Shahverdiler is a village in the Zangezur uezd of the former Yelizavetpol (Ganja) governorate, later in the former Gorus district, and currently in the Syunik province. It is located 14 km to the south of the center of Gorus district, by the Gorus-Gafan highway, on the Bazarchay (or Bargushad) River. Its name was marked on the five-verst map of the Caucasus. Another name for the village was “Shahverdiushaghi”.

The village was solely inhabited by Azerbijanis: 238 in 1886, 217 in 1897, 111 in 1904 and 147 Azerbaijanis in 1914. In August-September 1918 Armenian armed groups burned down the village killing 87 villagers, and the rest of the population fled to the Gubadli region. After the establishment of the Zangezur uezd in Soviet Armenia on 31 August 1921, the settlement was integrated into the administrative territory of Armenia. Following the establishment of the Soviet government, only 40 families returned to their place and rebuilt the village of Shahverdilar. The name of the village is associated with the name of the multi-generational family who founded this settlement. According to the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers “On the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenian SSR to the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR” dated 23 December 1947, the Azerbaijani population of the village was deported from their historical-ethnic territories in 1951. After I.Stalin’s death in 1953, part of the population was able to return to the village.

When the Tatev hydroelectric power station was built in 1961, the village was renamed “Vorotan settlement”. Since then, eight Armenian families moved to the Shahverdiler village and settled there. In 1988 the village was inhabited by 80 Azerbaijanis. In November of the same year, the Azerbaijani population of the village was ousted, and with no compensation, their wealth and property were left to Armenians.

Geographic coordinates: latitude 39°26’ N., longitude 46°20’ E.