Albanian temple in the village of Gödekbulag (Kedigara-bulag, Khirdabulag)

In the village of Gödekbulag (Kediqara-bulag, Khırdabulag) in the Basarkechar district of the Göyche region

Basarkechar district – renamed Vardenis from 11.06.1969, and the village of Gödekbulag was renamed Garjakhpyur from 12.08.1946.

Archaeological monument

The remains of the Albanian temple in the village of Godekbulag have survived to the present day. It was taken over by Armenians and is presented as an "Armenian monument."

The village of Godekbulag is located 15 km southeast of the district center, on the southeast side of Lake Goycha. The temple was built in the 8th-9th centuries on a high hilly area on the outskirts of the village. Tufa stone was used in the construction of the temple. The temple is a monument that preserves the traces of Albanian culture of the 8th-9th centuries. The remains of the temple existed until the deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1988. The temple and the remains of the fortress built during the Oghuz period are material evidence that this area was built by the Oghuz Turks for at least 1000-1500 years.
The main inhabitants of the village were Azerbaijanis. In official sources, the name of the village is first mentioned in documents from 1555, and it is described as one of the administrative units of the Chukhur-Saad beylerbeyli of the Safavid-Azerbaijani state. In the notes on page 15 of the "Comprehensive Book of the Iravan Province", compiled and approved by the Ottomans in 1728, the village of Kedigarabulag is presented as one of the villages included in the administrative division of the Mazra district of the Iravan province. At that time, the payment of Kedigarabulag to the sultan's treasury was 2421 aqcha. The fact that its name was not mentioned among the settlements included in the newly created Armenian province indicates that Kedigarabulag was also among the ancient Turkish lands destroyed by Armenian-Russian military units in the Goycha district during the wars of 1826–1829. However, later the original owners of the village rebuilt it, which is also confirmed in the documents of 1873. However, in that document, the Armenians did not name the village as Kedigarabulag, but as Gödekbulag. Until the beginning of the 19th century, only Azerbaijani Turks lived here. After the Turkmenchay Peace Treaty, in 1828–1829, Armenians who were resettled from Turkey were settled here. In 1886, 226 Azerbaijanis lived in the village. In the 1890s, attempts were made to expel Azerbaijanis from here.
After the massacres of 1905, the village was included in the list of mixed villages.
During the massacres of 1918, the village was destroyed by Dashnaks, and most of the population was killed. In 1922, Azerbaijanis returned to their homeland.

The toponym is formed from the combination of the hydro-terms "gödek" and "bulag", which in the Azerbaijani language mean "short, not long". It is a hydrotoponym. It is a structurally complex toponym. Its other name is Khirdabulag. It comes from the Azerbaijani words "ködek", "short", "small". The original inhabitants of the village of Gödekbulag were representatives of the Turkic-Oguz tribes.