Gergar (Gargar)

Gergar is a village in the Borchali uezd of the former Tiflis governorate, later in the former Jalaloghlu (Stepanavan) district, the Lori province. The provincial centre lies 14 km to the northwest of the town of Boyuk Garakilsa (Vanadzor), on the banks of the Gargar River, at a height of 1,400 m. Armenian authors mention the name of the village as “Gargar”, “Gyargyari hay”, or “Herher”.

In 1897 the village was inhabited by four Azerbaijanis along with the Armenians. In the early 20th century, in 1905–1906, they were forced out of the village. Now only Armenians reside there.

The toponym was coined from the ancient Gargar Turkic ethnonym marked in the work of the Greek historian Strabo “Geography”. “Gargar” is a phonetic version of the Turkic ethnonym “Gargar”. The ethnonym “Gargar” is also found in Azerbaijani toponymy in the phonetic versions of “herher, kherkher”.

Now the village is specified in the documents as “Gargar”. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” dated 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative territory of the Lori province.

Geographical coordinates: latitude: 40°57’ N., longitude: 44°26’ E.