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2025
2025
In the place of Handamej village of the historical Goghtn district now are located Ashaghi Andamij[1] and Yukhari Andamij villages in the Ordubad district of the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic. In other words, the Armenian word Handamej is used together with the Turkic words "lower" and "upper".[2]
We read about the two parts of the village — "lower" and "upper" — in the inscription of the Surb Tovma (Saint Thomas) Church of Agulis, where it is referred to as a suburb of the town of Vorduar, known today as Ordubad. Handamej is one of the villages located in the valley of the Ordubad gorge. Both parts of this once-Armenian village have been completely deprived of their native Armenian population.
Not a single trace has been preserved from the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Nerkin Handamej, where a Gospel copied in 1684 in the nearby village of Geghevadzor near Tatev was once mentioned. This church was also mentioned by Yervand Lalayan in his work Goghtn[3], where he noted that the Holy Mother of God was a domed church, surrounded by beautiful rooms for the priest’s residence and gardens. “The whole village has a very picturesque appearance, covered with tall poplar trees,” Lalayan recalled.
The only remaining evidence of the village’s Armenian history is its name, which, even when pronounced with a Turkic accent, still reveals the Armenian origins of the village and the surrounding area.
Bibliography
A. Ayvazyan, The Epigraphic Heritage of Nakhijevan, Vol. III, Goghtn District, 2007
Ghevond Alishan, Topography of Sisakan, Venice, 1893
Y. Lalayan, Nakhijevan Province, Part A, Goghtn or the Ordubad District, 1904.
[1] In Azerbaijani: Aşağı Əndəmic and Yuxarı Əndəmic.
[2] Turkic aşağı means «lower» and yuxarı «upper».
[3] Y. Lalayan, Nakhijevan Province, Part A, Goghtn or the Ordubad District, 1904, p. 297.