Nrnadzor () is a village in the

Meghri Municipality Meghri Municipality, referred to as Meghri Community ( ''Meghri Hamaynk''), is an urban community and administrative subdivision of Syunik Province of Armenia, at the south of the country bordering Iran. Consisted of a group of settlements, its ad ...

of the

Syunik Province Syunik (, ) is the southernmost province of Armenia. It is bordered by the Vayots Dzor Province to the north, Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic exclave to the west, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran to the south. Its capital and larg ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, on the bank of the

Aras River The Aras is a transboundary river in the Caucasus. It rises in eastern Turkey and flows along the borders between Turkey and Armenia, between Turkey and the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, between Iran and both Azerbaijan and Armenia, and, fin ...

Toponymy

The village of Nrnadzor (meaning "pomegranate canyon" in Armenian, also the name of a nearby tributary of the Aras) was previously called Nyuvadi (; ).

History

During the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, the village was a part of the

Zangezur uezd The Zangezur ''uezd'' was a county (''uezd'') of the Elizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Gerusy (present-day Goris) from 1868 until its formal abolition and partition between the Soviet republics of A ...

of the

Elizavetpol Governorate The Elizavetpol Governorate, also known after 1918 as the Ganja Governorate, was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yelisavetpol (present-day Ganja). The area of the governorate st ...

. The village was transferred from the

Azerbaijan SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

to the

Armenian SSR The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ArSSR), also known as Soviet Armenia, or simply Armenia, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Soviet Armenia bordered the Soviet republics ...

in 1928. The Azerbaijani-speaking population of the village fled in the summer of 1991 in the context of the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians until 2023, and seven surrounding districts, inhabited mostly by Azerbai ...

, after which the village was repopulated by Armenians who fled from different parts of Azerbaijan. The exact date the Azerbaijani population departed was 8 August 1991 – the local administration ensuring their peaceful departure without violence. On 4 July 2006, the village was renamed to its current name.

Demographics

The population is engaged with viticulture, fruit growing, animal husbandry and beekeeping. At its height, the local school consisted of about 1,000 students.

Sevan Nişanyan Sevan Nişanyan (; born 21 December 1956) is a Turkish-Armenian writer, fugitive and lexicographer. Author of a number of books, Nişanyan was awarded the Ayşe Nur Zarakolu Liberty Award of the Turkish Human Rights Association in 2004 for his con ...

describes that the population of the village was "Turkish" until 1988, "Muslim Tat" until 1991, and adds that the local population was not of Tat origin, mentioning that the population is described as "Tatar" (later known as Azerbaijani) in Russian records since 1831. Whilst

Tatul Hakobyan __NOTOC__ Tatul Ashiki Hakobyan (; born December 29, 1969) is an Armenian reporter and an independent political analyst. Early life and education Hakobyan was born in the village of Dovegh in northeastern Armenia, near the border with Azerba ...

says that the Muslims who lived in Nrnadzor were actually Tats who over time, like thousands of Tats in Soviet Azerbaijan, became Azeri. The Tats were counted and enumerated in various ways between 1831 and 1931: as Muslims, Tatars, Turko-Tatars, and a Turkish group. Russian records of 1894 describe the village's population of consisting of 1,094 Tats. After the exodus of the local Azerbaijanis, Armenian families from

Gyumri Gyumri (, ) is an urban municipal community and the List of cities and towns in Armenia, second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th centur ...

Kapan Kapan ( ) is a town in southeast Armenia, serving as the administrative centre of the Kapan Municipality and also as the provincial capital of Syunik Province. It is located in the valley of the Voghji (river), Voghji River and is on the norther ...

Goris Goris ( ) is a town and the centre of the Goris Municipality in the Syunik Province in southern Armenia. Located in the valley of the Goris (or Vararak) River, it is 254 kilometres from the Armenian capital Yerevan and 67 kilometres from the provi ...

, Armavir, and Getashen (

Çaykənd, Goygol Çaykənd (; ) is a village and municipality in the Goygol District of Azerbaijan. History Soviet forces acting in conjunction with the local Azerbaijani OMON deported Armenians living in the areas in and around Karabakh including Getashen. The ...

) settled in the village. As of 2020, most of the population lives in former-Azerbaijani homes—the administrative head of the village, Aleksan Boyajyan, claims that the village consists of "42 households, 128 inhabitants", also mentioning that "Because of the past 15 years, many of the settlers left the village." The population of the village since 1831 is as follows:

References

Populated places in Syunik Province Former Azerbaijani inhabited settlements {{Syunik-geo-stub