Bashkend is a village in the Iravan uezd of the former Iravan governorate, in the former Ellar (Kotayk, Abovyan) district, and currently in the Kotayk province. The provincial centre lies 42 km to the southwest of the town of Akhta (Hrazdan), at a height of 1,450 m above sea level. It was marked as “Bashkoy” in “The Iravan Province Review Book”, and as “Bashkend” on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

Until 1828 the village had been inhabited only by Azerbaijanis. In 1829 Armenians were removed from the Iranian provinces of Salmas and Khoy and settled there. Alongside with the Armenians, 24 Azerbaijanis also lived in the village in 1897. In the early 20th century, in 1905–1906, the Azerbaijanis were deported from their historical land by the Armenian armed forces. At present, Armenians live in the village.

The toponym was coined by combining the word “bash” used in the sense of “head”, “the source of the river”, “the peak of the mountain”, “senior”, “basic”, “great” in Turkic and the geographical name “kend”.

The village was renamed “Akunk” by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 4 April 1946. 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 Kotayk province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude: 40°16’ N., longitude: 44°01’ E.