Darghali

Darghali 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 6.5 km to the east of the town of Gamarli, by the canal flowing from the Garni River, by the Araz River at the edge of the village of Yuva, at a height of 870 m above sea level. It was marked in “The Iravan Province Review Book”, and on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

Historically, the village had been inhabited by Azerbaijanis until 1828. In 1828–1830 Armenians were removed to the village from the Iranian provinces of Khoy and Salmas. The Armenian literature states that the village was founded in 1831. Here the Armenian researchers have falsified the historical truth, since, in “The Iravan Province Review Book” compiled in 1728 the name of the village of Darghali subordinated to the area of Garni is mentioned in the timar under Mustafa’s name. The income of the village of Darghali constituted 6,000 akchas. Along with the Armenians, the village was inhabited also by 125 Azerbaijanis in 1831, 22 in 1873, 36 in 1886 and 11 Azerbaijanis in 1897. In 1918 the Azerbaijanis were deported having been exposed to genocide. At present, Armenians live there.

The toponym was coined by adding the Azerbaijani identifying suffix “-lı” to the word “dargha” used in the Turkic languages in the sense of “a judge of a town, uezd, mahal, province”. The word “Ashaghi” denotes a distinguishing feature.

The village was renamed “Anastasavan” by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 1 December 1949 and further changed and became “Aygezard” by decision dated 30 December 1957. 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: 39°56’ N., longitude: 44°36’