Sultanabad is a village in the Aghbaba area (nahiya) of the Kars uezd of the former Kars province, later in the former Amasiya (Aghbaba) district, and currently in the Shirak province. The provincial centre lies at a distance of 35 km from the town of Gumru, on the shores of Lake Arpa, at a height of 2,040 m above sea level. Its name was marked on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

The inhabitants of the village were Azerbaijanis. The works of Armenian authors indicate that the village inhabitants were the Garapapags. The Grapapags are one of the Turkic tribes. The village was inhabited by 171 Azerbaijanis in 1886, 249 in 1897, 286 in 1908 and by 384 Azerbaijanis in 1914. The village was part of the Provisional National Government of the Southwestern Caucasus established in Kars in 1918–1919. In February 1920, as a result of the attack of Armenian armed groups, the village was destroyed and the population became refugees. By the Treaty of Kars in 1921, the village was included in Soviet Armenia as part of the Aghbaba area. Following that process, part of the population returned to the village. The village was inhabited by 144 Azerbaijanis in 1922, 198 in 1926, 224 in 1931, 219 in 1970, 260 in 1979 and 319 Azerbaijanis in 1987. In late 1988 – early 1989 the Azerbaijanis were ousted from the village by the state of Armenia and the Armenians from the Akhalkalaki and Bogdanovka (Ninosminda) districts of Georgia settled there.

The toponym was coined by combining the personal name “Sultan” and the word “abad” used in the sense of “the place with many constructions, with all kinds of living conditions”. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 12 November 1935, it was renamed “Shurabad” and by decision dated 8 August 1991, it was renamed “Paghakn”. 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 the Shirak province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude 41°03’ N.,longitude 43°40’ E.