Chikivang temple

In the village of Gargar of the Sharur-Daralayaz district, later in the Keshishkand (Yeghegnadzor) district, and now in the village of Gargar in the Vayots Dzor region

Sharur-Daralayaz district – Gargar village, Vayots Dzor province

Architecture

Chikivang temple was not repaired because it is not an "Armenian monument". Currently, it is in a half-destroyed state in the area where it is located and is presented as an "Armenian monument".

As in many historical settlements, there are historical monuments and ancient cemeteries in Gargar village and its outskirts. A little way from the road to the village of Gargar, on the top of the mountain there is a small temple called Chikivang (Armenians call it Chikivank). Armenians associate the origin of the name Chikivank with the fact that the soil around the temple has the ability to cure skin diseases. Eczema is supposedly called "chiki" by local people. So, the treatment recipe is as follows: soil collected from the temple is mixed with water from a spring located near the cemetery on the way from the village to the temple, and then this mixture is used for medicinal purposes. When we consider the etymology of this word in the Azerbaijani language, it becomes clear that the name of Chikivang temple as well as Ayrivang monastery is completely consistent with the construction of the building. As we know, in some dialects of Azerbaijani Turkish, there are defining terms such as “chiki. jigi. chiggili, chikkana, chiggalanja” and etc., which indicate the very small volume of an object or mass. According to the description of tourists about the mentioned monument and as can be seen from the photos, the church is so small that 5, maximum 6 people can fit inside without observing physical distance. Thus, Chikivang means "small church", which fully corresponds to the structure of this building. In addition, the names of nobles and their family members who were deaf to the construction of the temple, such as Bahram, Goncha, Okan, Amat, Asan and others, who are not related to the current Armenian nation, and whose inscriptions are engraved on the walls of Chikivang temple, can be specially mentioned. Gargar is a historical village in the Sharur-Daralayaz district of Azerbaijan (now in the Vayots Dzor province of Armenia). The village is located in the eastern part of the marz, on the right bank of the Gargar River, 32 kilometers northeast of Yeghegnadzor (Keshishkand), the administrative center of the province, at an altitude of 1680 meters above sea level. In 1831, 213 people lived here, only Azerbaijani Turks. In the 1850s and 1870s, Armenians from the Salmas province of Iran were settled in the village. From that moment, Azerbaijanis began to live together with Armenians. The population of the village was 647 in 1873, 656 in 1886, 1047 in 1897, and 1220 in 1914. In 1918, the village was captured by the Armenians, the autochthonous Azerbaijani Turks were deported by the Armenians. After the establishment of Soviet power in modern Armenia, the surviving Azerbaijani Turks are returning to their historical and ethnic lands. 156 Azerbaijanis lived here in 1922, 220 in 1926, and 278 in 1931. But after some time, by a special decision of the USSR government, Azerbaijanis living in rural areas in 1948-1953 were forcibly transferred to Azerbaijan. Now only Armenians live in the village.
 

In historical sources, the name of the Gargar tribe is mentioned in the writings of Strabo. Ancient Greek chroniclers wrote in detail about the Gargans and the Amazons. The Gargars were the most numerous tribe among the tribes of Caucasian Albania. According to Musa Kalankatli, the Albanian ("Gargari") language is the only known language of Albania. However, archeological monuments related to Gargars have been poorly studied. It is clear from historical sources that this tribe first settled in the mountains, then came to the plains and began to engage in sedentary agriculture. The Gargars were one of the first tribes of Caucasian Albania to accept Christianity. Thus, this information is probably enough to understand that the Gargar ethnotoponymy has nothing to do with the "kar-kar (stone-stone)" version put forward by Armenian "scientists". The name of the Gargars, whose roots go back to ancient times, lived in the names of rivers and in the areas inhabited by Turks, as well as in the name of the village of Gargar in Daralayaz mahal, and came to us as a legacy.