamed the village Ayrk.

A gentleman from Ayrk
A gentleman from Ayrk

This is a beautiful site, well worth visiting if one is a bit adventuresome. It’s about a 2-2.5-hour drive from Yerevan, depending on the driver and car. The road to Ayrk runs along the south shore of Lake Sevan, passing the beautiful 9th-century Ayrevank monastery, which is right off the highway, and the Noraduz Cemetery with its spectacular medieval khatchkars. The Noraduz cemetery is a 10-minute diversion from the main highway along Lake Sevan’s south coast and has visitor amenities.

Ayrk could become a tourist attraction providing at least some help for its economy. This superb and unvisited site should be promoted and, moreover, protected as a cultural preserve, perhaps under UNESCO auspices.

Ayrk, Sourp Astvatsatsin Church, 19th century
Ayrk, Sourp Astvatsatsin Church, 19th century
Ayrk, Sourp Astvatsatsin Church, 19th century
Ayrk, Sourp Astvatsatsin Church, 19th century
Hovsep Daghdigian

Hovsep Daghdigian

Joseph “Hovsep” Daghdigian is originally from Lowell, MA. His grandparents were from Kharpet in Western Armenia. He is active in the Merrimack Valley community and a former chairman of the AYF CE. Dagdigian is a retired electrical and software engineer with a MS in computer engineering. Dagdigian spends three to five months per year in Armenia and Artsakh exploring sites with his friend Vova Tshagharyan. His adventures are described in his “Unseen Armenia” series of articles. He, with Anahid Yeremian, co-founded the Support Committee for Armenia’s Cosmic Ray Division (SCACRD) in 2000 to support the scientists and students at the Cosmic Ray Division of the Yerevan Physics Institute (now the A. Alikhanyan National Laboratory). He lives in Harvard, MA with his wife Lisa.
Hovsep Daghdigian

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3 Comments

  1. Joseph; Your beautiful photos and your writing bring this village to life. Your love of this place is evident in your writing. Do you have geographical coordinates you can post? Many of us will be in Yerevan next year, and this sounds like a wonderful place to visit. And why would we not want to go to a village where we can help the economy? Joseph, I don’t see trees in your photos. What are these people using for heat in the winter? Also, how are they managing for drinking water? Do they have a village well? Tell us if there are children and if there is a school for them. I am hoping more visitors to remote Armenian villages will write about them like this. Thank you for this very moving article.

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