Belokan :: ARMENIAN LOCATIONS

Monuments

(Country) / Belokan (District) / Belokan (District Centre)

Historical Introduction
19 c․

The press of the late 19th century wrote the following about the village’s Armenian community, comprising exclusively merchants, “…it also has several Armenian families who have moved here mainly from Agulis and its adjacent villages. The inhabitants are mostly engaged in farming … Belokan’s Armenians are partly occupied with the cultivation of tobacco, but their chief business is commerce: they deal in petty articles and textiles. The village does not have an Armenian church: the local Armenians go to Zakatala at Easter and the Feast of the Nativity and Theophany of Christ and Lagodekh for the other festivals… The spiritual authorities should at least appoint an itinerant priest for the Armenians scattered in the neighbourhood. Besides Belokan, there are also some other Lezghin-populated villages, such as Ghobakhcholi, Katekh, etc., including some families of Armenian merchants.”

“Nor-Dar”, 1896, № 107, p. 3. The original in Armenian.

Population
1878 y․

A small group of Armenian merchants from Agulis in origin settled down here in the mid-19th century. In 1878 Belokan, where the Lezghin population amounted to about 2.000, had 20 Armenian inhabitants.

“Mshak”, 1878, № 109, p. 2. The original in Armenian.

Name	Year/Century	Etymology
Belakan