“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2025
2025
Until 1918, Bozavand was one of the Armenian-inhabited villages of the Ismayilli district in Eastern Transcaucasia, located 28.8 km southwest of the district center. The ancestors of its residents had migrated from the villages of Hadrut, Hghorti and Drnavarz in Artsakh. The alternative forms of the village’s name—Bzavand and Bozovand—were also in use.
The first known mention of the village of Bozavand dates back to the first quarter of the 18th century, when the Armenians of Shirvan and Shaki sought to come under the jurisdiction of Catholicos Esayi Hasan-Jalalyan of Gandzasar (1701–1728). Among the signatories of the petition was also “Andrias, the kyadkhoda of Bozavand.”
In 1861, Bozavand had 35 Armenian households. By 1886, the village was home to 37 Armenian households, with around 200 residents. In 1914, Bozavand was entirely inhabited by Armenians, with 440 residents.
In the summer of 1918, during the attack by Turkish troops and local Tatars, the residents of Bozavand also took part in the four-day self-defense in the Vank village. Between 1918 and 1919, part of the population was killed, and there were also instances of forced Islamization. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan, the few surviving Bozavand Armenians who had escaped the massacres settled in various locations.
The village of Bozavand had a church named Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God), which was completely destroyed. Only the site of the church has survived. Not far from the church site, during the visit of monument specialist Samvel Karapetyan in 1985, the Bozavand village cemetery was still preserved, containing numerous inscribed tombstones dating back to the 19th century.
Samvel Karapetyan published the inscriptions from several of the oldest preserved tombstones found in the village cemetery.
This is the tombstone of Jieal’s son, Gaspar, year 1815.
This is the tombstone of Hambardzum’s spouse, Antaran, year 1816.
This is the tombstone of sexton Harutyun, son of Adam, who passed away in 1868.
This is the tombstone of Marean, wife of Bakhish from Biligh, who was of the Diltaryants family, year 1871.
This is the tombstone of Martiros from Ghalak, son of Hovhan, year 1873.
Until the 1980s, the former homesites of Armenians in the village were still preserved. Today, Bozavand is an abandoned settlement.
Bibliography
Barkhutaryants M., Land of Aghvank and its Neighbors: Artsakh, Yerevan, 1999.
Karapetyan S., The Armenian Lapidary Inscriptions of Aghvank Proper, Yerevan, 1997.
Karapetyan, S., Aghvank Proper, Part 1, Yerevan, 2024, pp. 109-112.
Persian documents of the Matenadaran: III – Shari’a notarial documents (17th–18th centuries) by K. P. Kostikyan, M. A. Khecho Yerevan, 2018, p. 97.