KARVAJAR AND THE VICINITY
Karvajar is one of the most important historical villages of the Tzar province. It is situated on the elevated left slope of the deep gorge of the Trtu, about 180 m above the river bank (average altitude of the town Karvajar is 1600 m above the sea).
As a centre of medieval Armenian literature Karvajar is first recorded in the manuscript of 1402. Here Thovma Syunetsi has rewritten the "Comments to St.Mathew's Gospel by Grigor Tatevatsi. This manuscript mentioned the toponym as Karvajar. A document dating back to 1661 mentioned already Karvajar (without intermediary - a) alongside with Hajav. Boru, Gumer and Zuar.
It's quite probable that the Armenians lived in Karvajar till the thirties of the XVIII cent., then the town was abandoned simultaneously with other regions of the province. In the middle of the XIX cent. it was occupied by the Kurds that modified the Armenian toponym to the phonetics of their mother tongue, calling it Kyarvajar or Kalbajar.
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 Karvajar. Settlement seen from south. |
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In 1930 Karvajar-Kalbajar was turned to a regional centre. Since I960 Kalbajar had become a rural type settlement and in 1980 it acquired the status of a town. The insignificant village began to expand since I960 owing to large-scale investments. It was developing with extreme speed particularly after 1980 and to 1992. During that period the government of Azerbaijan spared no efforts to strengthen the district separating Armenia from Karabakh. As a result, during that period both the dimensions of the settlement and its population increased 6 or 7 times.
The church of Karvajar, as well as the Armenian cemetery fell a victim of the local tendency to destroy any trace of Armenians. Neverleless, the khachkar exhibited in the historical museum of the town till April [993, was the most interesting sample of the ancient art. It was carved on white limestone (dimensions: 28.5x19.0x4.5) and contained a dated inscription of 6 lines on the rear. That khachkar had been brought to the museum on Nov. 4, 1965. Unfortunately, its provenance is not clear.
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However, it should be born in mind that; as far as we are informed, the oldest Armenian khachkar dales back to 876, thus this sample is only 40 years younger. Currently, for security considerations, the cross was taken to the Gandzasar monastery.
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