Castle in the village of Godekbulag

In the village of Gödek-bulag (Kedigara-bulag, Khirda-bulag) in the Basarkechar district of the Göyche district

Basarkechar district was renamed Vardenis on 11.06.1969, and Godakbulag village was renamed Garjakh-pyur on 12.08.1946.

Architecture

The castle is a monument that preserves the traces of the Oghuz culture dating back 1000-1500 years. The remains of the castle and its towers remained until the deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1988. The remains of the castle and towers in the village of Gödekbulag have survived to the present day. It was adopted by Armenians and is presented as an "Armenian monument".

The village of Gödəkbulag, where the castle is located, is located 15 km southeast of the district center, on the southeast side of Lake Göyche. The castle was built 1000 years ago on a high hilly area on the outskirts of the village. Large pieces of rock and river stones were used in the construction of the castle. The remains of the castle, built during the Oghuz period, are material evidence that supports the conclusion that this territory was inhabited 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 dating back to 1555, and it is characterized as one of the administrative units of the Chukhur-Sa’ad Beylerbey of the Safavid-Azerbaijani state. In the notes on page 15 of the “Compendium of the Yerevan Province” compiled and approved by the Ottomans in 1728, the village of Kedigarabulag was presented as one of the villages included in the administrative division of the Mazra district of the Yerevan province. At that time, the payment of Kedigarabulag in the special part of the sultan's treasury was 2421 agcha.
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 razed to the ground by Armenian-Russian military units in the Goycha region during the wars of 1826-1829. But later the original owners of the village renovated it again, and this historical reality was also recorded in the documents of 1873. However, in that document, the Armenians gave the name of the village not as Kedigarabulag, but as Gödekbulag.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, only Azerbaijani Turks lived here. After the Turkmenchay Peace Treaty, Armenians who were resettled from Turkey in 1828–1829 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 the Dashnak army, and most of the population was killed. In 1922, the surviving villagers returned to their homeland.

The toponym is formed from the combination of the hydroterms "gödek" and "bulag", which in Azerbaijani mean "short, not long". It is a hydrotoponym. It is a structurally complex toponym. Its other name is Khirdabulag. It comes from the Azerbaijani word "ködek", "short", "small". The original inhabitants of the village of Gödekbulag were representatives of the Turkic-Oguz tribes. The fortress played an important role in the defense of the population.