“GEGHARD”
SCIENTIFIC ANALYTICAL
FOUNDATION
2025
2025
2025-07-10
Tsʻghna was one of the prominent Armenian settlements in the Vaspurakan province of Greater Armenia, which was also known by various names such as Chʻananab, Tsghna, Chalana, Tsʻkhna. Ethnographer Yervand Lalayan also mentions the village under the name Zananab. According to Ghevond Alishan, the Armenian name of the village was Tsʻghna, “which must have been large and prominent in ancient times.” Locals explained the name Tsʻghna as meaning “tribe of Ani.” In the local Zok dialect[1], it was also called Tsʻughna, a name mentioned in a 17th-century inscription of the village’s Church of the Holy Mother of God.
The village is located in the Ordubad district of the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, 25 kilometers northwest of the Ordubad town, in the valley of the Tsʻghna River, surrounded by fruit orchards.
Material and cultural findings from the area demonstrate that Tsʻghna was an ancient settlement and, especially since the medieval period, was one of the key centers of the Goghtn province for centuries. Writer and publicist Mesrop Taghiadian mentioned Tsʻghna, writing: “What I saw was not an insignificant village, but the site of a ruined great city.”
Throughout the centuries, the Armenian population of Tsʻghna — primarily merchants — was subjected to invasions, attacks, and massacres by foreign conquerors, often being forced to leave their native land. This is attested in the colophon of a Gospel manuscript copied in Tsʻghna in 1349.
On a mountain slope near the village stand the so-called “Bride and Groom Stones,” about which a folk story has been preserved. Folklorist Aram Ghanalanyan wrote that “a boy and a girl fell in love and escaped the tyranny of their parents. When their families found out, they cursed them, and they immediately turned to stone.”
Tsʻghna was a well-known medieval center of manuscripts copying. Of the approximately ten known manuscripts from the village, two are preserved at the Matenadaran in Yerevan. The oldest one was copied in the Church of the Holy Mother of God in 1349 during the time of village head Daniel, and the most recent one in 1696.
The village had several significant religious and architectural sites, including the large Church of the Holy Mother of God, the churches of St. Gregory, St. Nshan, and St. Sargis, as well as numerous carved reliefs, some of which were preserved on the walls of the Church of the Holy Mother of God and St. Sargis Church, dating to the 15th–17th centuries.
The Church of the Holy Mother of God, built in the 12th–13th centuries, was located in the northeastern part of the village. According to the famous Armenian historian Arakel of Tabriz, in the mid-17th century, Catholicoi Movses and Pilipos renovated it and other monuments in Goghtn and Yernjak. During the Soviet Azerbaijani period, the church was used as a warehouse. It stood until the late 1980s but was destroyed by Azerbaijani authorities in the 2000s.
Another church, St. Sargis, was located in the village center. Built in the 13th–14th centuries, it was renovated in 1890 by S. Saghatelyan. Like other Armenian architectural monuments in Nakhijevan, it too was destroyed by Azerbaijani authorities in the 2000s.
The village had another church, St. Gevorg, mentioned in a manuscript from 1467. It is now in ruins.
“Nakhijevan in the Travel Accounts of European Travelers (13th–17th centuries),” mentions the Jesuit monk Jacques Villot’s journey to Tabriz in 1690. On his way, he stopped in Tsʻghna, describing it as “a rather large village inhabited by over 300 Armenian families.” The European traveler also visited the Church of the Holy Mother of God.[2]
Among other notable landmarks of Tsʻghna were the Tambri quarter cemetery, the Tsʻghna fortress, a bridge, and other structures. The mansion of Soghomon, belonging to the ancestors of the great Armenian musicologist Komitas, was also prominent.
The Tambri cemetery is the oldest one, containing 350–400 tombstones. In the 1940s, most of the tombstones were used as building material by Azerbaijanis.
Tsʻghna had two Armenian (church-parish) schools, opened in 1862 and 1878, and one state (Russian) school, opened in 1900.
The village was historically inhabited exclusively by Armenians, with several hundred Armenian families residing there. As of 1914, the population was entirely Armenian. No Muslim monuments have existed in the area.
In the summer of 1919, Tsʻghna was attacked by Turkish-Tatar forces and resisted for several months. However, by the end of 1919, the village was completely depopulated of Armenians.
Tsʻghna was the birthplace of many notable Armenians, such as the renowned musicologist Aram Merangulyan and Ararat magazine editor Bishop Karapet Ter-Mkrtchyan.
Although the village is currently inhabited by Azerbaijanis and is called Chennab, historical sources and archaeological studies confirm that Tsʻghna was an inseparable part of Armenian cultural and political life in the region.
Bibliography
Ghevond Alishan, Sisakan, Venice, 1893.
Journey of Deacon of Holy Etchmiadzin Mesrop Taghiadiants, M. A., to Armenia Calcutta, 1847.
Yervand Lalayan, Nakhijevan Province, Book XI 1904.
T. Kh. Hakobyan, St. T. Melik-Bakhshyan, H. Kh. Barseghyan, Dictionary of Toponyms of Armenia and Adjacent Regions, Vol. 5, Yerevan, 2001.
L. Khachikyan, Colophons of Armenian Manuscripts, 14th Century, Yerevan, 1950.
Arakel of Tabriz, History, Yerevan, 1988.
A. Ayvazyan, The Monumental Memorials and Relief Carvings of Nakhijevan, Yerevan, 1987.
A. Ayvazyan, The Architectural Monuments of Tsʻghna, Etchmiadzin journal, 1978, No. 3.
Aram Ghanalanyan, Traditions, Yerevan, 1969.
Nakhijevan Atlas, Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation, Yerevan, 2012.
G. Karagyozyan, Nakhijevan in the Travel Accounts of European Travelers (13th–17th Centuries), Yerevan, 2019.
[1] The dialect of Agulis was spoken by the Armenian inhabitants of nine villages located in the vicinity of Agulis in the Goghtn district of the Vaspurakan province of Greater Armenia. These villages included Upper Agulis, Lower Agulis, Handamej, Disar, Tanakert, Ramis, Kaghakik, Pstaka, and Tsghna, whose residents were native Goghtn Armenians. The people of Bist, Msrvanis, Allahi, and Khubs did not speak the Agulis dialect. The subdialects of the villages in Goghtn differed significantly from the core dialect—particularly those of Tsghna and Ramis. The nickname Zok, attributed to the inhabitants, was also applied to the dialect itself, which came to be known as Zokeren ("the language of the Zoks").
[2] G. Karagyozyan, Nakhijevan in the Travel Accounts of European Travelers (13th–17th Centuries), Yerevan, 2019, pp. 178-190.