Ashaghi Garkhin is a village in the Echmiadzin uezd of the former Iravan governorate, in the present-day Uchkilsa (Echmiadzin, Vagharshapat) district, and currently in the Armavir province. The provincial centre lies 39 km to the southeast of the town of Serdarabad (Armavir), by the Boyuk Garasu River, and at a height of 825 m above sea level. It was marked in “The Iravan Province Review Book”, on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

The village was solely inhabited by Azerbaijanis: 318 in 1831, 369 in 1873, 420 in 1886, 586 in 1897, 568 in 1904, 604 in 1914 and 631 Azerbaijanis in 1916. In 1918 the village was exposed to Armenian aggression and its inhabitants were deported, and the Armenians, who had been removed from the Surmali province of Türkiye, were settled in the village. The surviving Azerbaijanis managed to return to their historical-ethnic land following the establishment of Soviet power in the present-day Armenian territory. Along with the Armenians, the place was inhabited by 169 Azerbaijanis in 1922, 201 in 1926 and 212 Azerbaijanis in 1931. According to the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers “On the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenian SSR to the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR” dated 23 December 1947, the Azerbaijanis were removed from their historical-ethnic land by force in 1948–1949. At present, only Armenians live in the village.

The toponym was coined on the basis of the world “ashaghi” denothing a distinctive feature and the ethnonym “Garkhin“, one of the Oghuz tribes.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 15 July 1946, the village was renamed “Araks”. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” dated 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative area of the Armavir province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude: 40°03’ N., longitude: 44°18’ E.