KHACHAPARAG (ZAHMAT)

It is located in Zangibasar district, 8 km north-west of Zangibasar district center in Ulukhanli village, 6 km from Irevan city, on the right bank of Zangi river, near Arbat village.

Only Azerbaijani Turks lived in the village.

There were 326 Azerbaijanis (182 men, 144 women) in 75 households in the village in 1832, 716 (377 men, 339 women) in 99 households in 1873, 753 (440 men, 313 women) in 117 households in 1886, 1194 in 1897, 992 in 1905, 1135 in 1914.

In 1918, like other villages in the Zangibasar district, the village of Khachaparag was subjected to brutal attacks by Armenians arriving from Turkey, the village was destroyed by Armenians, burned down, the population was brutally killed, the survivors died and emigrated to the other side of the Araz­. The village had been abandoned for several years, and only in the first years of Soviet rule did the Khachaparag refugees get an opportunity to return to their homeland. Their number in 1922 was 492, in 1926 the rural population increased to 676, in 1931 to 795.

However, during the 1988 genocide, the village was once again subjected to genocide, and more than 3,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from the village.

On January 3, 1935, the village was renamed Zahmat, and on April 19, 1991 it was renamed Hachpar.

One of the facts testifying to the antiquity of the village were its tombstones and breaststones, and statues of a sheep, a horse, and a bull above the graves. On the chest of the ram statues was written the name of the buried himself, his father and tribe, and the year of his death. On the tombstones with ­figures of horses, along with the above data, was written and the age of the deceased. In the village cemetery, only two graves had a statue of a horned bull, which also indicated the number of family members of the deceased.

In addition, looking into the ravine of the Zangi River, it seemed that the 15-16 graves in the village cemetery were stacked on top of each other. The skeleton of the grave on the lower floor, arm and leg bones were much longer and denser.

There were two mosques in the village of Khachaparag: the Great Mosque and the Small Mosque. In the courtyard of the Great Mosque grew large mulberry trees, followed by an old poplar tree. The walls of the porch of the Great Mosque were decorated with surahs from the Koran, inside the inscription on the front side of the minbar was written "981". (The walls of the porch of the Great Mosque were decorated with surahs from the Koran.) In the first years of Soviet rule, the doors of both mosques in the village were locked and their activities ceased. And a month after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, for some reason the Great Mosque was allowed to operate again.

And the Small Mosque in the village was built in the mid-19th century. A river flowed in front of the mosque.

The events of 1988 also brought great distress to the village of Khachaparag. A village of about 3,000 people and 500 families remained under Armenian blockade ­for about a year. The Armenians, who were unable to enter the village, finally in November of that year, helicopters dropped uniformed Armenian bearded soldiers on the outskirts of the village and attacked the village.­The Soviet soldiers, who ­were supposed to defend the village, ignored the incident.