Kotuz was a village in the territory of the Iravan uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Vedi (Ararat) district, and present-day Ararat province. It was located near the village of Garaghaj and the Changli River and at the foot of Kotuz Mountain. The name of the village was noted as “Kutus” in “The Iravan Province Comprehensive Data Book” dated 1590 and marked as “Kotuz” on the five-verst map of the Caucasus.

The village was inhabited by 188 Azerbaijanis in 1873, 266 in 1886, 329 in 1897, 249 in 1904, 493 in 1914 and 459 Azerbaijanis in 1916. The Azerbaijanis were attacked, massacred or ousted from the village by Armenian armed units in 1918. After the establishment of Soviet power in present-day Armenia, the Azerbaijanis who survived managed to return to their village. The village was inhabited by 58 Azerbaijanis in 1922, 110 in 1926 and 154 in 1931. The village was devastated, after the Azerbaijani inhabitants of the village had forcibly been deported to Azerbaijan in accordance with the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers “On the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from Armenian SSR to the Kur-Araz lowlands of the Azerbaijan SSR” dated 23 December 1947.

The toponym was coined on the basis of the word “kituz” meaning “a wild cow, a bull” in Old Turkic.