Garniyarig

Garniyarig was a village in the territory of the Novo-Bayazid uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Akhta (Hrazdan) district, and present-day Kotayk province. It was located to the northwest of the town of Hrazdan. The name of the village was noted in “The Iravan Province Review Book” and marked on the five-verst map of the Caucasus. Another name for the village was Karvansara. The walls of Old Karvansara have reached our days.

The village was historically inhabited only by Azerbaijanis. After Armenians had been removed and settled in the village by the Treaties of Turkmenchay (1828) and Adrianople (1829), the Azerbaijanis gradually left the village. Along with the Armenians, the village was inhabited by 50 Azerbaijanis in 1897. Armenian armed formations committed massacre in the village in 1905-1906. The village was abolished and merged with the town of Akhta (Hrazdan) in 1960 as a result of the expansion of the Hrazdan town.

The toponym was coined by combining the word “garin” formed on the basis of the word “garnim” meaning “a small stream, a bed of a small river” and the word “yarig” meaning in Turkic “a cracked surface”, “a river on the surface”, “a gorge”.