Azerbaijani heritage in Gorchulu village Armenianized, residents subjected to ethnic cleansing

A study on the history of Gorchulu, an Azerbaijani village in present-day Armenia now known as Gorgoch, where Azerbaijanis lived until the late 1980s, has been prepared as part of the "Sites of Memory of Western Azerbaijan" project.

Report informs that the article appeared in Perished Civilization.

The village's names were recorded as Korchuln, Korchalu and Allah-verdy-kend during the Tsarist period, and Korchrlu and Korchlu during the Soviet period. The toponym is associated with the Turkic term "gorchu," which denoted a military post at court and dates back to the Mongol era. From the 14th to the 18th century, the term was used in Azerbaijan to refer to members of special guard units and the palace guard.

In July 2006, the village was renamed Gorgoch as part of a policy of Armenianization and the erasure of Azerbaijani heritage in Armenia. Since 1995, it has been part of Kotayk Province of the Republic of Armenia. From the mid-18th century until the Russian conquest, the village's territory was part of the Darachichag mahal of the Iravan Khanate.

Russia occupied the territory of the Iravan Khanate in 1827. Its incorporation into the Russian Empire was formalized by the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay. During the Tsarist period, the village formed part of the Novobayazet Uyezd of the Erivan Governorate. At various times, the village was inhabited by ancestors of the Azerbaijanis.

On May 29, 1918, the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) ceded Erivan, present-day Yerevan, and several surrounding territories to the Armenians. The First Republic of Armenia was thereby established on land that had historically been inhabited by ancestors of present-day Azerbaijanis. Within the first few months of its existence, it began to make territorial claims against its neighbors: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye (the Ottoman Empire at the time).

Between 1918 and 1920, Dashnaktsutyun, the nationalist party that held power in the Republic of Armenia, carried out ethnic cleansing of the Turkic population in the Erivan Governorate and in other areas, particularly in Zangezur, Karabakh, and Nakhchivan.

The sharp decline in Gorchulu's Turkic population provides evidence that its residents were subjected to ethnic cleansing.

In the late 1980s, as a result of Armenian territorial claims to Karabakh and deteriorating relations between the two republics, Azerbaijanis were permanently driven out of the territory of the Armenian SSR.

Between 2021 and 2024, extensive fieldwork was conducted across the territory of Armenia, including in remote mountainous regions. The research was undertaken in preparation for the book The Perished Civilization and focused on identifying and documenting surviving Azerbaijani heritage sites. During the fieldwork, an Azerbaijani cemetery with several surviving gravestones was discovered in the village.

Information about nearly 600 villages in present-day Armenia once inhabited by ancestors of the Azerbaijanis has been collected and systematized as part of the "Sites of Memory of Western Azerbaijan" project. Some of these villages retain remains of Turkic cultural and historical heritage, including cemeteries, shrines and mosques.