Bighli Husein Sarajli

Bighli Husein Sarajli was a village in the Novo-Bayazid uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Yelenovka (Sevan) district, and present-day Gegharkunik province. In Armenian sources the name of the village is stated as “Begli Husein”, “Bekhlu”. It was located 22 km to the northwest of the settlement of Kavar (Yeni Bayazid, Kamo) and to the northwest of Lake Goycha. It was within the former Akhta (Hrazdan) district in 1930.

The village was inhabited only by Azerbaijanis – 26 in 1831, 356 in 1873, 505 in 1886, 645 in 1897, 658 in 1908, 846 in 1914 and 768 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 that survived managed to return. There lived only 53 Azerbaijanis in 1922. In 1923–1925 the Azerbaijanis were deported and the village was abolished. The village has been reduced to ruins.

The toponym was coined from the antroponym “Bighli Husein” and the ethnonym “Sarajli”, one of the Gazakh tribes, meaning “the village belonging to Bighli Husein of the Sarajli tribe”.