Gabakhli

Gabakhli was a village in the territory of the Novo-Bayazid uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Akhta (Hrazdan) district, and present-day Kotayk province. It was located near the Miskhana River. The village was marked on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

The village was inhabited only by Azerbaijanis: 94 in 1873, 138 in 1886, 154 in 1897, 181 in 1908, 431 in 1914 and 190 Azerbaijanis in 1916. The Azerbaijanis were attacked, massacred or ousted from the village by Armenian armed formations in 1918. After the establishment of Soviet power in present-day Armenia, the Azerbaijanis managed to return to their village. The village was inhabited by 87 Azerbaijanis in 1922 and 128 Azerbaijanis in 1931. The village was abolished, after the Azerbaijani inhabitants of the village had forcibly been deported to Azerbaijan in accordance with the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers “On the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenian SSR in the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR” dated 23 December 1947. At present, it lies in ruins.

The toponym was coined by adding the identifying suffix “-li” to the Turkic ethnonym “Gabag” meaning “the village where the Gabag tribe lives”.