Tovuz is a village in the Gazakh uezd of the former Yelizavetpol (Ganja) governorate, later in the former Shamshaddin (Berd) district, and currently in the Tavush province. Until the beginning of the 19th century it had been a part of the Sultanate of Shamshaddin. Another name for the village was “Tovuzkend”. The provincial centre lies 64 km to the northeast of the town of Karvansara (Ijevan), at a height of 1,000 m above sea level.

The village was originally inhabited by Azerbaijanis, and following the settlement of Armenians in the region, the population gradually left the village.

The toponym was coined on the basis of the word “tov” used to mean “a mountain” in Turkic and the Turkic ethnonym “Uz” known as one of the Oghuz tribes to denote “a place where the mountainous Uz (Oghuz) live”.

By decision of the Armenian parliament dated 4 July 2006, it was renamed “Tavush”. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” dated 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative area of the Tavush province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude 40°54’ N., longitude 45°24’ E.