Gravestones in the village of Herher

In the village of Herher in the Pashaly district of the Deralayaz district

Pashaly district was established on 15.10.1931. On 12.10.1956, it was renamed Azizbeyov, and in 1991, it was renamed Vayk district.

Architecture

The monuments in the ancient cemetery in the village of Herher were destroyed by Armenians because they were rich in material and cultural heritage, confirming that Azerbaijanis had lived there since ancient times. Armenians, who tried to appropriate Albanian temples, present the Albanian cross-stones on the graves they had previously destroyed as "Armenian monuments" in the present day, and collect several of the cross-stone monuments from the graves they had destroyed and display them against the wall of the temple.

Herher tombstones are located 17 km northwest of the district center, on a high ground on the outskirts of Herher village, next to Herher River, the right tributary of the Eastern Arpachay River. The cemetery around Herher Temple contains tombstones and sculptures reflecting different periods of history. The monuments were destroyed or appropriated by Armenians who came here from time to time and occupied the area during the deportations they carried out against Azerbaijanis. Herher tombstones were also victims of this policy. About 10 monuments collected from the destroyed cemetery still remain in the area, leaning against the wall of Herher Temple. The monuments, which are 1, 1.5, 2 meters high and of various sizes, were made by hewing rocks.
The village of Herher is mentioned in the “Compendium of the Yerevan Province” compiled in 1728 as Harher, and in the 5-verst map of the Caucasus as Gerger (Herher). The ancient name of the village is shown in the form of Erern in Armenian and Russian sources, , . The name of the village is mentioned in the form of Erern in the 8th century.
The name of the village is now used in the form of Gerger (Gerger). Gerger is a variant formed on the basis of the sound change of the Turkic ethnonym Gargar. In the source dated 1728, it is Harher in the Daralayaz region, .
In 1831, only 213 Azerbaijanis lived here. In the 1850s and 1870s, Armenians who had been resettled from the Iranian province of Salmas were settled in the village. Along with the Armenians, 647 Azerbaijanis lived here in 1873, 656 in 1886, 1047 in 1897, and 1220 in 1914. In 1918, the Azerbaijanis were deported. After the establishment of Soviet power in present-day Armenia, the survivors returned to their historical and ethnic lands. There were 156 Azerbaijanis living here in 1922, 220 in 1926, and 278 in 1931. By a special decision of the USSR government, the Azerbaijanis living in the village were forcibly resettled to Azerbaijan in 1948–1953. Now Armenians live in the village.

The toponym was created from the name of the Gargar tribe, mentioned in Strabo's "Geography". The Gargar tribe is one of the ancient Turkic tribes, in the Gargar ethnonym the sound q changed to h and took the form Herher. The substitution of the sound qh is a regular occurence in the Azerbaijani language: the substitution of the sound q~h  is clearly evident in the words gamu-hamı, gansi-hansi. In general, until the 18th century, words beginning with the sound h (interrogative pronouns) were used with the sound q. Herher is an ethnotoponym. It is a simple toponym in structure.