Dashkend is a village in the Novo-Bayazid uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Basarkechar (Vardenis) district, and currently in the Gegharkunik province. The provincial centre lies 80 km to the southeast of the town of Kavar (Gavar), and at a height of 2155 m above sea level. It was mentioned in “The Iravan Province Review Book”, on the five- verst map of the Caucasus.

The village was inhabited only by Azerbaijanis: 357 in 1831, 560 in 1873, 816 in 1886, 1,004 in 1897, 816 in 1908, 1,389 in 1914 and 1,054 Azerbaijanis in 1916. On 20-23 January 1919 Armenian armed units committed massacres. After Soviet power had been established in present-day Armenia, the Azerbaijanis managed to return to their own village. The village was populated only by Azerbaijanis: 882 in 1922, 984 in 1926, 1,230 in 1931 and 2100 Azerbaijanis in 1987. In late November 1988 the Azerbaijanis were again driven out from their historical-ethnic territories. At present, only Armenians live there.

There is an Oghuz cemetery dating back to the 6th-7th centuries, the ruins of the Alban church dating back to the 9th-12th centuries in the village.

The toponym was coined by combining the word “dash” meaning in Old Turkic “foreign, external”, “far away” and the word “kend”, denoting together “a village located far away, outside”.

The village was renamed “Ayrk” by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian Republic dated 3 April 1991. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” date 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative area of the Gegharkunik province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude: 40°07′ N., longitude: 45°47′ E.