CHIMANKEND

The village in Jigadar district of Vedibasar district, 9 km east of Boyuk Vedi village, the center of Vedi district, on the bank of the river Vedi, next to the village of Ashagi Garabaglar.

Until 1920, only Azerbaijani Turks lived in the village. In 1922-1988 it was a mixed village, where Azerbaijanis and Armenians lived together, the village was also partially inhabited by Muslim Kurds.

It was founded in the late 1870s - early 1880s by families of natives from the village of Ashagi Garabaglar. In 1886, 853 families (461 men, 392 women) lived in the village of Chimankend together with the village of Ashagi Karabaglar, and in 1914 - 1879 Azerbaijanis.

In 1918-1920,­ one of the leading units of the Vedibasar Liberation Army was stationed in Chimankend. It was headed by Sultan Khan Marendi, one of the 11 members of the National Vedibasar Committee.

After Vedibasar was occupied by the Armenian Dashnaks in 1920, the residents of Chimankend villages also found refuge in Southern Azerbaijan, only after the establishment of Soviet authority in the region were they able to return to their homes, and most preferred to settle in Chimankend territory.

In 1922 the number of Chimankendians who had already returned was 880. However, despite public protests, the Armenian government housed 210 Armenian immigrants from abroad in Chimankend in the same year.

In 1926 there were 690 Azerbaijanis and 141 Armenians in the village, and in 1931 there were 663 Azerbaijanis and ­178 Armenians. In 1931 there were 34 Muslim Kurds living in the village.

The division of the Vedi district into two administrative districts in 1937 ­and the creation of a district ­centered in Chimankend in the mountainous part contributed to the rapid development of Chimankend. Already in 1939, the Azerbaijani population of the village reached 4,600 people.

During the deportations of 1948-1953, the entire Azerbaijani population of Chimankend, as well as other villages of the Karabakh region, was forcibly relocated to­ Azerbaijan. Only a few of them came back later.

On January 25, 1978 Chimankend village was­ renamed Urtsadzor by the Armenian government,

during the 1988 genocide of the Western Azerbaijanis, the entire Azerbaijani population (60 Azerbaijanis in 15 families­, 75 Muslim Kurds in 15 families) who continued to live in the village were brutally expelled from their native villages.