JERMAGHBYUR AND THE VICINITY
Jermaghyur is situated on the left tributary of the Trtu, along the road leading to Rmhostyan mountain pass. The Turkish name of the village is Istibulagh (calqued 'hot spring').
1.5 km Southeast of Jermaghbyur or Istibulagh. on the slope over the left bank of the same steam there is a village called in Turkish Kilisa ('church').
A vaulted one nave basilica of the XVII cent. build of coarse stone and mortar is still standing (external dimensions: 14.5x7.80 m). The only tympanum in the southern wall is decorated with three fine khachkars. Two of them were inscribed, one contained also inscriptions of two lines on the pedestal, and four lines on the body of the cross.
There are two more villages - Mishni and Nerkin or Ashagha (Lower) Khach in the basin of the Jermaghbyur tributary The former was renamed in the Soviet period alter the village Mishni of the Lachin District owing to the Kurds who moved here bringing the name of their native village with themselves, and the second was presumably named after the khachkars standing in the vicinity. We succeeded to find only one of them. It is an uninscribed lonely cross with strict ornaments Is characteristic of the XII-XIIIcent. It might possibly have served as a boundary mark. It is located 1 km southeast of Nerkin Khach on top the hill, on the altitude of 1711 m. above the sea. The upper part of the cross is a little damaged. Its dimensions are 155x78x17 cm.
Villages Goydara and Aldash are situated at the left bank of the same tributary. A little lower by the course of the Trtu (before its confluence with the Lev) there are villages Alchali, Saridash, Kendiri, Kavshan, Guneypaya, Nadrkhanli (left (of the Trtu), Ghuzechirkin, Snkhkilisa, Bashkand, Milli 1, 2, 3 (right of the Trtu), Chaykand and Ghlchli, situated just at the bank.
The area of these villages is still in need of detailed investigation. Traces of Armenian cemetery and a church are discovered only in the central part of Chaykand. The walls of some dwelling houses and the bakery were built of fragmented khachkars and broken tombstones delivered from the cemetery. A khachkar of the church facing was fastened into the bakery wall Later the fighters of Artsakh Liberation Army dismantled the cross and transferred it to the village Charektar in Nagorno-Karabakh. Neither of these khachkars contained any inscription, but judging from their stylistic peculiarities they may dale back to the XII-XIVcent.
|
 |
Chaykand. The church facing ornamented with crosses. Sole Khachkar situated between the villages Nerkin Khach and Chaykand (XIII-XVI Cent).
|
A fragment of a khachkar is located in a garden of a house, in the right quarters of Chaykand village. Only the date is inscribed on two sides of lower wings of the khachkar, about the location site of which we were informed from Martiros Chalumian, a resident of the same village - "YEAR 1198"
|
