Tombstones in the village of Zod

In the village of Zod (its first name was Bashkalafa from the 3rd–5th centuries to the end of the 14th century (1387–1388), and from the beginning of the 15th century (1400) to Veliagha in 1813–1814), in the Basarkechar district of the Goycha district

Basarkechar district – from 11.06.1969 Vardenis, Zod village from 09.04.1991 Sotk

Architecture

Many of the tombstones in the village of Zod have been destroyed, and those that remain have been replaced with Armenian crosses and inscriptions in Armenian, adopted by Armenians, and presented as "Armenian monuments."

Zod village, one of the largest and most developed villages in Basarkechar district, has examples of material and cultural heritage from various periods. One of the areas rich in examples of material and cultural heritage was the Oghuz cemetery of the 13th-14th centuries located in a place called “Boyuk Takhta”. The headstone, a beautiful example of architecture with the inscription “Hasan Ibn Shirin” on it, was visited by the public. The height of the grave monument, carved from rock, was 2-3 meters and its width was about 50-60 cm.
It is found in the list of villages considered suitable for living in the Goycha basin at that time, compiled by I. Chopin. According to official data, Zod was a purely Turkish village at that time in terms of the ethnic composition of its population, and 425 people lived here. In 1873, the village population increased to 905, and in 1897 to 1,588.
During the massacres of 1905–1907, the village had approximately 100 houses and a population of 300–350, and in 1914, it had 1,988 residents. During the deportations of 1918–1920, the village had 200–230 houses and a population of 800–1,000. During the deportations of 1948–1953, 125 houses and a population of 500 were resettled in the Goygol region of Azerbaijan. The village had 400–450 houses and a population of 1,600–2,000. During the last deportation in 1988–1991, the entire village population was removed from their native lands and became refugees. The villagers settled in Baku, Ganja, Khanlar (now Goygol), Samukh and other places. The villagers still live in the areas they settled in. The village had 650–700 houses and a population of about 4,700 people.

According to some sources, “Zod” means “a people settled in a harsh, impassable high mountainous place, a place of settlement” in ancient Turkic languages. According to another explanation, the Albanian historian Musa Kalankatlı, speaking of the middle of the first century AD, mentions the Savdey/Tsavdey tribe in Armenian writing among the tribes living in Albania, and the 5th century Armenian author Moisey Khorenasi mentions the Sod tribe and notes that it is a descendant of the Albanian Tsar Ere. This ethnonym/tribe name is reflected in the toponym Zod in the Goycha district.