Tegh () is a village and the center of the

Tegh Municipality Tegh Municipality, referred to as Tegh Community ( ''Tegh Hamaynk''), is a rural community and administrative subdivision of Syunik Province of Armenia, at the south of the country. Consisted of a group of settlements, its administrative centre is ...

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 ...

. Tegh is the last village on the Goris-

Stepanakert Stepanakert officially Khankendi is a city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. It was the capital city of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh prior to the 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh, 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in ...

Highway before passing the border with

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. Of significance in the village, are the dozens of visible caves present near Tegh. The village is underlaid by a soft stone layer of porous rock, replete with rows of caves that were once used for human habitation, now largely used for animals. There are also some very large ones facing highway M12. Rows of them are visible from the highway while driving east. It is located in the central-eastern part of the province, a short distance from the Vorotan River - a tributary of the Aras River, which, in turn, is a tributary of the Kurá - and the border with

. The surrounding areas of the village are currently being occupied by

as of 31 March 2022.

Etymology

The name of the village comes from its

Old Armenian Classical Armenian (, , ; meaning "literary anguage; also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and most Armenian literature fro ...

name of Տեղ (Teł), first mentioned by Stepanos Orbelian in the 11th century, which evolved into its modern name of Տեղ (Teġ). It is an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

word meaning place or locality (see տեղ for further etymological development). In certain Turkic and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

sources of the 19th century, the name is spelled ''Dyg'', which is the turkicized pronunciation of the native Armenian name.

History

The oldest structure of the village is the ''St. Gevorg Church'', an

Armenian Apostolic The Armenian Apostolic Church () is the autocephalous national church of Armenia. Part of Oriental Orthodoxy, it is one of the most ancient Christian churches. The Armenian Apostolic Church, like the Armenian Catholic Church, belongs to the Arme ...

church built partly in the 4th-5th centuries while the rest was built in 1737. The settlement of Tegh was originally part of the ''Haband'' gavar (district) of the historical Syunik province of the Kingdom of Armenia. According to medieval Armenian historian and Syunik native

Stepanos Orbelian Stepanos Orbelian (, originally spelled ; – 1303) was a thirteenth-century Armenian historian and the metropolitan bishop of the province of Syunik. He is known for writing his well-researched ''History of the Province of Syunik''. Biogr ...

, the village was founded by Armenian Queen ''Shahandukht'', ruler of the lands of Syunik, who gifted it to the

Tatev Monastery The Tatev Monastery () is a 9th-century Armenian Apostolic Christian monastery located on a large basalt plateau near the village of Tatev in the Syunik Province in southeastern Armenia. The term "Tatev" usually refers to the monastery. The mo ...

in 998 AD in honor of her late husband, King Smbat of Syunik. Tegh is mentioned in the old tax records of the 13th century as paying 12 units (drams) to the Tatev Monastery. At the beginning of the 18th century, the region was the centre of the Armenian liberation campaign led by

David Bek Davit Bek or David Beg (; died 1728) was an Armenian military commander and the leader of an Armenian rebellion against the invading Ottoman Empire and implanted Safavid Muslim tribes in the mountainous region of Zangezur (today the Armenian pr ...

against

Safavid Persia The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the beg ...

and the invading

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...

. Due to the Syunik rebellion, Tegh again returned to Armenian rule under the Principality of Kapan (1722-1730). In particular, Tegh was the birthplace of

Melik Мelik (, from ) was a hereditary Armenian noble title used in Eastern Armenia from the Late Middle Ages until the nineteenth century. The meliks represented some of the last remnants of the old Armenian nobility, as well as Persian nobility ...

(prince) ''Barkhudar'', the prince of Tegh and an Armenian commander at the forefront of the Armenian liberation movement alongside David Bek. In 1748, Melik Barkhudar’s son, ''Davit Bek Melik-Barkhudaryan'', named after his fathers comrade, succeeded his father to the Melik throne and continued to locally rule Tegh until the end of the century. By 1750, the region again fell under Iranian suzerainty as part of the newly-formed

Karabakh Khanate The Karabakh Khanate (also spelled Qarabagh; ; ) was a Khanates of the Caucasus, khanate under History of Iran, Iranian and later Russian Empire, Russian suzerainty, which controlled the historical region of Karabakh, now divided between modern ...

. The local prince Davit Bek Melik-Barkhudaryan built his palace in the village of Tegh in 1783 from where he ruled the village and its surroundings. The Armenian inscription on the palace reads: At the turn of the century, Tegh became part of 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 ...

as a result of the

Treaty of Gulistan The Treaty of Gulistan (also spelled Golestan: ; ) was a peace treaty concluded between the Russian Empire and Qajar Iran on 24 October 1813 in the village of Gülüstan, Goranboy, Gulistan (now in Goranboy District, the Goranboy District of Azerb ...

signed on 24 October 1813 between Russia and Qajar Iran following the Russo-Persian War of 1804–13. In 1823, Russian general Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov mentions Tegh in his description of the

Karabakh Karabakh ( ; ) is a geographic region in southwestern Azerbaijan and eastern Armenia, extending from the highlands of the Lesser Caucasus down to the lowlands between the rivers Kura and Aras. It is divided into three regions: Highland Kara ...

province as an ethnically

village with 111 tax-paying households. In the middle of the 19th century, the village was one of the largest in the province. The settlement at that time had 1,454 residents. The village itself had 240 courtyards, an Armenian church, and an oil mill. By 1893, the settlement had 472 households, and the population, entirely consisting of Armenians, numbered 3,159 inhabitants. Following the dissolution of the Russian empire, the region of Syunik was under dispute between the first republics of

and

. On April 27, 1921, the region of Syunik was declared part of the

Republic of Mountainous Armenia The Republic of Mountainous Armenia (), also known as simply Mountainous Armenia (), was an anti-Bolshevik Armenian state roughly corresponding with the territory that is now the present-day Armenian provinces of Vayots Dzor and Syunik, and s ...

during the 2nd Pan-Zangezurian conference held in Tatev. However this republic was short-lived and by July of that year it was incorporated into the Soviet Union with the promise that it would become part of Soviet Armenia. While it was under Soviet rule, Tegh was part of the Goris district of 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 ...

. It was a center of industry and carpet making, being home to one of the Haygorg carpet factories of Armenia. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Tegh is now part of the Syunik Marz of the Republic of Armenia.

Demographics

Population

The

Statistical Committee of Armenia The Statistical Committee of Armenia (), or ArmStat in short, is the national statistical agency of Armenia. History The statistical institution started its main activities on 7 January 1922 and was previously known as the Statistical Departme ...

reported its population was 2,520 in 2010, up from 2,333 at the 2001 census.

Gallery

Tegh Hill Caves.jpg , "Cave City" in Tegh Tegh, Building complex Meliq-Barkhudaryan Amarath, 2014.05.11 - panoramio.jpg, Residential complex "Amarath" of the Melik-Barkhudaryans (1783) Տեղ գյուղի Արամայիս Սարգսյանի անվան միջնակարգ դպրոց.jpg, School in Tegh Խաչքար արցախյան պատերազմի և Տեղ գյուղի զոհվածների հիշատակին- Տեղ գյուղ.jpg, Khachkar monument in memory of the victims of the

First Nagorno-Karabakh War The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic conflict, ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nag ...

Tegh, S. Gevorg, 2014.05.11 - panoramio (1).jpg, Saint George's Church in Tegh

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{portal bar, Geography Communities in Syunik Province Populated places in Syunik Province Elizavetpol Governorate