Alpava is a village in the Iravan uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Gamarli (Artashat) district, and currently in the Ararat province. The provincial centre lies 9 km to the north of the town of Gamarli, on the right bank of the Garnibasar River, at a height of 880 m above sea level. It is marked as Arpavar in the works of Armenian authors. It is indicated as “Alpevi” in “The Iravan Province Review Book”, as “Albava”, “Alpava”, “Alpavan” in “The Dictionary of the Toponyms of Armenia and Surrounding Provinces”.

The village was inhabited by 35 Azerbaijanis in 1831, 97 in 1873, 121 in 1886, 127 in 1897, 188 in 1904, 305 in 1914 and 161 Azerbaijanis in 1916. In 1918 the Azerbaijanis living there were deported having been exposed to massacre by Armenians, and the village was settled by the Armenians who had been removed from abroad. The surviving Azerbaijanis managed to return to their village following the establishment of Soviet power in the present-day Armenian territory. Along with the Armenians, the village was inhabited by 31 Azerbaijanis in 1922, 30 in 1926 and 51 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 to Azerbaijan in 1948–1949, and the village was completely Armenianized.

The toponym was coined by combining the word “alp” meaning “brave, bolt, courageous” in Old Turkic and the phonetic variant “ava” of the word “ova” meaning in Turkic “a lowland, a wide space”, “a pit, valley” and denotes “a brave men’s settlement, land, a lowland, valley”.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 20 August 1945, the village was renamed “Lusakert”, and by decision dated 21 October 1967, it was changed anew and renamed “Nshavan”. 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 Ararat province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude: 40°01’N., longitude: 44°31’ E.