Artsap Village

Artsap a village in the Kogovit province of the Ayrarat province of Greater Armenia, then in Western Armenia, in the Bayazet province of the Erzurum vilayet. It was located northwest of Daronik, at the foot of Mount Artsapakar, near the Chingli Pass, on the road from Igdir to Old Bayazet. It is mentioned from the beginning of the VII century on the occasion of the meeting convened in Dvin during the reign of the Armenian Catholicos Abraham I Aghbatanetsi.

In 642, the Arabs, retreating from Yerevan to Kogovit, stopped under the Eagle. After several unsuccessful attacks, the Arabs found the underground secret road leading to the fortress and captured it. Arriving in Artsap, Theodoros Rshtuni, who was pursuing the Arabs, defeated the 3,000-strong Arab army and freed the captives. In the following centuries, Artsap was again remembered as a strong fortress and a purely Armenian-populated village.

After the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829, hundreds of Artsap residents emigrated and settled in Eastern Armenia, in the Syan basin, in the present-day villages of Tsovagyugh and Meghradzor. In 1877, the fortress city was captured by Ter-Ghukasov through Russian troops. During the Great Genocide of 1915, the residents of Artsap were deported, some of them died, the survivors migrated and settled in Eastern Armenia.

Photo By: Artur Martirosyan