Gollu

Gollu is a village in the Aghbaba area (nahiya) of the Kars uezd of the former Kars province, later in the former Amasiya (Aghbaba) district, and currently in the Shirak province. The provincial centre lies 46 km to the northwest of the town of Gumru, 10–11 km to the north of Lake Arpa, at a 6 km distance of the Sultanabad-Gazanchi highway, at a height of 2,050 m above sea level.

The residents of the village were Azerbaijanis. In their works of Armenian authors the Garapapaks are indicated as the people living in the village who are presented as a separate people. The Garapapaks are one of the Turkic tribes and an ethnographic group taking part in the formation of the ethnogenesis of Azerbaijanis. The village was inhabited by 204 Azerbaijanis in 1886, 284 in 1897, 313 in 1908 and 403 Azerbaijanis in 1914. In 1920 the Azerbaijanis were expelled from the village by Armenian armed forces. Following the establishment of Soviet power in present-day Armenia after 1920, the Azerbaijanis managed to return to their native villages. The village was inhabited by 242 Azerbaijanis in 1922, 316 in 1926, 334 in 1931, 416 Azerbaijanis in 1939, 470 in 1959, 698 in 1970, 757 in 1979 and 760 Azerbaijanis in 1987. In January-February 1989 the Azerbaijanis were expelled from their native lands by Armenians. At present, the village is inhabited by the Armenians removed from the Georgian district of Akhilkalak.

The toponym was formed by adding the suffix “-lü” to the word “göl” (lake).

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 3 April 1991, it was renamed “Ardenis”. 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 Shirak province.

Geographical coordinates: latitude: 41°04’ N., longitude: 43°43’ E.