Chobanmaz is a village in the Alexandropol uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Abaran district, and currently in the Aragatsotn province. The village was integrated into the former Alagoz (Aragats) district in 1972. The provincial centre lies 49 km to the north of the town of Ashtarak, at the foot of Hadis Mountain, by the Goykilsa (Kaputan) village, and at a height of 2150 m above sea level. In the works of Armenian authors, the name of the village was mentioned as “Chobangormaz”, “Chobangorukmaz”, “Chobangarakmaz”. It was marked as “Chobangarakmaz” on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

The village was inhabited by 24 Azerbaijanis in 1873, 36 in 1886, 77 in 1897, 88 in 1905, 97 in 1914 and 96 Azerbaijanis in 1916. In 1850 the Armenians from Kars were removed and settled in the village, followed by the Kurds during the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish war. In spring of 1918 the Azerbaijanis were deported from their historical-ethnic territories having been exposed to the aggression of Armenian armed units. At present, Armenians live in the village.

The toponym was coined by adding the phonetic variant “maz” of the word “mar” used in the sense of “a hill” to the Turkic ethnonym “choban”. The sound replacement “r~z” (gör~göz, yor (maq)-yoz (maq)) in the final position of the word in the Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani is normal. Given the above stated, we come to a conclusion that “mar” and “maz” are synonyms.

The village was renamed “Avshen” by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 25 January 1978. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” dated 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative territory of Aragatsotn province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude: 40°43’ N., longitude: 44°17’ E.